Pastor, Seven Other Christians Disappear After Arrest

In a series of raids on July 17, 2025, Nicaraguan national police took Pastor Rudy Palacios Vargas and seven other Christians into custody without warning or warrants. The families of those detained have been unable to locate their loved ones. One family member reported that they were being charged with treason and “undermining national integrity.” Vargas had been forced into exile in 2018 after he and his congregation brought food and medicine and offered prayer to students protesting the authoritarian Marxist regime of President Daniel Ortega. Vargas returned to Nicaragua in 2020 to resume the pastorate and has been routinely monitored and harassed by the police and other authorities. Since 2022, the Nicaraguan government has imposed increasingly harsh restrictions, seeking to intimidate Christian leaders into joining a government-controlled church association.