The bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez, critic of the Daniel Ortega regime, celebrates his birthday this September 19 a month since he was removed from the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa and forcibly transferred to his family’s home in Managua, where his house arrest imposed by the regime on August 5 continues.
Monsignor Álvarez is supposedly “investigated” by the regime for trying to “organize violent groups”, presumably “with the purpose of destabilizing the State of Nicaragua and attacking the constitutional authorities”. Despite the seriousness of the accusations, the authorities have not offered any evidence against the religious leader.
Since Álvarez was transferred to Managua, he has only been seen by his closest relatives and by the Cardinal Leopoldo Breneswho on September 4 told the Efe agency that, despite these conditions, the bishop is fine.
“I have been talking with him (…) He told me that he is very well about his health. I found him in better spirits. I had a good time talking with him. And he asks us to continue praying for him and hopefully, the Holy Spirit will enlighten us so that we can soon solve this conflict, “she said.
Cardinal Brenes also explained that Bishop Álvarez “is being well cared for. His family goes twice a day to visit him. In the morning and in the afternoon”, and that “his cousin, who was the one who took care of his house, cleaned and cooked for him the days she was in Managua, she continues to cook for him”, he indicated.
Like Monsignor Álvarez, the regime of Ortega and Rosario Murillo keeps seven imprisoned priests, two seminarians and a committed layman. In addition, last March he expelled the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag from the country and months later, in July, 18 Missionaries of Charity. He also shut down a dozen Church-owned media outlets and forced several priests into exile.
Pope says that “there is dialogue” with the Government
Given the house arrest of Monsignor Álvarez and the escalation of repression against the Catholic Church, the Pope Francisco He stated on September 15 that “there is dialogue with Nicaragua” and that the Vatican has spoken with the Ortega government.
“In Nicaragua the news is clear, there is dialogue, there has been talks with the government. There is dialogue, but this does not mean that everything the government does is approved or disapproved, ”said the pontiff during a press conference aboard the papal plane on his return to Rome after his trip to Kazakhstan.
The pope assured that “there are problems and they must be solved” and wished that they can return to the country the Missionaries of Charity, a congregation founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta and which was outlawed in Nicaragua last July. The 18 missionaries who were kicked out of the country “are revolutionaries, but revolutionaries of the Gospel and women like them are needed,” Francis said.
“There are things that are not understood, that are not assimilated, but dialogue must never be stopped,” the pope added, after describing the expulsion of the nuncio from Nicaragua as “incomprehensible.” Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertagwho is “a good man who has now been appointed in another country.”
Regarding Bishop Álvarez’s house arrest, the pope said he has not spoken with him. regimen Ortega, however, has not spoken about the offer of Pope Francis, for which analysts have pointed out that “there is no genuine interest” in solving things.
They demand the release of Bishop Álvarez
The fact has been widely condemned by the international community. Hours before Francisco’s statements, the deputies of the European Parliament (EP) approved a resolution on the situation in Nicaragua, “in particular the arrest of Bishop Rolando Alvarez”, in which —among other things— they demand the immediate release of the religious leader and all the political prisoners of the Ortega and Murillo regime.
Currently, the Ortega and Murillo regime maintains 205 political prisoners, most of them remain in subhuman conditions in the El Chipote and La Modelo prisons, in Managua, according to the Mechanism for the Recognition of Political Prisoners.
In the document, the MEPs They ask the Nicaraguan regime to release “immediately and unconditionally” all political prisoners, including Bishop Álvarez, and “that all judicial proceedings against them and the sentences imposed be annulled.”
During the debate prior to the EP vote, the MEP Željana Zovko, from the Group of the European People’s Party, explained that Monsignor Álvarez is “a person who speaks clearly asking for freedom and democracy in his country”, for which he is persecuted by the ruling regime in Nicaragua.
For MEP Isabel Santos, from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, the Ortega-Murillo regime’s attacks on the Catholic Church are “the reflection of the disturbing attack on social freedoms and the state of terror that Nicaraguans”.
The arrest of Monsignor Álvarez “It is one more case” in the list of violations of the fundamental rights of Nicaraguans, MEP Santos warned. It is for this reason that she demanded the release of the bishop and all political prisoners “quickly” and “without any conditions,” she emphasized.
Along the same lines, MEP José Ramón Bauzá, from the Renovar Europa Group, warned that we are “facing the blackest summer for the Church in Nicaragua.” The arrest of Monsignor Álvarez and eight other priests is “a vile act that only dictators like Ortega can carry out,” he commented.
The resolution of the European Parliament “cannot remain exclusively a denunciation of the repression against the Church. Bishop Álvarez represents many more”, emphasized Bauzá.
A violation of all their human rights
Until now, neither the Public Ministry nor the National Police have publicly presented a formal accusation against Monsignor Álvarez, who will soon turn 56 and who is the first bishop arrested since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007.
“The Ortega Murillo regime is not going to divert our attention. We keep asking where Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is. What are they doing with the priests, seminarians and the cameraman kidnapped in El Chipote?” the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) asked weeks ago.
The arrest of Bishop Álvarez is the most recent chapter of a particularly convulsive last year for the Catholic Church of Nicaragua with the Government of Ortega, who has branded the religious as “coup plotters” and “terrorists”.
The Police have also entered by force and raided a parish, preventing parishioners from receiving the Eucharist inside the temple and besieging other priests in their churches. Likewise, the Archdiocese of Managua was prohibited from carrying out a procession with the pilgrim image of the Virgin of Fatima.
