Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez, an outspoken critic of Nicaragua’s government, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison and stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship, the latest move by President Daniel Ortega against the Catholic church and his opponents.
FILE - A poster featuring Bishop Rolando Alvarez and Pope Francis hangs inside the Cathedral in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, Aug. 19, 2022. Five Catholic priests were sentenced to 10 years in prison in Managua, on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023, accused of"conspiracy", including four who worked alongside the also detained bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa, Rolando Alvarez.
Nicaragua’s Episcopal Conference did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sentence. Reached by the AP, Managua vicar Mons. Carlos Avilés said he hadn't head anything official. “Maybe tomorrow.” When the protests first erupted, Ortega asked the church to serve as mediator in peace talks, though they ultimately failed.
More recently, Ortega has accused the Church of being in on an alleged foreign-backed plot to depose him. Earlier this week, judges sentenced five other Catholic priests to prison. They were all aboard Thursday's flight. Vilma Núñez, director of the Nicaragua Center for Human Rights, which had been supporting prisoners in their cases, called the sentence “arbitrary and last minute,” noting that it included crimes that were not part of his original conviction.
“The Catholic Church, I think, is one of the main institutions that the Ortega regime really, really fears,” said Garrastazu. “The Catholic Church are really the ones that can actually change the hearts and minds of the people.”
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