Bishops, including Rolando Álvarez, leave Nicaragua, says local press

A group of Nicaraguan priests who were imprisoned in Nicaragua were released this Sunday (14) and sent to the Vatican, including, according to local press and activists, Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was sentenced in February 2023 to 26 years and four months for crimes of treason against the country.

“The Ortega-Murillos (a couple formed by President Daniel Ortega and his vice president, Rosario Murillo) want to leave Nicaragua without priests. Another plane full of people's pastors into exile,” said exiled Nicaraguan priest Uriel Vallejos.

According to the country's press, among those freed and sent to the Vatican is Bishop Rolando Álvarez. Nicaraguan lawyer and activist Yonarqui Martínez told EFE Agency that authorities released all imprisoned religious, including bishops Álvarez and Isidoro Mora, 13 priests and three seminarians. To date, Daniel Ortega's dictatorship has not commented on the case.

The release of the Nicaraguan priests comes 14 days after Pope Francis, after praying the first Angelus of the year, expressed “concern” about the detention of Catholic priests in Nicaragua and asked to “always seek the path of dialogue” to overcome problems.

This release also comes almost three weeks after the United States demanded that President Ortega immediately release Álvarez, 57, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Estelí, both in northern Nicaragua.

Nine days ago, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Central America demanded that dictator Ortega provide information on the whereabouts of Bishop Isidoro Mora, who had been detained since December 20 amid a wave of arrests of Catholic religious people in the country.

In October last year, the Nicaraguan government released 12 priests and sent them to the Vatican following an agreement with the Holy See, but Bishop Álvarez, who was reluctant to leave the country, was not among them.

Previously, in February 2023, authorities released eight priests from prison and sent them to the United States, as part of the 222 Nicaraguan political prisoners.

Relations between the Ortega dictatorship and the Catholic Church became non-existent after the expulsion and arrest of priests, prohibition of religious activities and suspension of diplomatic relations with other countries.

Nicaragua has been experiencing a crisis since April 2018, which intensified after the criticized November 2021 elections, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, the fourth consecutive and the second with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice-president. -president, with the main competitors in prison.