Defenders of the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective and Nicaraguan activists in Costa Rica repudiate the escalation of repression against the Catholic Church by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Police keep the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa surrounded, preventing the exit of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and 11 other people, including priests and laity.
At a press conference, the agency assured that the recent events in Matagalpa “speak for themselves. In Nicaragua, religious persecution and a war against the Catholic Church are underway, in particular against voices such as that of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, whom the regime without constitutional authority intends to silence.
“Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and his companions have not committed any crime, crimes are crimes against humanity so far in total impunity, carrying out pastoral and religious work does not alter order, nor peace nor does it constitute crime or violence,” he said.
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“Those who have besieged the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa are committing illegal actions, because depriving liberty arbitrarily and unconstitutionally is a crime of illegal detention and violation of human rights,” he stressed.
Likewise, he alleged that with these actions the Ortega-Murillo regime “carries out a process of criminalization, which seriously threatens the personal freedom and the condition of bishop of Monsignor Álvarez, by preventing him from carrying out his pastoral work as well as his companions.”
In addition, he stressed that the country’s Catholic leaders “represent a firm expression in favor of the oppressed, murdered, imprisoned and tortured”; For this reason, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship seeks to silence them so that they do not continue denouncing the human rights violations they have perpetrated against the people of Nicaragua.
They urge the people of Matagalpa not to lose their “sanity” in the face of violence
Human rights defender Claudia Tenorio Rizo urged the people of Matagalpa to continue denouncing the situation in a “civic and peaceful manner.”
He also encouraged the citizens of Matagalpa to “remain in their homes and protect their lives. We know that the Ortega-Murillo regime wants to silence and is imprisoning, kidnapping and violating the human rights of the entire Nicaraguan people and especially at this time of the Christian people, of the opposition people of Matagalpa.
“Do not forget that storms do not last forever, storms always end and evil always ends,” he stressed.
Similarly, Jacob Ellis Williams, an Afro-feminist activist, expressed solidarity with the people of Matagalpa in the face of the repression and state of siege that the Nicaraguan dictatorship has imposed in the last week.
“What is happening in Matagalpa is to realize that nothing is normal in Nicaragua and for us to continue in the fight” until we achieve “real and true justice for Nicaragua, and freedom for all political prisoners,” he said.
Attack on the Catholic Church of Matagalpa
On August 1, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, through the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor), ordered the “immediate” closure of Radio Hermanos, Radio Santa Lucia, Radio Católica de Sébaco, Radio Nuestra Señora de Lourdes , Radio Nuestra Señora de Fátima, Radio San José and Radio Monte Carmelo.
Since that date, the dictator has launched a frontal offensive against the Catholic Church and its main religious leaders., who have been victims of virulent attacks. Similarly, there have been recorded attacks, prison, persecution, siege, desecration against the same parishioners.
In addition, the Police at the service of the regime have spent six days besieging the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, where Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, one of the bishops most persecuted by the dictatorship, is found.
