they wanted us to declare our imprisoned bishop a “coup promoter”
Two Nicaraguan priests, both former political prisoners, told the U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee how the Ortega-Murillo regime tried to force them to incriminate imprisoned Monsignor Rolando Alvarez.
HAVANA TIMES – Two Nicaraguan priests, released and banished in February 2023 by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, denounced that during their interrogations in the El Chipote prison, officials pressured them to declare that the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, was trying to plan a coup.
Both religious leaders testified anonymously before the US House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee. Their statements were part of a hearing in which members of civil society and US Congressmen demanded the release of Monsignor Álvarez. The bishop, detained in August 2022, is currently serving a 26-year sentence in Nicaragua’s El Modelo prison, after a lightning “trial” that followed his refusal to accept banishment.
“During the interrogation sessions, they threatened me and my family, because they wanted me to declare that the bishop was a member of an organization that promoted a coup d’état and that received money from the United States and the European Union,” testified one of the priests. The cleric had arrived in Washington last February, along with 221 other political prisoners who were expelled from Nicaragua and stripped of their nationality.
“Other interrogations had to do with the sermons the bishop had given (…) in which, according to them, he was inciting people to rise up and protest against the Government,” the priest continued.
He added: “it’s clear that this is a manipulation practiced by the same Government that doesn’t like to listen to the Truth and Voice of the Catholic Church. From that date on, an open persecution began of Catholic organizations such as Caritas, the Juan Pablo II University, and more recently the Central American University (UCA), thus affecting university autonomy and academic freedom.”
The release of Bishop Alvarez is one of the principle demands of a broad majority of Nicaraguans, according to a recent poll sponsored by Confidencial. Conducted by the Costa Rican branch of CID Gallup, the survey included the question: “What’s your opinion of bishop Rolando Alvarez’ prison sentence?” Seventy-two percent of those responding expressed di
