Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Nicaraguan bishop gets 26 years in prison
MEXICO CITY — Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez, an outspoken critic of Nicaragua’s government, was sentenced to 26 years in prison and stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship Friday, the latest move by President Daniel Ortega against the Catholic church and his opponents.
A day after he refused to get on a flight to the United States with 222 other prisoners, all opponents of Ortega, a judge sentenced Alvarez for undermining the government, spreading false information, obstruction of functions and disobedience, according to a government statement published in official outlets.
The sentence handed down by Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh, chief magistrate of the Managua appeals court, is the longest given to any of Ortega’s opponents over the past two years.
Alvarez was arrested in August along with several other priests and lay people.
When Ortega ordered the mass release of political leaders, priests, students and activists widely considered political prisoners and had some of them put on a flight Thursday to Washington, Alvarez refused to board without being able to consult with other bishops, Ortega said.
Nicaragua’s president called Alvarez’s refusal “an absurd thing.” Alvarez, who had been held under house arrest, was then taken to the nearby Modelo prison.
Alvarez had been one of the most outspoken religious figures still in Nicaragua as Ortega intensified his repression of the opposition.
Nicaragua’s Episcopal Conference did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sentence. Reached by the AP, Managua Vicar Mons. Carlos Aviles said he hadn’t heard anything official. “Maybe tomorrow.”
The church is essentially the last independent institution trusted by a large number of Nicaraguans and that makes it a threat to Ortega’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
Monsignor Silvio Baez, the former outspoken Managua auxiliary bishop who was recalled to the Vatican in 2019, said on Twitter “the Nicaraguan dictatorship’s hatred toward Mons. Rolando Alvarez is irrational and out of control.”
ATTACKS ON CHURCH
Alvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, has been a key religious voice in discussions of Nicaragua’s future since 2018, when a wave of protests against Ortega’s government led to a sweeping crackdown on opponents.
When the protests first broke out, Ortega asked the church to serve as mediator in peace talks.
A pro- government mob shoved, punched and scratched at Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes and other Catholic leaders as they tried to enter the Basilica San Sebastian in Diriamba on July 9, 2018.
For nearly 15 hours overnight on July 13-14, 2018, armed government backers fired on a church in Managua while 155 student protesters who had been dislodged from a nearby university lay under the pews. A student who was shot in the head at a barricade outside died on the rectory floor.
More recently, Ortega has accused the Roman Catholic Church of being in on an alleged foreign-backed plot to depose him. Last summer, the government seized several radio stations owned by the diocese.
The Holy See has been largely silent on the situation in Nicaragua, believing that any public denunciation will only inflame tensions further between the government and the local church.
The Vatican’s last comment came in August when Pope Francis expressed concern about the raid of Alvarez’s residence and called for dialogue.
Last week, judges sentenced five other Catholic priests to prison. They were all aboard Thursday’s flight.
The State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone Friday with Nicaragua Foreign Minister Denis Moncada about the prisoners’ release and “the importance of constructive dialogue between the United States to build a better future for the Nicaraguan people.”
After expelling nearly all of his most vocal critics, Ortega found himself stuck with the bishop in a still heavily Catholic country.
Prior to the release of prisoners, sanctions and public criticism of Ortega had been building for months, but both United States and Nicaraguan officials say the decision to put 222 dissidents on a plane to Washington came suddenly.
The majority had been sentenced in the past couple years to lengthy prison terms. The release came together in a couple of days and the prisoners had no idea what was happening until their buses turned into Managua’s international airport.
In Ortega’s mind, they are terrorists. Funded by foreign governments, they worked to destabilize his government after huge street protests broke out in April 2018, he maintains.
Ortega said Vice President Rosario Murillo, his wife, first came to him with the idea of expelling the prisoners. In a matter of days, it was done.