This is the first time that a successor of the apostles has been on trial in Nicaragua. Ortega’s regime is opposed to all freedoms.
Newsroom (26/01/2023 10:37 PM, Gaudium Press) Sometimes, today’s materialistic spirit obscures our vision of sublime facts, such as the testimony of faith that Bishop Rolando Alvarez, persecuted bishop of Matagalpa, offers to the world in Nicaragua.
It began with persecution against his diocese, and his media; then he was besieged in the courthouse in Matagalpa, transferred like a bandit in the middle of the night and now he is kidnapped in his residence in Managua facing a parody of a trial: Bishop Álvarez must leave his country, as Bishop Silvio Báez has already done, or live as a prisoner, perhaps in the dungeons of El Chipote, as some of his priests already are.
In fact, in the last few days, the media reported what Bishop José Antonio Canales, Bishop of Danlí, said: “the news we’ve had is that Bishop Álvarez has received his freedom, but outside Nicaragua”. But apparently, the prelate already looking like a martyr “prefers” to stay in the country rather than “please the regime.”
Fabián Medina in Infobae, reports that the judicial process is not only a series of violations of due process but a farce, because according to human rights defender, also in exile, Pablo Cuevas, “there is already a sentence of conviction, only the details are being put in place. We already know what is going to happen. The sentences are made in El Carmen,” Daniel Ortega’s residence.
Meanwhile, the dictatorial regime in Nicaragua, already without any reaction, is turning the country into another prison-island, with the highest inflation in Central America, politicians in prisons, opponents under house arrest, and the constant persecution of the media that still dare to have some independence.
It appears, according to statements by the U.S. ambassador to the OAS, that the United States will impose even more sanctions on Ortega’s repressive regime, directed at “any individual who violates human rights, including Ortega’s family environment,” in addition to “all possible sanctions against the Government of Nicaragua” with the goal of “changing the system of oppression that exists today in Nicaragua.” The international community cannot ignore it.
The situation is therefore increasingly repressive, increasingly of a guarded prison, and this, with a people who refuse to submit entirely. It can be explosive…
Amidst the crisis, critics point out at the silence of the Holy See. (MCC)
Compiled by Florence MacDonald
