Two journalists who collaborated with the Nicaraguan diocese of Matagalpa, headed by Bishop Rolando Álvarez, and who were arrested four days ago, were accused by the Public Ministry, without specifying the crime with which they were charged, the Nicaraguan Judiciary reported this Thursday. .
The State of Nicaragua and Nicaraguan society were identified as the “victims/offended” of Manuel Antonio Obando Cortedano, head of media for the diocese of Matagalpa (north), and Wilberto Artola Mejía, journalist for the digital channel TV Merced, of the same diocese headed by Bishop Álvarez, who has been detained since August 19 and He was recently indicted for the alleged crime of conspiracy.
The accusation was presented the day before by the prosecutor of the case Luis Carlos Mongalo Roblero before the head of the Ninth Criminal District Court of the Managua Circumscription Hearing, Karen Vanessa Chavarría Morales, according to the case disclosed by the Judiciary.
Judge Chavarría Morales is the same one who admitted the accusation in Managua against Bishop Álvarezvery critical of the government of President Daniel Ortega, for the crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the State and Nicaraguan society.
The hierarch, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa, apostolic administrator of the diocese of Estelí, both in northern Nicaragua, will be seated in the dock on January 10, 2023, in an initial hearing.
The exiled priest Uriel Antonio Vallejos is accused in the same case.
Kidnapped last Sunday
The accused journalists who collaborated with the diocese of Matagalpa They were arrested last Sunday night.
Obando Cortedano was the communicator who accompanied Bishop Álvarez on pastoral tours, and was one of those in charge of the publications of the diocese of Matagalpa, from where they asked to pray for the release of the Catholic hierarch and other priests.
In the case of the journalist Artola, he collaborated for the TV Merced channel, which was broadcast by cable and was closed on June 27 by order of the state-owned Nicaraguan Telecommunications and Postal Institute (Telcor).
The arrest and accusation against the Nicaraguan bishop, seven other priests and now two collaborators is the most recent chapter of a particularly turbulent year for the Catholic Church in Nicaragua with the Ortega government, which has been labeled as “coup plotters” and ” terrorists” to the hierarchs.
Relations between the Sandinistas and the Catholic Church in Nicaragua have been marked by friction and mistrust in the last 43 years.
The Catholic community represents 58.5% of the 6.6 million inhabitants of Nicaragua, according to the last national census.
