The bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and political prisoner of the Ortega Murillo dictatorship, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, “suffered a fall,” reliable sources revealed to the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh). The agency’s complaint comes after 111 days of the cardinal’s detention.
“Recently, reliable sources confirmed to Cenidh that Monsignor Álvarez suffered a fall. What kind of fall? Now, other sources warn that the monsignor is ill and is not with his family,” read a statement published by the human rights entity.
Related news: Father Uriel Vallejos assures that Monsignor Álvarez and imprisoned priests are in poor health due to confinement
The “other sources” to which Cenidh refers is the exiled priest Uriel Vallejos who reported that Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is ill and that the dictatorship does not allow a private doctor to treat his ailments.
“We demand that the Ortega Murillo regime immediately release Monsignor Rolando Álvarez and other unjustly imprisoned priests. We ask the high hierarchy of the Catholic Church to share the information they have with the parishioners. Why are you silent?” Cenidh demanded.
«Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is ill. Medical care is provided by the same system and his food as well, “said Father Vallejos in his Twitter account. Twitter and assured that imprisoned priests and seminarians also have health effects due to the confinement to which the Ortega-Murillo regime subjects them.
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is one of the 12 imprisoned religious men accused of common crimes or for “destabilizing the country” by the Daniel Ortega dictatorship. So far, the Public Ministry has not presented a formal accusation against the prelate.
In the 2022 Advent message, the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference (CEN) issued a statement stating that despite adversities, uncertainties, and pain, “our Mother, the Virgin, does not abandon us.”
The bishops only focused on expressing their concern about the massive migration of Nicaraguans and were silent about the persecution of the Nicaraguan regime against the Church, which includes the expulsion of the Missionaries of Charity, the house arrest of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, the banishment of about eight religious and the exile of 55 priests, according to human rights organizations.
The report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?” collects 396 attacks by the regime against the Catholic Church from April 2018 to November 16 of this year. The document warns that the repression of Ortega and Murillo could increase in the coming months.
The 2018-2021 reports on religious freedom from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRFfor its acronym in English), accused the dictatorial regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo of violating the religious freedom and worship of Nicaraguans, while condemning the attacks by fanatical supporters against the Church.
