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U.S demanded this Tuesday from the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortegalet it releaseimmediately”to the bishop Rolando Álvarezsentenced to 26 years and 4 months in prison, stripped of his nationality and suspended from his citizenship rights for life for crimes considered treason.
“Once again, we call on the Government of Nicaragua to immediately and unconditionally release the bishop Rolando Álvarez“, said the US State Department spokesperson in a statement. Matthew Miller.
LOOK HERE: Nicaragua returns Dom Rolando Álvarez to prison after refusing to be exiled
The US statement comes when the bishop has been in prison for more than 500 days and just one day after Pope Francis, after praying the first Angelus of the year, expressed his “worry”for the arrest of Catholic priests in Nicaragua.
In his statement, U.S questioned the conditions of detention of Álvarez, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Esteliboth in northern Nicaragua, and who is detained in Jorge Navarro Penitentiary SystemKnown as La Modelo Prisonoutside of Managua.
Specifically, the State Department criticized the fact that the religious man was kept in isolation, the blocking of any independent verification of his health status, and the Government having released videos and photographs that only “concerns about your well-being increase”.
In December, after Nicaragua’s Ministry of the Interior released some photos, the activist Juan Carlos Arceone of the defense lawyers from the Nicaraguan Never Again Human Rights Collective, considered that the bishop was “victim of torture”.
In February 2023, Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years and 4 months in prison, stripped of his nationality and suspended from his citizenship rights for the rest of his life, for crimes considered treason.
MORE INFORMATION: Nicaragua: Ortega government frees Dom Rolando Álvarez, sentenced to 26 years
The sentence against the senior leader was handed down one day after he refused to board the plane that would take him, along with 222 other freed Nicaraguan political prisoners, to the United States, which provoked Ortega’s indignation, who on a national scale television described him as “superb“,”disturbed” It is “crazy”.
Álvarez is the first bishop arrested, accused and convicted since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007, after coordinating a Government Board from 1979 to 1985, and presiding over Nicaragua for the first time from 1985 to 1990.
The relations between the Ortega Government and the Catholic church They are experiencing moments of great tension, characterized by the expulsion and arrest of priests, the ban on religious activities and the suspension of their diplomatic relations.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
