Martha Patricia Molina Montenegro

Martha Patricia Molina Montenegro is a Nicaraguan lawyer and notary public. She earned a law degree from the Central American University (UCA) and a degree in Diplomacy and International Relations from the American University (UAM), and holds a master's degree in Corruption and the Rule of Law from the University of Salamanca, Spain. She has worked as a university professor and is the author of the study "38 Mechanisms of Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment Used in Nicaragua's Prisons."

Since 2022 she has investigated and systematized the attacks by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against the Catholic Church of Nicaragua in the report series "Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?", of which she has published seven deliveries to date. She is a member of the editorial board of the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa.

Molina describes herself as a practicing Catholic. Before taking on this research she worked in parish communications, which put her in contact with priests, religious sisters and lay people across the country's dioceses. She continues her work from exile, which she was forced into by the persecution of the very government she investigates.

In 2023, the U.S. State Department awarded her the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Award for fearlessly documenting more than 500 attacks and desecrations against the Catholic Church and its members, and for creating a comprehensive database of those attacks that helped raise international awareness of the repression in Nicaragua.

On January 13, 2026, she testified under oath as a witness at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) hearing on FoRB violations against Christians abroad, held in the U.S. Senate in Washington.