After the Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, denied that Monsignor Rolando Alvarez had been taken out of the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System, in Tipitapa, and that he would have received the offer of the dictatorship to release him but that he accept exile, the discomfort towards the highest hierarch has not been long in coming.
A priest, exiled in the United States, affirmed, on condition of anonymity, to Article 66that for two days, at the national and international level, there were “moments of tension because the figure of Monsignor Álvarez has transcended beyond the borders of Nicaragua.”
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«We thought that thanks to God and for whatever reason Monsignor —Álvarez— was going to be released from prison and they would send him to Rome; That made us all happy, but suddenly statements by Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes came out, which amazed us all.
He also stated that as part of the Nicaraguan clergy, he feels disappointed by the statements of the Archbishop of Managua. «I don’t know if the cardinal’s statements can be interpreted as cynical, mockery or a “yoquepiderismo”».
“The cardinal seems not to care about the situation of Monsignor Álvarez because from the tone of his voice, the way he responded to journalists, they were not from a pastor with feelings of empathy and solidarity,” he stressed.
Alvarez’s imprisonment «it’s a hot potato”
Regarding the media that reported on the situation of the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, and that Leopoldo Brenes called them “speculative,” the religious source said that the attitude of the religious leader was disappointing.
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“Serious journalists reported because they had reliable sources but suddenly the cardinal denies it. However, I can say that the presence of Monsignor Álvarez is a stone in the shoe for the dictatorship, because as long as he is imprisoned, the human rights organizations and the international community will always be watching, “he asserted.
For his part, Héctor Mairena, a lawyer and member of the Blue and White National Unity, maintained that the imprisonment of Bishop Álvarez is “a hot potato” for the Ortega regime, because “first he sentences him to 26 years in prison, then The religious refused to leave and now continues to resist.
He also indicated that Monsignor Álvarez’s position “is undoubtedly a moral defeat for Ortega, because certainly everything indicates that negotiations began but the bishop maintains a vertical attitude of not leaving if the other imprisoned priests do not leave and if the other priests are not cancelled. measures that the regime has taken against the Catholic Church, such as the issue of bank accounts, which reveals a total firmness of the bishop.
On August 4, Monsignor Álvarez will celebrate one year since he was deprived of his freedom, after being prevented, by dozens of riot police, from leaving the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, and then, on the 19th of the same month, they will remove him by force , accusing him of conspiracy against the country. The Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Estelí is one of the most critical voices of the Ortega and Murillo dictatorship.
