2023-07-06 10:45:00
Bishop Rolando Álvarez, 56, was returned to La Modelo prison by the government of dictator Daniel Ortega on Wednesday 5. He had been released on the night of Monday 3after pressing the Vatican for the dictatorship to free the religious, arrested since August of last year and, in March of this year, sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison, for spreading fake news and “conspiring” against the government.
However, the bishop did not accept exile in Rome. According to the newspaper The countryÁlvarez said he had not committed any crime and therefore would not leave Nicaragua.
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This is the second failed attempt to exile Álvarez. On March 9, the bishop had already refused to board the plane carrying 222 political prisoners to the United States. In revenge, the priest was convicted and confined in an isolation cell at La Modelo prison.
According to sources heard by the The country, the bishop asked for his unconditional release, like that of the other priests arrested and condemned by the Ortega regime. In addition, he called for the unblocking of the bank accounts of the country’s dioceses and parishes and an end to religious persecution. But all his proposals were rejected by the dictatorship.
The Spanish newspaper also reports that the Vatican sent a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to participate in negotiations with the Ortega dictatorship, but also to try to “persuade” Álvarez to travel to Rome.
The bishop, however, was firm in his position and said that he would only leave Nicaragua if Pope Francis gave an express order.
Ortega, who has been in government since 2007, has made a systematic persecution against religious and political opponents. The pursuit of the Church has intensified over the past four years. More than 200 dictatorship attacks have already been recorded in this period.
Daniel Ortega, dictator of Nicaragua | Photo: Disclosure / Presidency of Nicaragua
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