The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, Silvio José Báez, once again demanded the prompt release of his brother bishop, Rolando José Álvarez, the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, who remains a political prisoner of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega
Local Nicaraguan newspapers note that, asking God for Álvarez’s prompt release as he was about to celebrate Mass in St. Agatha’s Parish (Miami, USA), this last Sunday, October 1st, Auxiliary Bishop Báez said:
“As every Sunday, I remember my brother bishop, Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, unjustly imprisoned by the Sandinista dictatorship of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, so that the Lord may soon grant him unconditional freedom, being as he is a just man and model pastor for the Church.”
Bishop Alvarez was irregularly detained in August 2022 and later sentenced to 26 years in prison, charged with “crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the Nicaraguan state and society.”
After refusing to be exiled along with 222 other political prisoners who were sent to the United States, he was stripped of his citizenship and sent to prison.
As La Prensa de Nicaragua notes, the bishop is “currently incarcerated in the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System. Since then, he has only been seen once in public, when the propaganda media of the Sandinista regime published a series of photographs and a video in which the bishop received a visit from two of his brothers.”
Bishop Alvarez has just completed seven months of being transferred to this detention center, after having spent as many months under house arrest.
Voices in the United States are increasingly calling for international attention on the situation in Nicaragua.
