The Government of President Daniel Ortega, through the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor), ordered the Catholic Channel of the Diocese of Matagalpa (north) to be taken off the air, the second property of the Catholic Church that is vetoed in the last two months, reported this Tuesday the television station that manages it, TV Merced.
“We have been notified by the management of Telecable (subscription television) that, due to guidance from Telcor, the Catholic Channel of the Diocese of Matagalpa is removed from the programming grid of said company in Matagalpa and Jinotega (north)”, said TV Merced in a statement.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Roland Jose Alvarezconfirmed in a tweet that Telcor eliminated the Catholic Channel “from the grid of said company” and that it was entrusted to the Virgin Mary.
“Today of Perpetual Help, we have been notified by Telecable that Telcor has eliminated us from the grid of said company. We entrust ourselves to the Virgin. And we ask ourselves again: why is it? God help us”. Bishop Rolando José.
– Monsignor Rolando José Alvarez L. (@DiocesisdeMat) June 28, 2022
“And we ask ourselves again: Why is it? God help us,” Bishop Álvarez added after hearing the news.
On May 20 last, Telcor also ordered Channel 51, Canal Católico, to be taken off the air. property of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua.
Persecution against Álvarez
The closure of Channel 51 occurred after Álvarez denounced being a victim of police persecution and to start a day of fasting, prayer and indefinite exorcism, until the siege was over.
Although the persecution against Álvarez, as well as the fast, ended without the National Police and the priest announcing it, the closure of the Catholic Channel of the Diocese of Matagalpa became the most recent friction between the Ortega Government and the Roman religion, which includes the jailing of a priest for alleged threats to civilians.
Álvarez, who is in charge of the Communication area of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, and was in charge of the closed channels, said last May that Ortega wants “a mute (Catholic) Church”, but that “if the Church were silent, the stones would scream.”
The Catholic Channel of the Diocese of Matagalpa announced that it will continue broadcasting from its website and its social networks.
President Ortega has branded as “terrorists” the Nicaraguan bishops who acted as mediators of a national dialogue that sought a peaceful solution to the crisis that the country has been experiencing since April 2018.
He has also described them as “coup plotters”, accused of being accomplices of internal forces and international groups that, in his opinion, are acting in Nicaragua to overthrow him.
