One day after the dictator Daniel Ortega publicly attacked the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando José Álvarez LagosFor having opposed being exiled from Nicaragua to the United States, the regime sentenced him to 26 years in prison.
On national television, on Thursday night, Ortega poured out insults against the first Nicaraguan bishop imprisoned by the Sandinista dictatorship and accused of crimes of treason against the homeland; and reported that the bishop was sent to the Jorge Navarro National Penitentiary System (SPN), known as “La Modelo”, in Tipitapa.
Related news: Ortega justice sentences Monsignor Rolando Álvarez to 26 years in prison
The political trial against Monsignor Rolando Álvarez Lagos was scheduled for next Wednesday, February 15, however, official media published that the magistrate of the Court of Appeals of ManaguaOctavio Rothschuh, read the sentence that condemns him to 26 years and 4 months in prison.
Ortega’s justice accused him of being an alleged “traitor to the homeland” and stripped him of his citizenship rights for life and his Nicaraguan nationality.
The expert in the administration of Justice and former worker of the Judiciary Yader Morazán explained that Judge Nadia Tardencilla, who handled the Monsignor’s case, does not have the power to take away the religious’s nationality; she can only impose sanctions that establish the Penal Code.
In addition, he recalled that the constitutional reform, which strips away the nationality of union leaders and opponents, has not entered into force either, and if it does, it will apply for the future and not for past events.
Related news: Monsignor Báez on sentencing Álvarez: “They have not condemned him, they have condemned themselves”
For Morazán, the regime makes one suspect that “arbitrariness seeks a legal basis to expel him from the country by force.”
Political prisoners from the Nicaraguan regime who were expelled to the United States on Thursday, February 9, “thought that Daniel Ortega’s intention was to make them disappear.”
They report that they were taken from the cells on Wednesday night, handcuffed, without knowing where they were going. Some even speculated that the dictator would send them to Russia to serve in the war against Ukraine. the foreigner Nilson Jose Membreno, Originally from Chinandega, who spent more than four years in prison accused of alleged terrorism and is now one of the 222 opponents released from prison, he tells us what those hours were like.
Once, inside the plane, they were informed that they were “free.” At that moment, the former politicians sang the National Anthem in tears.
Related news: Alex Hernández: “It is a bittersweet joy because we are far from our loved ones”
For some, talking about the “torture” in the prison known as “El Nuevo Chipote” in Managua is still not possible on the advice of their lawyers. But, the former Sandinista guerrilla Dora Maria Tellez He affirms that he felt “an impressive thing” when he left the cell and met again with the also ex-politician Ana Margarita Vijil, with “the fear of waking up in the morning and that it was a dream,” although he clarifies that it was a “deep tear” to leave Nicaragua forcibly.
The political prisoners released — exiled and without the right to Nicaraguan nationality by orders of the regime — were benefited from the humanitarian parole of the United States. This allows them to stay and work in the country for up to two years.
Also the Government of Pedro Sanchez He offered them Spanish nationality. He Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares He told Servimedia that the process will be “immediate, they will contact them to prevent them from being stateless and it is a government decision that will take very little time.”
Related news: Spain offers nationality to political prisoners exiled from Nicaragua
This Friday, the Nicaraguan regime published in the official newspaper, La Gaceta, the reform to the Constitution with which it would strip the exiles of Nicaraguan nationality, and the Special Law that regulates the loss of it.
Although the deputies were hasty, the reformed article, 21, must be approved in a second legislature for it to enter into force, that is, next year. Likewise, despite Ortega’s speech of trying to strip them of their nationality, the former political prisoners reported that the regime issued them a Nicaraguan passport valid until the year 2033.
President Daniel Ortega publicly called for a constitutional reform to appoint his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo as “co-president”, who was sanctioned by the United States at the end of 2018 for multiple violations of the human rights of Nicaraguans.
At the beginning of this year, Daniel Ortega called Rosario Murillo “Co-president”, after the night of December 31, they held a public discussion that resulted in Murillo leaving the official event.
Opposition politicians affirm that Ortega is looking for a way to “ingratiate himself” with his wife, after the argument.
