The only reference to the place where the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, could be held captive, is that he was locked up in the National Penitentiary System (SPN), known as “La Modelo”. The cardinal would be captive there since February 9.
The bishop accumulates more than 200 days as a hostage of conscience of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. At the beginning of February the regime tried to banish him from Nicaragua by sending him on a plane to the United States, but the prelate ruined the plan of the dictatorial couple and refused to board the flight.
To this day, his family has not been able to see him, according to local media and human rights organizations that document the case of the first bishop imprisoned and convicted by the Nicaraguan dictatorship. Her sister has asked the justice of the regime to allow her to see her relative, but everything has been useless. He does not know where and how he is.
Related news: Monsignor Álvarez’s family has not seen him for almost a month
The digital media Dispatch 505 revealed that recently, through leaks from inmates in “La Modelo”, Monsignor Álvarez was being sedated in jail, using substances that they probably introduced into food or drink.
The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) alerted that the also apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Álvarez, is missing. “Urgent alert. Monsignor Álvarez is missing. We demand to know where he is and what is his physical and psychological condition. Let them show it,” the organization demanded on its Twitter account.
Since his violent capture, on August 19, 2021, Bishop Álvarez remained in his family’s home in Managua. The prelate is part of the group of more than 30 political prisoners that the dictatorship maintains in its jails, most of them are confined in “La Modelo” in Tipitapa.
After resisting being banished, the bishop was taken to the Courts of Managua where he was subjected to an express summary trial. That same day, February 10, he was found guilty, sentenced to 26 years in prison, stripped of his nationality, and stripped of his civil and political rights for life.
The Bishop of Matagalpa is one of the most critical voices against the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship, the binomial that controls the strings of power in Nicaragua, a country mired in a sociopolitical, economic, and human rights crisis since 2018.
