The police siege against Bishop Rolando Álvarez, declared enemy of Ortega and Murillo

Rolando Álvarez, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and Esteli, near the church where he was taking refuge, on May 20, 2022. MAYNOR VALENZUELA (REUTERS)

On the fifth day of the police siege, Bishop Rolando Álvarez left the parish of Santo Cristo de las Colinas where he was sheltered and fasting indefinitely until the officers of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo stop harassing him.

The prelate returned this Monday to the seat of his episcopate: the northern city of Matagalpa, closer to his pulpit, from where for years he has established himself as one of the most critical religious of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.

The police contingent moved from Managua to Matagalpa behind Monsignor Álvarez, after a contact with the Government of which no further details are available.

The prelate took refuge last Friday in the parish when the officers took the harassment to the family level, while the religious visited the house of a niece in the capital.

That episode, a kind of confirmation that the siege against him was drastically narrowing, led him to start a serum and water fast.

Although in recent months he has been intercepted by the police, and one of his collaborators in Matagalpa was attacked by Sandinista sympathizers, the priest has decided not to tolerate any more.

“At eight o'clock at night I went to my private maternal-paternal house, close to the family nucleus where we practically live together.

They came to the door of my home and I no longer allowed that, and I want to put on record that I will not allow it.

I will not allow the police to invade my private family circle,” Álvarez warned on Friday, before taking cover.

The bishop's reaction provoked an escalation of repression by the Ortega and Murillo regime, which includes harassment and censorship of the Nicaraguan Catholic Channel that the bishop directs.

The telecommunications regulator ordered the cable companies to remove from the grid the media outlet that broadcast programs related to Catholicism, the predominant religion in Nicaragua.

The police harassment against Álvarez represents a new chapter of the presidential couple against the Catholic Church and its bishops, brought together in the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN), a moral entity that has played a belligerent role in condemning human rights violations. crimes committed since 2018 by the Government.

The prelude to the harassment against this bishop – who directs one of the largest dioceses in the country, at the same time as the one in Estelí – was a report made by the Justice Commission of the National Assembly in which the religious as "drivers" of the alleged "coup attempt" of 2018. Although the scope of the document is ambiguous, consulted lawyers believe that it can be a basis to criminalize religious, in a context in which all critical voice is imprisoned , exiled or banished, as happened a few weeks ago with singer-songwriters and music producers.

"Sectors of the oligarchy, together with some religious leaders and certain NGOs, promoted an attempted coup financed, directed and organized mainly from abroad, committing crimes that violate the human rights of Nicaraguans," says the document approved by the parliamentarians.

The burden for the religious also comes from the same presidential family.

“There are those who use lies to appear.

That is terrible, there are those who use lies to be bosses in any job, to get ahead of the others in any job, a job that perhaps has its benefits for them, for those who lie, "said Vice President Rosario Murillo on Friday in the official media.

The first lady and President Ortega have repeatedly railed against the bishops and have included personal attacks that are accompanied by qualifiers such as "Pharisees" and "coup plotters."

While montages of Monsignor Álvarez dressed as a prisoner and being arrested circulate on the social networks controlled by the Government, one of the sons of the presidential couple published a message on Twitter: “Under each cassock there is a common man, full of vices, greed and impious thoughts”, wrote Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo.

The Episcopal Conference, whose head, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, also has police custody "for his safety," according to the official version, issued a statement in support of Álvarez.

“We express our solidarity and closeness to the faithful and priests of the Santo Cristo de las Colinas parish in Managua, where His Excellency Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is confined in prayer and fasting;

as well as in the San Juan Bautista parish in the city of Masaya, and its parish priest, Father Harvy Padilla, who live in an atmosphere of anxiety due to their personal safety and the impossibility of exercising their right to live and celebrate their faith in an environment of peace. and freedom”, reads the communication, referring to another priest who suffers a siege in the city of Masaya.

The newspaper

It also revealed that the Mayor's Office of Managua imposed a fine of five million córdobas (almost 140,000 dollars) on the San Agustín school on April 29.

They fear that they will “exile” him

Political analysts consulted for this article believe that arresting Monsignor Álvarez would entail a high political cost for Ortega and Murillo, taking into account the profuse devotion of Nicaraguans.

However, the estimates are measured by virtue of the viscerality of the regime and its strategies to silence it.

“They have shown that they are capable of anything.

They could well imprison Bishop Álvarez as a church or banish him as with music producers after imprisoning them,” said a political scientist who prefers anonymity.

Sources from the Catholic Church told EL PAÍS that they fear that the police harassment is intended to force Monsignor Álvarez into exile, as happened with the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, one of the most uncomfortable prophetic voices for Ortega and Murillo. from 2018. “Monsignor Báez was negotiated with the Vatican.

That is, they expelled him, exiled him.

They may intend the same thing with Álvarez, but we must remember that relations with the Vatican have been at a standstill since they expressly expelled the nuncio Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag in March,” commented the source close to the church.

For now, the Vatican has remained silent about the persecution suffered by its bishops in Nicaragua.

Álvarez has not confirmed his safe arrival in Matagalpa on his own, but it is a city where he feels safer, adds the same religious source, who highlights the police presence in the city.

Not only are his homilies the ones that summon so many parishioners, but the bishop has deep roots in this northern department, eminently agricultural and dairy.

In 2015, Álvarez called a demonstration of 15,000 people in the municipality of Rancho Grande and forced the government to declare a mining concession in the area “unfeasible” in favor of the transnational B2Gold for putting water resources at risk.

“I love my police brothers who surround the church.

I love the cops who chase me all day.

I understand that they follow orders and carry them out (...) I love, yes, I love the president and the vice president.

I have nothing against you.

My heart is free (...) but the one who hates is already dead in life, ”said the bishop in his last homily.

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