The Blue and White National Unity (Unab) demands that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo respond to the situation in which Monsignor Rolando Álvarez finds himself 70 days after being kidnapped by police officers from the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa, since the fourth of August. The bishop of Matagalpa was transferred to Managua on the 19th of the same month and his whereabouts are unknown.
“The regime is holding Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, hostage. We demand that they show him and set him free. Where is Monsignor Álvarez?” Questions the opposition organization through its social networks.
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Human rights organizations have denounced that “the lack of information about the physical and psychological conditions of Monsignor Rolando Álvarez has generated numerous versions about his whereabouts. By hiding him they have him kidnapped, he is missing. We demand that the regime show it,” said the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh).
The Ortega regime has indicated that the arbitrary detention of Álvarez was to “recover normality for the citizens and families of Matagalpa.” Along with the also apostolic administrator, priests, seminarians and lay people were arrested, who, according to the only report given by the Police, are locked up in the cells of the Directorate of Judicial Assistance, in Managua, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”.
To date, the regime keeps nine priests behind bars, two of them — Monsignor Leonardo Urbina de Boaco and Father Manuel Salvador García — convicted of common crimes, and it has also prevented freedom of worship.
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For its part, the Diocese of Matagalpa continues to ask its faithful to pray in public for the Catholic leader, priests and laity who are “kidnapped” by the regime.
«Monsignor Álvarez, in his pastoral work in the Diocese of Matagalpa, where he took office on April 2, 2011, has chosen as a preferential option for the poor, for the sick, for the young, for those who suffer adversity and for peasants. , to whom he has shown his closeness through prayer and pastoral visits. We ask to continue praying for our pastor, priests and laity who were with him in the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa,” the Diocese said through its social networks.
