Nicaraguan police raid a church headquarters and arrest a bishop who is critical of the regime

Nicaraguan police forcibly entered the episcopal palace of the diocese of Matagalpa, in the north of the country, on Friday and arrested Bishop Rolando Álvarez and seven of his collaborators, who had been held since August 4.

The government of Daniele Ortega two weeks ago he ordered that the bishop be investigated for allegedly trying to “destabilize” the country.

“SOS. Urgent. At this moment the National Police has entered the Episcopal Curia of our Diocese of Matagalpa” where Álvarez is located, the diocese of Matagalpa published earlier this Friday on his Facebook account, without providing further details.

Sources of the Church immediately assured that the bishop had been transported by agents.

“With an indignant and wounded heart, I condemn the nocturnal kidnapping of Mons. Alvarez. Who knows, tell me where my brother bishop is! May his kidnappers respect his dignity and free him!”, Tweeted the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio José Beez.

“Once again the dictatorship overcomes its own wickedness and its own diabolical spirit”, added the prelate.

Alvarez, 55, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa, in the north of the country, has been held in his curia together with a dozen people since last August 4.

The bishop’s imprisonment took place a few days after he denounced the closure of five Catholic stations by the authorities, and asked the government of Daniel Ortega to respect religious “freedom”.

The police announced that the diocese of Matagalpa is under investigation for trying to “organize violent groups” and incite “hatred” to “destabilize the state of Nicaragua”. But the government hasn’t shown any evidence.

“We are in God’s hands,” the prelate said Thursday.

Attack on the Church

The maintenance of the bishop took place in the midst of the friction that the Church has with the government of Ortega, a 76-year-old former guerrilla in power since 2007, protected by three successive re-elections.

The latest was in November 2021, with his opponents imprisoned or exiled and in the midst of international issues.

The president accuses the bishops of “putschists” for supporting opposition protests calling for his resignation in 2018.

In the midst of the crisis, in 2018 and 2019 the Church tried to mediate a dialogue between the government and the opposition.

The president reproached the bishops for accepting a proposal from the opposition that sought to resolve the crisis by anticipating the 2021 elections to shorten his presidential term.

Since then, relationships have deteriorated. This year there was the closure of the Catholic media, including the channel of the Bishops’ Conference, and the recent arrest of the priest Oscar Benavídez, for unknown reasons.

The Missionaries of Charity Association, of the order of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which left the country in July, is also outlawed.

In March, the apostolic nuncio, Waldemar Sommertag, who in 2019 had participated in the negotiations between the government and the opposition, had already been expelled.

Source: AFP and EFE

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