This Friday, January 20, the Department of State of the United States described as “unfounded” the crimes that the Ortega dictatorship presented against the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez Lagos, who for more than five months has remained under “house arrest”.
A spokesman for the Joe Biden government assured the voice of america (VOA), that the charges brought against the religious leader are a “clear violation of human rights and the rule of law.”
The US administration also stressed that in recent months the “regime” of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has increased the repression against the people of Nicaragua, because it has imprisoned priests and laity; and has forced the closure of Catholic radio stations.
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On January 10, Monsignor Álvarez was taken to an initial hearing and Ortega judge Gloria María Saavedra Corrales sent him to trial and maintained the precautionary measure of house arrest.
The Ortega court accuses the Bishop of Matagalpa of the alleged crimes of undermining national integrity and spreading false news through information and communication technologies. The “victim” is the Nicaraguan State.
Recently, lawyer Yader Morazán revealed that the regime will use 16 witnesses in the impeachment trial against Monsignor Álvarez, for which no start date is known.
Among the witnesses is the regime’s propagandist Elba Marina Rayo, who works at “Radio Insurrection” that operates within the FSLN Departmental. “From where the repression of April 2018 was directed. Before, he embraced Bishop Álvarez, and now he will testify against him,” criticized the former judicial official.
Another of the witnesses is Gabriela Alejandra Rayo Castro, wife of the nephew of the “chief of the Matagalpa paramilitaries, Lalo Soza. The entire family boasts of their “actions” in favor of the criminal regime of the Ortega Murillo. Morazán published images of the witness where she poses next to the mayor of Matagalpa, Sadrach Zeledón, sanctioned by the United States.
Faced with this situation, the State Department reiterated that the United States and members of the international community have taken measures to promote accountability for the actions of the Ortega regime.
“We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Bishop Álvarez and all other political prisoners who have been unjustly detained,” the State Department added.
The lawyer, human rights defender and author of the report «Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?»Martha Patricia Molina, has documented the attacks that the Catholic Church has been a victim of since April 2018, which at the end of 2022, already add up to 410 violations of religious freedom in the country, committed by the Ortega and Murillo regime.
