After a meeting in Rome with Pope Francis, the Brazilian president announced that he will try to intercede for the bishopric before the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega. The Nicaraguan regime had sentenced Álvarez to 26 years in prison for “conspiracy to threaten national integrity” and “spreading false news.” The cleric was also stripped for life of his Nicaraguan nationality and his civil rights.
First modification:
Will the intervention of one of the most respected leaders of the Latin American left be enough to convince Daniel Ortega to release Bishop Rolando Álvarez?
Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ Da Silva announced Thursday, after a meeting with Pope Francis in Rome, that he will try to convince his Nicaraguan counterpart to release the cleric sentenced to years in prison and who has refused to leave Nicaragua to seek refuge in USA.
The Brazilian leader acknowledged that this would be a mission that would require a great deal of patience, a quality he claimed to possess in abundance. According to Lula, Álvarez’s imprisonment was a “mistake” by Ortega. “I will speak with Ortega so that he grants him freedom, because it is necessary to learn to ask for forgiveness (…) and to recognize this mistake,” said Lula, who met with Pope Francis for 45 minutes at the Vatican on Wednesday.
One of the most outspoken critics of the Ortega regime
Bishop Rolando Álvarez was sentenced on Friday, February 10, to 26 years and four months in prison for “conspiracy to attack national integrity” and “spreading false news.” The cleric was also stripped for life of his Nicaraguan nationality and his civil rights.
Arrested on August 19, 2022 and under house arrest until his sentence, the bishop of the city of Matagalpa, located 130 kilometers north of Managua, was transferred to La Modelo prison, east of the capital.
He was one of the most critical voices against the Government and the first cleric of this rank to be arrested. Another bishop, Silvio Báez, was forced into exile in 2019. For Ortega, who was in power between 1984 and 1990 and since 2007, the Catholic Church is complicit in an alleged coup attempt hatched by Washington. At the beginning of the year, five priests were sentenced to 10 years in prison. Relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican are in fact at an impasse.
On Thursday, February 9 – a day before his sentence – Álvarez should have been deported to the US, along with 222 other opponents released by the regime, who were also deprived of their civil rights and stripped of their nationality. But while he was in line to get on the plane, he refused to leave his country.
“The character Álvarez began to say that he would not go,” the head of state recounted in a speech, in which he described the bishop as “arrogant”, “unbalanced”, “crazy” and a “weirdo”.
Lula’s Brazil, more conciliatory than other countries in the region on the case of Nicaragua
The announcement of this attempted mediation by the Brazilian president comes amid intense negotiations within the Organization of American States (OAS) to draft a joint resolution on Nicaragua.
But a draft proposed by Brazil considerably weakened the proposal, sparking immense outrage among victims of the crackdown by Ortega and his vice president and wife, Rosario Murillo.
The country’s foreign ministry stressed on Wednesday that it is working with other countries to push for a consensus resolution. Brasilia hopes that the text, in addition to pointing out the violations of human rights, opens the door to dialogue with the regime.
According to some observers, the leader of the Brazilian left has been much more conciliatory than other presidents, such as those of Chile, Colombia and Argentina, with the Nicaraguan authorities. In March, the Lula government avoided signing a UN report denouncing crimes against humanity in Nicaragua and which was supported by 55 countries.
Efe, local media
