The police siege in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, where Bishop Rolando Álvarez has been besieged since August 4, shows that the repression of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against the Catholic Church seeks by all means to “destroy” the Catholic Church. the main religious leaders and silence “the only prophetic and credible voice” that remains in Nicaragua, considers the president of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh), Vilma Núñez de Escorcia.
The human rights defender warns that the regime’s attacks on bishops and priests, although “they have been constant and permanent”, could intensify due to the “deepening of a strategy of repression against the Church” that has been implemented since 2019 , when he could no longer use it “to buy time through the famous National Dialogue.”
“This is not about outbursts or police excesses, in any way. It is a repetition of the ‘let’s go with everything’ of Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega against the Catholic Church”, Núñez pointed out in the program This week, which is broadcast online due to television censorship imposed by the Ortega-Murillo regime.
Núñez described the statement issued by the Police on Friday, August 5, in which they allege that they are investigating Bishop Alvarez, allegedly for “organizing violent groups, fomenting hatred, and promoting anxiety”, as the recognition of a “kidnapping” . “It does not even meet the legal requirements to classify it as an arbitrary detention, the Police do not have the power to retain the Bishop in his house, it is a criminal act, a kidnapping,” insisted Núñez, and demanded to file a writ of Habeas Corpus, although not process it, in favor of the Bishop.
The human rights defender pointed out that they “are sowing anxiety and chaos in Matagalpa, the armed policemen”, who have taken over the streets surrounding the parish house, and “are violating the right to freedom of movement” of the bishop, priests and parishioners who are being held.
A similar assessment was expressed by the lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, who has documented 190 attacks on the Church in the last four years. For her, the escalation of repression against religious leaders is due to the fact that they “have opened the doors of their churches to support the population, denounce and raise their voices to demand the end of state repression.” They “have decided to be on a par with the Nicaraguan people and have not stayed only in their pulpits,” she stressed. Molina also considered that the attacks against the Church “will increase” as time goes by, since “the bishops are not willing to flatter the presidential couple”, whose repression caused the death of at least 355 people between April 2018 and June 2019, according to data from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR); the incarceration of a thousand political prisoners, of whom more than 190 are still in Ortega jails; the exile of more than 150,000 Nicaraguans and the establishment of a de facto police state.
Monsignor Álvarez is at risk
Although Núñez and Molina highlighted the courage of Monsignor Álvarez in having faced the police siege with a prayer for peace, hours before being completely trapped, they agreed that the religious leader and the people who meet him inside the Matagalpa curia “run a great risk”, due to the arbitrary nature of the officials of the regime.
Monsignor Álvarez’s gesture of going out with the Blessed Sacrament “symbolizes that the Church seeks peace,” Molina commented. “That shows that the Church is not fighting the hatred of the dictatorship with more hatred, but with love.” It was a lesson not only for Nicaraguans, but also for the international community, “where he showed that the only thing he was looking for was peace and the cessation of hostilities,” he continued.
However, Monsignor Álvarez is at “real risk”, warned Núñez. He is “facing people who act on impulse” and “here (in Nicaragua) there is no valid law, there are no limits, and (regime officials) act in a visceral way.” Also, “you have to think that he doesn’t have enough food,” he commented.
For lawyer Molina, the actions of the policemen who have Monsignor Álvarez surrounded – just as they did days ago with the priest Uriel Vallejos, in the parish house of Jesús de la Divina Misericordia, in Sébaco – cannot even be justified. as “due obedience”, since they are acting against what is established by the Political Constitution and the laws of the Republic. What is being committed “are crimes prosecuted by criminal justice,” she pointed out.
Dr. Núñez emphasized that what is happening with Monsignor Álvarez should be perceived as “an attack against the entire people of Nicaragua”, since “with these actions (of the regime) a series of violations of human rights are carried out” such as religious freedom , freedom of expression and free mobility.
The regime is “trying to weaken the credibility and roots of Monsignor Álvarez and the priests who are part of his diocese,” warned the human rights defender. They “do not dare to say that the Church is a terrorist or money launderer and so they are looking to target and destroy their main leaders,” she commented.
However, “no one believes anymore” in the subterfuges of Ortega, “they have no credibility,” Molina emphasized.
I call on the Cardinal, the CEN and Pope Francis
While the regime intensifies its attacks against bishops, priests and religious congregations —such as the Missionaries of Charity that were expelled from the country last July— the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference (CEN) and the ecclesiastical authorities maintain a “timid silence”, that Núñez and Molina demanded a firmer position on the part of the Church.
“I am not waiting at any time for Pope Francis to pronounce himself, it would be convenient. What I am betting on and hoping for is a more effective pronouncement from the Episcopal Conference, which is the one that has the greatest power at the national level to speak and claim and tell the regime to stop this indiscriminate persecution against the Catholic Church.” , expressed the lawyer Molina.
Likewise, Núñez pointed out that the silence between the population and the Church itself is “worrying”, for which he demanded that the CEN use all the mechanisms at its disposal to demand the cessation of the attacks and manage any pronouncement by Pope Francis. .
“What is the reason for this silence from the Pope? Could it be that there are obstacles in communications? Could it be that he is very silent promoting a management that is not seen anywhere? ”, Questioned the human rights defender.
Núñez also summoned Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes to stop keeping “timorous silence” and to assume a more active role in defense of the elementary rights of the Nicaraguan clergy that is being attacked by the dictatorship.
“The cardinal is silent. Until the day before yesterday (Wednesday) he spoke and called on the Government to stop the violence against the Church. He said ‘we are not enemies of the Government”, commented Núñez. But “he does not have to be giving declarations of friendship to claim a right and to claim respect that is part of the doctrine that they themselves promote,” he continued.
The latest repressive escalation against the Church
In the last two months, the Ortega and Murillo regime undertook a repressive escalation against the Catholic Church that has left so far: two priests imprisoned, 18 religious expelled from the country, two priests besieged and the closure of a dozen religious media.
The priest Manuel Salvador García Rodríguez, parish priest of the Jesús de Nazareno church —also known as El Calvario—, in Nandaime (Granada), was the first religious to face the justice of the regime, being sentenced on June 22 to two years in prison. prison for the alleged crime of threatening five people with a knife and a fine of 14,116 cordobas or 200 days fines.
Last July 6, 18 Missionaries of Charityan order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, were expelled from the country, being transferred from Managua and Granada to the border with Costa Rica, by the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME) and the Police.
Also, Monsignor Leonardo Urbina, priest of the Perpetuo Socorro parish in Boaco, has been in preventive detention since July 13, awaiting trial for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl.
The priest Uriel Vallejos and a group of parishioners remained besieged by the Police for four days in the parish house of Jesús de la Divina Misericordia, in Sébaco.
In addition, between August 1 and 2, the regime closed eleven stations, ten belonging to the Diocese of Matagalpa and the independent Radio Vos, and took the local channel RB3 “El Canal de la Zona Láctea” off the air, whose programming was broadcast to through subscription television.
