2023-07-06 06:07:02
The Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Álvarez, sentenced to more than 26 years in prison for “treason against the homeland”, and released for a few hours by the Government headed by Daniel Ortega, was returned to prison after refusing to leave Nicaragua, he informed this Wednesday to EFE a diplomatic source.
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However, Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes denied that Álvarez, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Estelí, both in northern Nicaragua, has been released by the Nicaraguan authorities.
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez does not want to leave Nicaragua. He wants to be free, without conditions, in his country
“It is pure speculation,” said Brenes, also Archbishop of Managua, in statements offered to the radio station La Corporación.
According to the Nicaraguan cardinal, Bishop Álvarez is still being held in the National Penitentiary System, the maximum security prison in Nicaragua and known as “La Modelo”.
“He is right there,” said the archbishop, who clarified that he has not spoken personally with Álvarez.
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“Monsignor Rolando Álvarez does not want to leave Nicaragua. He wants to be free, without conditions, in his country,” Honduran Bishop José Antonio Canales, who has followed up on the situation of his colleague, wrote on his social network.
The diplomatic version
The diplomatic source told EFE that Bishop Álvarez had been released since Monday night and since then he has been under the protection of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference in Managua.
His release, according to that source, had been thanks to negotiations between the Nicaraguan government, the Vatican and the Episcopate, who later discussed the fate of the high-ranking official.
The talks discussed the possibility that Bishop Álvarez would be sent to Rome or exile, or returned to prison if he refused, which finally happened. “It seems that the negotiation has not prospered and that he has returned to La Modelo,” said the source.
Bishop Álvarez once again refused to leave Nicaragua, as the Ortega government demanded, “unless Pope Francis ordered it,” he explained. According to the source, the decision of the Nicaraguan bishop, who has been confined in “La Modelo” since last February 9 after refusing to be deported to the United States, is to stay in his country.
“Monsignor Rolando Álvarez does not want to leave Nicaragua. He wants to be free, without conditions, in his country,” Honduran Bishop José Antonio Canales, who has followed up on the situation of his colleague, said on his social network.
Pope Francis (i) and Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva (d). (Archive)
Did Lula intervene?
The news about the situation of the Nicaraguan Catholic leader comes two weeks after Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva announced in Rome, after meeting with Pope Francis, that he would try to convince Ortega to release Bishop Álvarez.
Lula then explained that the only thing the Catholic Church in Nicaragua wants is for Bishop Álvarez to be released so that he can travel to Italy and described Ortega’s imprisonment as “an error”.
“I will speak with Ortega so that they can release him because it is necessary to learn to ask for forgiveness (…) and recognize this mistake,” said Lula then, who met with Pope Francis for 45 minutes in the Vatican.
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Last week, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CorteIDH), based in Costa Rica, ordered Nicaragua to release the priest and to “adopt the necessary measures to effectively protect his life, health and personal integrity.”
In February 2023, the Ortega government released and expelled 222 political prisoners from the country, who were transferred to Washington on a plane chartered by the US government.
Bishop Álvarez refused to leave the country, and as a consequence he was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison, stripped of his citizenship, and transferred from his house arrest to jail.
Bishop Rolando Alvarez. (Archive)
In addition, Ortega has declared bilateral relations with the Vatican interrupted and has described the Church as a “mafia”.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a political and social crisis since April 2018 that worsened after the controversial elections in November 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison or in exile.
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EFE
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