After five days under siege and besieged by the Police, at the service of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, returned to his episcopal see “escorted » by two police patrols that remained stationed on the outskirts and surrounding streets of the Santo Cristo de Las Colinas parish in Managua.
Monsignor Carlos Avilés Cantón, vicar of the Archdiocese of Managua, confirmed to Article 66 that Bishop Álvarez left the Santo Cristo de Las Colinas parish this Monday, May 23, at 7:00 in the morning and that he is already in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa where he attends to the parishioners. “Perhaps later or at night he gives a statement (Monsignor Rolando Álvarez),” said the priest Avilés Cantón.
Monsignor Álvarez denounced last Thursday, May 19, that the Ortega Police harassed and persecuted him throughout the day when he was carrying out errands and visiting his family in Managua, to the point that they came to besiege him to his family home, which he considered a ” resurgence” of the persecution against him. That same day he announced that he would begin an “indefinite fast” on water and serum.
Related news: Ortega police intensify siege against the Church in Matagalpa
After knowing the return of Bishop Álvarez, the facilities of the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa and Cáritas Diocesana were surrounded by police officers of the Ortega regime, in the midst of escalating persecution by the dictatorship against the Nicaraguan Church.
The harassment of the dictatorship against the Church increased after this weekend, parishioners in different cities of the Diocese of Matagalpa went out in procession with the Blessed Sacrament to support their bishop, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, who denounced harassment against him.
The cardinal decided to stay in Managua from May 19 because several priests from the Diocese notified him that the Police had installed a series of checkpoints along the highway that leads to the department, but this Monday, May 23, he decided to return to his episcopal see in Matagalpa.
One day after announcing indefinite fasting and prayer, the Ortega-Murillo regime ordered the country’s cable companies to remove Channel 51, the Catholic Channel owned by the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), from the subscription television grid.
The decision to censor the media outlet was informed by Claro, the same company that disclaimed responsibility and pointed out that the action came from the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor).
