Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez, very critical of the government of President Daniel Ortega, was sent to trial on Tuesday to answer for the alleged crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news to the detriment of the Nicaraguan State and society .
The judge of the tenth criminal hearing district of Managua, Gloria María Saavedra Corrales, sent the case to trial and maintained house arrest against the hierarch, the first bishop arrested and accused since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007 and who is detained since last August 19.
Through a statement, the Directorate of Press and Public Relations of the Managua Central Judicial Complex explained that this Tuesday “the initial hearing of the criminal proceeding was held in which Rolando José Álvarez Lagos appeared as accused” for the crimes of conspiracy and spread of fake news.
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“The judicial authority reviewed the precautionary measures ordered in the preliminary hearing, maintaining house arrest, likewise, it admitted the exchange of evidence information and referred the case to trial,” the source said without giving a date for the start of the process.
In the same case, the exiled priest Uriel Antonio Vallejos is accused of the same crimes, and the judge kept the letter to Interpol in force for his capture, according to the judicial report.
FIRST BISHOP ARRESTED AND CHARGED IN NICARAGUA
The initial hearing, held in the Managua Judicial Complex and in which the bishop was presented without his religious clothing, according to the images shared by the Judiciary, was held in the middle of a day of prayer promoted by Catholic groups from Nicaragua through social networks.
On December 13, the Nicaraguan Public Ministry accused Bishop Álvarez and the priest Vallejos for the alleged crimes of conspiracy and propagation of false news.
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Álvarez Lagos, 56, is bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Estelí, both in northern Nicaragua.
He was abducted in the early hours of Friday, August 19, by police officers from the provincial episcopal palace along with four priests, two seminarians and a cameraman, after having been confined for 15 days.
The Nicaraguan Police, led by Francisco Díaz, President Ortega’s in-law, accuses the high-ranking officer of trying to “organize violent groups”, supposedly “with the purpose of destabilizing the State of Nicaragua and attacking the constitutional authorities.”
CONVULOUS YEAR FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Last October, Ortega attacked the Catholic Church led by Pope Francis, accusing it of not practicing democracy, of being a “dictatorship” and a “perfect tyranny” and of having used “its bishops in Nicaragua to carry out a coup of State” to his Government in the framework of the demonstrations that broke out in April 2018 over controversial reforms to social security.
In 2022, the Sandinista government expelled from the country the apostolic nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag and 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity order, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
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It has also imprisoned seven priests and two collaborators from the Matagalpa diocese, shut down nine Catholic radio stations and removed three Catholic channels from subscription television programming, and prevented processions and pilgrimages.
Relations between the Sandinistas and the Catholic Church in Nicaragua have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 43 and a half years.
The Catholic community represents 58.5% of the 6.6 million inhabitants of Nicaragua, according to the last national census.
