For Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, the new year marks the 500th day since his arrest and imprisonment by President Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo. For 500 days, the bishop has remained isolated from the world, without regular contact with his family and alienated from the Catholics of Matagalpa, who consider him their spiritual leader.
Bishop Álvarez was imprisoned because he was a Christian leader who advocated for human rights and democracy, ideals rooted in his Christian values. Álvarez is perhaps the most prominent victim of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo's systematic, blatant and persistent attacks on the religious freedom of Nicaraguans. Although Álvarez remains isolated, he is not the only one suffering from the oppression of Ortega and Murillo. About one in ten Nicaraguan Catholic priests now lives in exile. And last month the government wrongly arrested Bishop Isidoro Mora of the Diocese of Siuna and launched a series of arrests and harassment of priests.
Under Ortega and Murillo, people in Nicaragua face such extreme restrictions on the exercise of their religious beliefs that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken designated Nicaragua as a country of particular concern, a category reserved for those who commit particularly serious violations of religious freedom. The heavy hand of the state extends beyond the Catholic Church.
Nicaragua's vibrant evangelical communities have similarly faced anger. Ortega's highly restrictive laws and widespread use of regulatory oversight as a weapon have led to the expropriation and closure of universities and schools, charities and other institutions. Many organizations and churches – Catholic and Protestant – have quietly given in to the inevitable and accepted a forced “voluntary” dissolution in the face of constant government harassment.
The United States is committed to doing everything in its power to support Nicaraguans in their efforts to regain protection and respect for their human rights and fundamental freedoms and to reaffirm their democracy. Nicaragua continues to be a society of active and committed faith communities. Nicaraguans deserve full restoration of their freedoms and Bishop Álvarez deserves the opportunity to return to his ministry.
The relationship between religious freedom and democracy goes both ways. Democratic institutions thrive in pluralistic, diverse and tolerant societies with fundamental respect for human rights. We know that democracy creates the political and social conditions so that people of different religions and beliefs can live together in peace.
As a step toward fulfilling their human rights obligations, the Nicaraguan authorities should allow a credible and independent person or organization to visit Bishop Álvarez without the presence of his prison guards to conduct an assessment of his physical health and mental state. The Nicaraguan authorities should then plan for his early and unconditional release from La Modelo prison in Managua.
We begin the new year with the hope that it will soon bring a new day of freedom for Bishop Álvarez, other political prisoners and the Nicaraguan people. And we will not stop working with all those who support religious freedom until we see the future they deserve.
Rashad Hussain He is the United States Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Affairs.