SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AFP) — Nicaragua’s government has expelled over 30 nuns from three convents in its latest assault on detractors, and their whereabouts are unknown, a researcher and exiled media reported on Wednesday.

Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer and expert on matters concerning the Catholic Church, told Agence France-Presse the women were “evicted from their monasteries” overnight by government agents.

It was not known if the nuns, mainly Nicaraguan, had left the country, said Molina, herself in exile in the United States.

Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of real and perceived opponents since former leftist guerrilla Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2007, quashing presidential term limits and seizing control of all branches of the state.

According to the United Nations, more than 300 people died in a crackdown on 2018 protests, which Ortega’s government denounced as an attempted coup.

Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.

One of them, the online news site Confidencial operating from Costa Rica, reported the nuns were expelled from convents in the capital Managua and two other sites.