Bishop Rolando Álvarez, in a photograph taken last March provided by the Nicaraguan government. Presidency of Nicaragua (EFE)
The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo on Tuesday released Bishop Rolando Álvarez from Modelo prison in Managua. This is the voice of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which is most critical of Sandinismo, sources familiar with the process confirmed to EL PAÍS. The religious man, who refused exile and chose to remain in prison last February, is missing after negotiations with the Vatican over an agreement on his exile in Rome were examined. Álvarez was arrested in August 2022 after a five-day police siege of the Curia, where he was being held captive along with eight priests and staff.
Ortega offered him exile in February, but Álvarez refused. A day after refusing to leave Nicaragua among the 222 political prisoners the Sandinista regime had released and sent to Washington, the bishop received a harsh sentence. He was sentenced by a state-controlled court to more than 26 years in prison for a range of offenses including “treason”, “interfering with national integrity” and “spreading false news”. The regime cracked down on the priest, stripping him of all political rights and Nicaraguan citizenship and imprisoning him in Managua’s Modelo prison.
Álvarez is the authority of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church, which in its positions has been the most combative against the excesses of Ortega, who has declared him his main enemy and placed him at the center of the persecution of religious. The police accused him, without evidence, of organizing violent groups by “using his status as a religious leader and using the media and social networks” to “destabilize the state of Nicaragua and attack the constitutional authorities”.
News in development. More information coming soon.
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