The bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, Monsignor Rolando Alvarezwill be taken this Monday, January 23, to the Courts of Managua where the “oral and public trial” will begin for alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news.
The private lawyer of the bishop of Matagalpa has “begged” to have access to the accusation against the cardinal, as revealed by the lawyer and expert in the administration of justice, Yader Morazán, on his Twitter account where he also warned about the trial hearing of the chief .
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is the first bishop of the ecclesiastical province of Nicaragua to be imprisoned by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Other priests, lay people, journalists and seminarians were also taken as political prisoners by the regime. Some are accused of the same crimes as the bishop and others for common crimes.
Related news: Calidh: Process against Monsignor Álvarez “violates international human rights commitments”
The priest was violently arrested on August 19, 2022 in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, in the early hours of the morning he was taken out by a strong police force that held him captive for 15 days. He was transferred to Managua to a family home.
On January 10, he was brought before the Ortega justice for an initial hearing, there the court admitted the case, kept him under house arrest and sent him to trial for this Monday morning.
The “false witnesses”
The regime, during the criminal process, will call as “witnesses” propagandists of matagalpa and police officers to simulate “guilt” in the impeachment trial against the bishop. On the list there is a communicator and workers from the mayor’s office of that city.
One of the witnesses is the propagandist of the regime Elba Marina Rayo who works in “Radio Insurrection” that operates within the Department of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). “From where the repression of April 2018 was directed. Before, he embraced Bishop Álvarez, and now he will testify against him,” criticized the former judicial official.
Another witness against the bishop will be Josefa Azucena Jirón López, secretary of the Ministry of Education of Matagalpa. The woman has received recognition from Mayor Sadrach Zeledón and has participated in activities of the sanctioned Police.
Another of the witnesses against Bishop Rolando Álvarez is Erling Francisco Picado Montoya. He was recently appointed public defender at the Matagalpa Judicial Complex. His wife, Maritza Rodríguez, was a mayor’s councilor.
Among the witnesses is Nieves Martínez, whom the Ortega justice intends to use to frame Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, but the layman assured that he will not betray the Bishop of Matagalpa or the Catholic Church. “I have never sold myself nor will I betray my church or our priests and long live Monsignor Rolando,” he wrote in his Facebook profile Hernandez Flores.
The Matagalpino citizen also maintained that “even if they involve me in something that I have nothing to do with, my conscience is always clear and I continue to support our priests and long live Christ the King, long live our bishop and priests.”
religious persecution
The persecution of the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo against the Catholic Church and its priests “worsened” in 2022, reflects the annual report “Nicaragua: Terror prevails, resistance persists” of the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh ).
The organization considers that the dictatorship pursues the “perverse purpose” of destroying the authority of the Catholic Church that has given him Nicaraguan citizenship as a result of his pastoral work in the context of the social, political, economic and human rights crisis that he is going through. the country since April 2018.
“This repressive pattern increased in such a way that it went from damage to the infrastructure of churches and sacred images, harassment during masses, to persecution, death threats, attacks, arbitrary arrests, criminalization and prosecution of priests,” analyzes Cenidh. in his report last year.
