Managua Nicaragua.- The President of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, affirmed that Bishop Rolando Álvarez, detained since August for conspiracy, refused to go to the United States with the group of more than 200 opponents released and expelled from the country, and is now in the Modelo prison.
“(The Bishop) was in line (to board the plane) and he begins to say that he is not leaving,” Ortega said in a message on radio and television.
“Álvarez did not want to abide by what the law mandates, what the State of Nicaragua mandates (…) now he is in the Modelo prison.”
The President indicated that a dozen priests, deacons and seminarians voluntarily boarded the flight that took 222 opponents released from prison, and that now there are only three religious prisoners in Nicaragua: two priests “for common crimes” and the Bishop for “terrorism”.
The released opponents were deprived of their political rights, stripped of their nationality and expelled to the United States at a time when Ortega faces pressure due to the growing authoritarianism of his government.
The President denied that the massive release was the result of a “negotiation” with the United States, which has imposed sanctions on Managua for the repression after the 2018 anti-government protests.
“It was not a matter of negotiation, nothing, this must be made clear,” he assured surrounded by fifteen military chiefs, Army generals and senior officials, including his wife and Vice President, Rosario Murillo, whom he mentioned as the “co-president” of Nicaragua.
“Everything we do is to ensure peace.”
Bishop Álvarez, 56, was arrested on August 19 and charged in December by the prosecutor’s office with crimes of conspiracy “to undermine national integrity and propagate false news” through the media and social networks. .
Álvarez heads the diocese of the northern department of Matagalpa.
