On Thursday, February 9, 222 political prisoners were exiled from Nicaragua to the United States by the dictatorial regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
Among those who boarded the chartered plane were some of the main opposition leaders: six presidential candidates, students, farmers, business leaders, journalists and priests.
But the eminent prisoner whom Ortega and Murillo were eager to get rid of, Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos of the diocese of Matagalpa, refused to leave the country and accept expulsion.
The bishop had repeatedly declared that he would not leave the country and would not abandon the people of Nicaragua, despite the government's threat of "exile or jail."
He supposedly said: "Let them be free, I pay their sentences",
offering to sacrifice himself for the good of others.
Bishop Álvarez Lagos, following the example of Jesus Christ, is "the good shepherd who will give his life for his sheep."
He is the symbol of the resistance in Nicaragua that has never given up in its fight against tyranny and repression.
Ortega and Murillo made a great miscalculation by failing to recognize the courage and conviction of Bishop Álvarez Lagos.
On February 7, the regime moved up the bishop's trial.
I suspect they hoped that the prospect of a long prison term would scare the bishop into agreeing to leave the country.
How little they know the bishop.
Those who left were released and the torture ended for them, as well as the cruel and inhumane treatment they suffered in the Nicaraguan dungeons.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that the prisoners had been imprisoned "for exercising their fundamental freedoms and have endured long unjust detentions."
A Nicaraguan judge assured that the regime had decided to "deport" the detainees to "protect peace and national security," and noted that they had been declared "traitors."
That same day, the Nicaraguan National Assembly held an extraordinary session to amend the Constitution and deprive deported prisoners of their Nicaraguan citizenship, which is unconstitutional and violates Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
On February 9, in retaliation for his refusal to board the plane, Bishop Álvarez Lagos was transferred to the infamous Jorge Navarro prison, known as La Modelo, considered one of the most brutal in Latin America.
The bishop is one of the 39 political prisoners who remain in Nicaragua.
On Friday, February 10, one day after Bishop Álvarez Lagos refused to board the flight to the United States, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo were sentenced to 26 years and 4 months in prison by the Managua Court of Appeals.
The sentence read by Judge Héctor Ernesto Ochoa Andino, president of Criminal Chamber 1 of the Court of Appeals of Managua, affirmed: "Declare Rolando José Álvarez Lagos guilty for being the author of the crimes of impairment of national integrity, propagation of news false through information technology, obstruction of functions, aggravated disobedience or contempt of authority, all committed in real competition and to the detriment of society and the State of the Republic of Nicaragua”.
In addition, they deprived Bishop Álvarez Lagos of his Nicaraguan citizenship,
That afternoon, Daniel Ortega held an incoherent televised press conference to give his official version of the largest deportation in the history of Latin America. He was outraged by the bishop's refusal to leave the country, accusing him of being a "terrorist", "unhinged" and "arrogant."
Ortega confirmed that he had sent Bishop Álvarez Lagos to the La Modelo prison, because "he is a normal and ordinary citizen."
"There what we have is arrogant behavior from someone who already considers himself the head of the Church in Nicaragua, the leader of the Latin American church and is about to think about running for the position of His Holiness the Pope, yes, he is deranged" , he claimed.
“Now that he arrived at La Modelo he was a madman, he cannot have the courage of Christ, who endured the crucifixion.
No, he does not even accept being put in a cell where there are hundreds of prisoners ”.
Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos turned 56 last November while he was detained by the Ortega-Murillo regime.
He was born in Managua to a Catholic family, and as a youth, during the 1980s, he refused to be recruited by the Sandinista Army, he fled to Guatemala to avoid arrest and lived there as a refugee.
Analyzing retrospectively this period of his life, the bishop told
La Prensa
: "I think we belong to a generation of young people who had to conquer our freedom at the price of persecution and pain."
His vocation to the priesthood was evident from his earliest age, and at the age of 28 he was ordained a priest.
He was consecrated as a bishop on April 2, 2011, when he took over the diocese of Matagalpa.
The respect and affection that his community has for him is immense.
The
La Prensa
chronicle reported that jubilant crowds poured into the streets to attend his ordination ceremony.
During Nicaragua's civil unrest in 2018, Bishop Álvarez Lagos was part of the episcopal team that mediated the first "national dialogue" between the Ortega regime and the opposition.
The bishop gave explicit instructions before the parties sat down at the negotiating table.
“The national dialogue has only one goal: change.
Change is inevitable.
There is no other way, there is no other purpose, change is coming and with it the democratization of the Republic of Nicaragua”.
Ortega used the dialogue to launch a brutal repression against the population with weapons of war, the police, the riot police, and the military and paramilitary forces in order to crush the rebellion.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) estimates that 355 people were killed in those violent days.
In March of the following year,
his regime vetoed the presence or mediation in the negotiations of Bishop Álvarez Lagos.
Cardinal Brenes ended up being the only representative of the Catholic Church, accompanied by the apostolic nuncio Stanislaw Sommertag.
The sermons and homilies of Bishop Álvarez Lagos have frequently denounced the serious and systematic violations of human rights, religious persecutions and abuses of power by Ortega and Murillo.
I admire his integrity, his prophetic voice and his courage to speak truth to power.
In one of his memorable sermons he affirmed: "Jesus does not want a church interested in rubbing shoulders with those in power, placing itself to their left or to their right, a church that is not capable of really criticizing the injustices that are committed, that gives turned its back on the problems of the people, a church afraid to assume its commitments.
Jesus Christ does not want a subjugated church, but one that accompanies the people in their demands.
Jesus Christ does not want a Church that approaches power,
trying to negotiate or get quotas and influence;
a church capable of keeping quiet so as not to lose the favors of the powerful, abandoning the weak;
complicit in exploitation, oppression, discrimination, sweetening the words that people in power want to hear;
a church that does not want to contradict when necessary;
that does not dare to swim against the current, a corrupt church that does not raise its voice in the face of arbitrariness, that is not the church that Jesus Christ wants”.
On August 4, 2022, Bishop Álvarez Lagos was held hostage in the clergy house of the Diocese of Matagalpa, and was prevented from saying mass in the cathedral.
The regime's security forces also forbade his fellow religious—five priests, two seminarians, two laymen, and a photographer—from leaving the house, while preventing anyone from entering the compound to bring food, drinks, and vital medicines.
The police surrounded and blockaded the house for 15 days.
Suddenly, at dawn on August 19, 2022, the regime's special forces violently broke down the doors and entered to kidnap Monsignor Álvarez Lagos and his companions.
They took him to an undisclosed location in Managua, while priests, seminarians, lay people and photographers were sent to El Chipote prison.
I would like to convey my gratitude for the support expressed by bishops around the world for Bishop Álvarez Lagos.
His powerful statements give comfort and hope to members of the Catholic Church and will ensure that the bishop is not forgotten.
Several Episcopal Conferences have issued statements calling for the bishop's release and have condemned the Ortega-Murillo regime's persecution of the Catholic Church and the repression of the Nicaraguan people.
The Episcopal Conference of Chile has stated that they "deplore and reject the situation experienced by Bishop Álvarez and the Church in Nicaragua, which violates human rights, the essential dignity of the person and religious freedom."
The Episcopal Conference of Guatemala has praised him for being "a brave shepherd dedicated to his people and his sheep."
The Spanish bishops have asked "the Nicaraguan authorities to listen to the voice of the people they serve, to make their decisions in a spirit of service for the good of all, and to release prisoners imprisoned for political reasons."
One of the strongest statements was made by Honduran Bishop José Antonio Canales, who said that "Monsignor Rolando Álvarez is a thorn in the side [of the regime] precisely because he is very loved by his people."
He went on to say that "in Nicaragua they can invent any crime against him because the Executive controls all the powers of the State."
On the other hand, the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua (CEN) has never issued a statement condemning the relentless persecution of the Ortega-Murillo regime against the Catholic Church in the country, its bishops, priests, seminarians and laity,
I was very happy to hear Pope Francis' comments last Sunday during his weekly Angelus blessing to pilgrims in Saint Peter's Square, about Bishop Álvarez Lagos.
“I have been very saddened by the news coming from Nicaragua, and I cannot help but remember with concern the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, whom I love so much, and who has been sentenced to 26 years in prison, and also the people who have been deported to the United States.
I pray for them and for all those who suffer in that beloved country," said the Pontiff.
“We ask the Lord, through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, to open the hearts of those who have political responsibility and of all citizens towards a sincere search for peace, which is born of truth, justice, freedom and love. ,
I cannot understand why it has taken Pope Francis more than six months to issue a statement on the bishop.
A few hours later, following the pope's statement, Nicaraguan Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes asked those gathered inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to pray for Bishop Álvarez Lagos.
What can we do for Monsignor Rolando?
Pray, that is our strength, pray that the Lord give him strength, give him discernment in all his actions.
He also asked to make the necessary efforts so that "there is no hatred or resentment."
And he asked them to pray for the Lord to enlighten them and, above all, so that in their hearts "there is no hatred or resentment", since the believer "has to love and has to forgive intensely".
As a human rights defender who has tirelessly campaigned for the release of all Nicaraguan political prisoners, I am overjoyed and relieved that they are finally freed from the yoke of the criminal Ortega-Murillo regime.
This is the result of a joint effort of countless people around the world, NGOs, the international community, the Nicaraguan people who demanded their release and, above all, the courage and resistance of the political prisoners and their families, who never gave up. .
We should be thankful that our prayers were heard.
We must not be fooled by the release of political prisoners, let us not forget that the repression continues unabated on all fronts, and no real opposition is allowed.
Let's celebrate it, but let's not forget that everything else remains the same for the people who are in Nicaragua.
She remains imprisoned by the brutal Ortega-Murillo regime: the repression continues unabated on all fronts, and no real opposition is allowed.
Anyone who opposes his regime is killed, jailed, has to flee the country or be deported.
There is no freedom of the press;
3,000 NGOs have been dissolved and the Catholic Church continues to come under relentless attack.
Most people still suffer in a country with no hope for the future.
The almost 600,000 Nicaraguans (8,
7% of the population) who have voted with their feet and left the country during the last four years show it.
Emigration is becoming the only escape valve for many people in the country.
Last Wednesday the regime stripped 94 people of their nationality and their citizenship rights, accusing them of treason and being fugitives from justice, in addition to confiscating their property.
It is one more gesture that confirms the threat that Rosario Murillo launched in 2018 when she said: "Let's go with everything."
The eminent bishop Silvio Báez, the renowned human rights defender Vilma Núñez, the respected journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro and the writers Sergio Ramírez and Gioconda Belli are some of the victims of this new coup.
Furthermore, Ortega and Murillo remain closely aligned with Russia and other authoritarian regimes.
Just two weeks ago, the Iranian foreign minister visited Nicaragua, and Ortega offered the country as a platform for the Islamic Republic in Central America.
This should seriously worry the international community.
It is necessary to impose more sanctions.
This is not the time to make concessions.
The United States, the European Union, Canada, Latin America and other countries must coordinate their efforts.
It is only necessary to dialogue with the regime to reach an agreement on a short-term path to achieve democracy.
Ortega and Murillo only react to pressure.
I am deeply concerned for the safety of Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who is now being held in a maximum security cell in La Modelo prison, one of the harshest in Latin America.
There have been several cases of attacks against political prisoners by common criminals who entered their cells, robbed them, beat them, and injured them.
This is where the bishop will serve his sentence.
I appeal to the international community to condemn the cruel, illegal and unjust sentence that the Ortega-Murillo regime has imposed on the Bishop and to do everything in his power to obtain his release.
His life is at stake.
Bianca Jagger
is founder, president and CEO of the Bianca Jagger Foundation for the Defense of Human Rights;
Goodwill Ambassador of the Council of Europe;
ambassador of the International Union for Conservation of Nature for the Bonn Challenge;
and a member of the Board of Directors of Executive Directors of Amnesty International USA.
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