Nicaragua releases and expels Bishop Rolando Alvarez to the Vatican

On Jan 17, 2024

FILE - Rolando Alvarez, bishop of Matagalpa, gives a press conference regarding the Roman Catholic Church's agreeing to act as "mediator and witness" in a national dialogue between members of civil society and the government in Managua, Nicaragua, May 3, 2018. Nicaragua's government released Alvarez, sentenced to 26 years in prison for conspiracy and other crimes, and sent him on a plane to the Vatican, according to the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Monsignor Silvio Baez, on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

RELIGIONS NEWS aGENCY (REDNA)- They were the few remaining voices of opposition in Nicaragua.

On Sunday, January 14, Daniel Ortega’s government banned and expelled 19 clerics critical of the regime to Rome.

They include Bishop Rolando Alvarez, bishop of Matagalpa, arrested on August 19, 2022, who spent 514 days in detention; Bishop Isodoro Mora, bishop of the diocese of Siuna, arrested on December 20, 2023; and 17 other religious figures, most arrested on December 29 and 30.

“Daniel Ortega’s criminal Sandinista dictatorship was no match for God’s power,” another Nicaraguan bishop, Monsignor Silvio Baez, forced into exile in 2019, announced on Sunday during his homily from Miami. He had just received confirmation that the clergy had arrived in Rome.

In a press release, the government stated that the decision had been made thanks to the “very respectful and discreet” negotiations carried out by the Holy See to “make it possible for two bishops, 15 priests and two seminarians to travel to the Vatican.”

Earlier this year, the pope reiterated his concern about the situation in Nicaragua and called on the government to engage in “respectful diplomatic dialogue.”