Nicaragua Will Permit 3 Exiled Priests to Return

President Daniel Ortega on Tuesday announced that the government would permit the return of three Roman Catholic priests exiled by the Sandinistas. He called the decision “a gesture of good will.”

This is the first step the Sandinista government has taken toward complying with the provisions of the Central American peace plan that was signed on Aug. 7.

Ortega, speaking at a news conference, also announced the creation of the National Reconciliation Commission, another key element in the plan. One of those named to the commission was Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, the archbishop of Managua and outspoken government critic, representing the Roman Catholic Church.

One of the priests being allowed to return is Msgr. Bismarck Carballo, who was Obando’s spokesman and the director of the church’s radio station when he was ousted last year because he “defamed and slandered the revolution,” the government said at the time.

The other two are Bishop Pablo Antonio Vega, was was also banished last year, and Father Benito Pitito, an Italian who was one of 10 foreign priests the government expelled in 1984.

The government said it expelled Vega for being “an accomplice of the aggressive politics of the United States against Nicaragua.”

Obando later told reporters Ortega’s announcement on the priests was “a very positive gesture.”