sor Maria Lucia Caram Padilla, of the Dominican Order, joined the voices of religious, human rights defenders and opponents who demand the freedom of Monsignor Rolando Alvarezpolitical prisoner of the Daniel Ortega regime.
From Manresa, Spain, the nun expressed that the Nicaraguan people are living “a passion and death” because she assures that the Ortega dictatorship “is trying to kill life.”
Related news: I/A Court HR extends provisional measures to Monsignor Álvarez and orders his immediate release
He pointed out that it is “good to ask” for the release of the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and assures that it is an “absolute injustice” that the presidential couple has him in prison.
Caram Padilla recalled that the prelate, deprived of his liberty since August 4, 2022, is “a voice that from the gospel is working for his people.”
He also urged the Catholic people to mobilize, raise their voices and pray, “but also ask the President of the Government —Daniel Ortega— to reconsider, to do justice to the bishop and to give him freedom.”
Related news: Three months have passed since the last time Bishop Álvarez was seen
On August 4, 2022, the also apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí was surrounded by dozens of police, in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa and then, on the 19th of the same month, they removed him by force, placing him under “house arrest.”
On February 9, 2023, the Ortega y Murillo regime sent Álvarez to the Jorge Navarro prison system, known as “La Modelo”, in Tipitapa, for refusing to be exiled from the country. Then, in less than 24 hours —on the 10th of the same month— he sentenced him to 26 years in prison, plus the loss of his nationality, for alleged conspiracy against the country.
For its part, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDH Court) extended precautionary measures in favor of the bishop and ordered the State of Nicaragua to release him immediately.
Monsignor Álvarez, is one of the most critical religious voices of the Nicaraguan dictatorship, which caused him to be subjected to siege, threats, defamation, persecution, until he was deprived of his liberty.
