The Government of Nicaragua released this week in Managua photographs of the Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Álvarezwho was sentenced in February 2023 to 26 years and 4 months in prison, stripped of his nationality and suspended his citizenship rights for life for crimes considered treason after refusing to leave his country.
(Read also: The United States demands that Nicaragua release Bishop Rolando Álvarez).
The images were released the same day that the United States demanded that the Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, release Álvarez “immediately”, 57 years old, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Estelí, both in northern Nicaragua.
The US statement comes when the bishop has been imprisoned for more than 500 days and just one day after Pope Francis, after praying the first Angelus of the year, expressed his “concern” about the detention of Catholic priests in Nicaragua.
“Today, Tuesday, January 2, 2024, a medical examination was carried out on Rolando Álvarez Lagos with Dr. Yesser Rizo (internist), in the presence of the general commissioners of our National Police: Zhukov Serrano and Luis Barrantes. Medical care began at 3 :25 pm (21:25 GMT) and concluded at 3:40 pm (21:40 GMT)”, indicated the Nicaraguan Executive in a press release.
(Keep reading: Pope Francis expresses concern over arrest of priests in Nicaragua and calls for 'dialogue').
Serrano is deputy director and head of the Intelligence Directorate of the National Police, and Barrantes He was head of the police delegation of the department of Matagalpa, where the diocese chaired by Álvarez is located.
The Government of Nicaragua detailed the results of the vital signs of the leader, who appears underweight: Blood pressure 120/60; heart rate, 84; oxygen saturation, 99%; heart rate, 88.
“During medical attention, Rolando Álvarez Lagos expressed that he feels well and continues to exercise,” according to the note.
For his part, the doctor reported, according to the Government, that the imprisoned bishop's vital signs and state of health “are fine.”
The authorities explained that “blood tests were not performed because he had eaten food.”
In its statement, the United States questioned the conditions of detention of Álvarez, who is being held in the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System, known as La Modelo prison, on the outskirts of Managua.
Specifically, the State Department criticized the fact that the religious man has been kept in isolation, the blocking of any independent verification of his health status, and that videos and photographs have been released by the Government that only “increase concerns about his well-being.”
In December, after the Ministry of the Interior (Interior) released some photographs, Nicaraguan activist Juan Carlos Arce, one of the defense lawyers of the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective, considered that the bishop was a “victim of torture.”
Rolando Álvarez, bishop arrested this Friday in Nicaragua.
(We recommend: They arrest a priest after celebrating mass on the last day of the year in Nicaragua).
In February 2023, Álvarez He was sentenced to 26 years and 4 months in prison, stripped of his nationality, and suspended his citizenship rights for life. for crimes considered treason.
The sentence against the high-ranking official was handed down one day after he refused to get on a plane that was going to take him, along with 222 other released Nicaraguan political prisoners, to the United States, which provoked the indignation of Ortega, who on national television described him of “proud”, “unhinged” and “energetic”.
Álvarez is the first bishop arrested, charged and convicted since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007after coordinating a Government Board from 1979 to 1985, and presiding over Nicaragua for the first time from 1985 to 1990.
The relations between the Ortega Government and the Catholic Church are experiencing moments of great tension, characterized by the expulsion and imprisonment of priests, the prohibition of religious activities, and the suspension of diplomatic relations.
EFE
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