Managua, 12/30/2022 (KAP) In Nicaragua, after the arrest of Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a critic of the regime, the Facebook page of his diocese of Matagalpa has now been blocked. As EFE news agency reported on Thursday, the site run by two journalists with more than 200,000 followers was considered a major church media outlet and had been broadcasting Alvarez’s sermons until his arrest. The group “Católicos En Línea Matagalpa-Nicaragua” reported that after the arrest of two employees of the bishop on December 11, the site was dismantled shortly after.
Almost simultaneously with the ban on Facebook, Bishop Alvarez was indicted on December 13 by Nicaraguan prosecutors for “conspiracy to undermine national integrity and spread false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the state and society Nicaraguan”. The trial of the 56-year-old cleric, who is also apostolic administrator of the diocese of Esteli, is scheduled for January 10, 2023.
Together with Bishop Alvarez, arrested since August 4 and who is in an unknown location, the Nicaraguan priest in exile Uriel Antonio Vallejos is also accused, as are the two journalists, namely the head of diocesan communication Manuel Antonio Obando Cortedano and Wilberto Artola Mejia of the diocesan television channel “TV Merced”. Six other priests from Nicaragua, critical of the Ortega regime, are also currently in prison and are classified by the Sandinista military junta as “coup plotters” and “terrorists”.
As lawyer Martha Patricia Molina told articulo66.com on Thursday (local time), 2022 was the “most catastrophic” year for the church in Nicaragua, which has been attacked at least 410 times in the past four years. Daniel Ortega’s regime has carried out 140 attacks against the country’s church this year. These are documented cases of persecution, kidnapping, confiscation, desecration of churches, forced house arrest and exile. There have also been “unfair trials” of priests and religious, incitement to hatred and the closure of humanitarian organizations.
The reason for the increase in hostilities, according to Molina, is that the country’s ecclesiastical hierarchy “remains strong in its principles and proclaims the gospel, which in itself is an indictment against the wrongs of the powerful”. The uncompromising approach of the dictatorship is their answer.
