In a speech lasting almost an hour, Daniel Ortega confirmed that the bishop of Matagalpa and administrator of the Estelí diocese, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, was transferred to the La Modelo prison in Tipitapa, after he refused to board the plane that would transfer him to the United States along with 222 other political prisoners who were exiled.
This Thursday, February 9, the Joe Biden government chartered a plane to transport political prisoners to Washington DC. According to Ortega, the initial list was 228 people, but four of them had been rejected by the United States, while two refused to board the aircraft: Bishop Álvarez, as well as Fanor Alejandro Ramos. Both would have been sent to La Modelo, in Tipitapa.
In his story, Ortega said that when “the character Alvarez” was lining up to get on the plane, “starts to say that he is not leaving. That he first had to meet with the bishops, and he demands a meeting with the bishops. An absurd thing, if there is a provision of the Nicaraguan State, which he cannot question.
“Faced with a decision by the Nicaraguan State, he says that he does not abide by it. It is a resolution of a court of justice that is sending him out of the country, and that he does not comply with, if he did not meet with the bishops, and since the other priests were already on the plane, they should call the priests, because he had to talk to them,” he said.
When recalling the seven years and one month that he himself was imprisoned in the 1970s, Ortega said that the priest “had been treated in an incredible way, like no other prisoner in the history of this country,” confirming that he He sent him to the Model Prison, because “he is an ordinary man.”
“What we have is arrogant behavior, from someone who considers himself the head of the Church in Nicaragua, the leader of the Latin American Church, and must think that he is about to opt for the position of His Holiness the Pope. He is unhinged. Now that he arrived at La Modelo, he arrived that he was a madman. He cannot have the courage of Christ, who endured the scourging and endured the crucifixion. He does not accept that they put him in a cell where there are hundreds of prisoners ”, he assured
The dictator said that Álvarez “was kept in his house. Special food was made for him; There were doctors who visited him twice a day, the sisters came to cook for him… it was a mansion. He is irritated because now he is in jail. He is the rage of not abiding by the decision of the Nicaraguan authorities, of the Nicaraguan State ”.
By comparison, Ortega said that eleven other religious and priests“they did not make a fuss and got on the plane”, detailing that, after that, there are only three priests in prison: “one, from Boaco, who has rape charges to a thirteen-year-old girl (in relation to Monsignor Leonardo Urbina) (..) another, from Nandaime, for injuries and physical and psychological violence (in reference to the priest Manuel García). It’s nothing political,” and “the bishop”, who is detained “for terrorist”.
Ortega, the surprised
At another point in his speech, he narrated that the release of political prisoners was the idea of his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, in negotiation with the United States ambassador to Nicaragua, Kevin Sullivan.
“This day an event occurred that I would call surprising. You have to remember that on several occasions, in different public events, I had been raising all these people who were in prison, detained for violating sovereignty, peace, against the Nicaraguan people… as all of them were agents of foreign powers … to take them away. Why don’t they take them away?” he asked rhetorically.
“A few days ago, the US ambassador was going to the United States, and Rosario told me, why don’t we tell the ambassador to take these terrorists away? Tell them, let’s see if they hear it there, ”says Ortega who responded to her, then narrating that her wife called Sullivan.
“I did not expect a positive response, besides that they must have imagined that we were going to ask that the sanctions be lifted. We are not asking for the sanctions to be lifted. We are not asking for anything in return. It is a matter of honor, dignity, patriotism. Let them take their mercenaries, as they took them after the invasion of Cuba, ”he insisted.
Continuing with his narration, he said that the diplomat replied that “he was going to consult, and then everything came walking at breakneck speed. When they ask us how many we are going to release: everyone. And they ask us about one person in particular: Álvarez too? Also. We don’t want any trace of those mercenaries to remain in this country.”
From there, he referred to “the Governor’s races, the Supreme Court”, to have everything ready for the morning of February 9, when the plane would arrive in Managua, but “in order not to create expectations”, they decided to do everything in silence . “We could not start talking, because if the event did not take place, we would be ridiculous”, but “they complied, and we complied too”.
He then said that the now political prisoners were transferred “from San Carlos, Chinandega, León… in all the departments there were (prisoners)”, although the majority were in Managua, both in La Modelo, (Tipitapa), and in Judicial Aid. , also called the New Chipote.
Faithful to the secrecy with which the regime operates, Ortega explained that “it was an operation that had to be done with a lot of discipline, a lot of organization, an accident had to be avoided. The prisoners speculated, because they did not know where they were being taken”, and then “they were transferred to a point and then concentrated in the Air Force”, where they boarded the aircraft that took them into exile.
In the end, of the 228 inmates on the initial list, only 222 made the flight. Monsignor Álvarez and Fanor Alejandro Ramos remained in Managua, who decided not to make the trip. Four others – Eliseo Castro Baltodano, Walter Antonio Ruiz Rivera, José Manuel Urbina Lara, and Jaime Enrique Navarrete Blandón – were reportedly rejected by the US authorities, according to Ortega.
