Ortega’s government releases photos of the Nicaraguan bishop sentenced to 26 years

The government of Nicaragua who presides over the sandinista Daniel Ortega released this Saturday photographs of the Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Jose Alvarez Lagoswho was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison for crimes considered “treason”.

alvarez lakesbishop of the diocese of matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of esteliboth in the north of Nicaraguawas exhibited in a prisoner’s outfit inside the National Penitentiary Systemknown as jail The modela maximum security prison.

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The series of photographs were published through the media related to the Sandinista government, with the headline “Monsignor Rolando Álvarez receives a visit from his brothers”.

“Images of the visit and family reunion held by Monsignor Rolando Alvarez with his brothers, Vilma and Manuel Antonio Álvarez Lagos, this afternoon in the Jorge Navarro de Tipitapa National Penitentiary System”, read in the publications.

Monsignor Rolando Álvarez (C), with his brothers, Vilma Álvarez Lagos, and Manuel Antonio Álvarez Lagos, in the Jorge Navarro National Penitentiary System in Tipitapa, Nicaragua, on March 25, 2023. (Photo by the Nicaraguan Presidency / EFE)

The images were released after different sectors of the Nicaraguan opposition and human rights organizations separately demanded proof of life for the imprisoned Nicaraguan bishop.

Ortega called him “unhinged” and “energúmeno”

On February 10, Álvarez Lagos, 56, was sentenced to 26 years and 4 months in prison, stripped of his nationality, and his citizenship rights suspended for life, for crimes considered “treason”.

The sentence against the high official was handed down one day after he refused to get on a plane that was going to take him, along with 222 other Nicaraguan political prisoners, to USAwhich provoked the indignation of the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortegawho described it as “superb”, “deranged” and “madman”.

“He is deranged, but hey, that will have to be determined by the judicial authorities and the medical authorities who will also have to treat him, because now that he arrived at the Modelo (prison), he arrived that he was a madman”, launched Ortega on the night of Thursday, February 9 on the national network.

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That day, the president announced that the bishop was transferred from his residence, where he had been in house arrest since August 2022 for being under investigation, to the maximum security prison in Nicaragua.

One day after Ortega’s speech, and despite the fact that the trial was scheduled for February 15, a Nicaraguan judge declared the religious a traitor to the country and author of four crimes to the detriment of society and the State of Nicaragua.

Monsignor Rolando Álvarez during a visit by his brothers on March 25, 2023, in the Jorge Navarro National Penitentiary System in Tipitapa, Nicaragua. (Photo of the Nicaraguan Presidency / EFE)

Álvarez is the first bishop arrested, accused and convicted since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007, after coordinating a Government Junta from 1979 to 1985, and presided over Nicaragua for the first time from 1985 to 1990.

Suspended relations with the Vatican

He Pope Francisco rated as a “rude dictatorship” to the Ortega Executive in Nicaragua, one month after the conviction of Bishop Álvarez, according to an interview published on March 10.

“With great respect, I have no choice but to think about an imbalance in the person who leads (Ortega). There we have a bishop in prison, a very serious man, very capable. He wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile”, Francisco asserted to the Argentine portal Infobae from his residence in Santa Martain the Vatican Cityon the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his papacy.

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The Ortega government reported two days after “that between the Vatican State and the Republic of Nicaragua a suspension of diplomatic relations has been proposed”, after those statements by Pope Francis.

Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which worsened after the controversial general elections of November 7, 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth in a row and second along with his wife, Rosario Murilloas vice president, with her main contenders in prison or in exile.

Source: Elcomercio