2024-01-03 06:23:00
The Nicaraguan regime released images of Bishop Rolando Álvarez following the US demanded his release. (Twitter)
The Nicaraguan bishop Rolando Álvarez, sentenced in February 2023 to 26 years and 4 months in prison, deprived of his nationality and with his citizen rights annulled for life for crimes of treason by refusing to leave his country, was shown this Tuesday in photographs released by the Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua.
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The photos were published the same day that the United States demanded that the Sandinista dictatorship “immediately” release Álvarez, 57, bishop of the diocese of Matagalpa and apostolic administrator of the diocese of Estelí, both in the North of the country.
The US demand comes when the bishop has spent more than 500 days in prison and just one day following Pope Francis, following praying the first Angelus of the year, expressed his “concern” regarding the arrest of Catholic priests in Nicaragua.
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“Today, Tuesday, January 2, 2024, a medical examination was carried out on Rolando Álvarez Lagos with Dr. Yesser Rizo (internist), in the presence of the general commissioners of our National Police: Zhukov Serrano and Luis Barrantes. Medical care began at 3:25 pm (21:25 GMT) and concluded at 3:40 pm (21:40 GMT),” the Nicaraguan regime indicated in a press release.
No blood tests were performed on Bishop Álvarez because he had eaten food. (Twitter)
Serrano is deputy director and head of the Intelligence Directorate of the National Police, and Barrantes was head of the police delegation of the department of Matagalpa, where the diocese led by Álvarez is located.
The Ortega dictatorship detailed the results of the leader’s vital signs: blood pressure 120/60; heart rate, 84; oxygen saturation, 99%; heart rate, 88.
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“During medical care, Rolando Álvarez Lagos expressed that he feels well and continues to exercise,” according to the note.
For his part, the doctor reported that the imprisoned bishop’s vital signs and state of health “are fine.”
The authorities explained that “blood tests were not performed because he had eaten food.”
In its statement, the United States questioned the detention conditions of Álvarez, who is being held in the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System, known as La Modelo prison, on the outskirts of Managua.
Specifically, the State Department criticized the fact that the religious man has been kept in isolation, the blocking of any independent verification of his health status, and that videos and photographs have been disseminated that only “increase concerns regarding his well-being.”
In December, following the Ministry of the Interior (Interior) released some photographs, Nicaraguan activist Juan Carlos Arce, one of the defense lawyers of the Nicaragua Never Again Human Rights Collective, considered that the bishop was a “victim of torture.”
The Ortega dictatorship detailed the results of the leader’s vital signs: blood pressure 120/60; heart rate, 84; oxygen saturation, 99%; heart rate, 88. (Twitter)
The sentence once morest the senior leader was handed down a day following he refused to get on a plane that was going to take him, along with 222 other released Nicaraguan political prisoners, to the United States, which provoked the indignation of Ortega, who on national television described him of “proud”, “unhinged” and “energetic”.
Álvarez is the first bishop arrested, accused and convicted since Ortega returned to power in Nicaragua in 2007, following coordinating a Government Junta from 1979 to 1985, and presiding over Nicaragua for the first time from 1985 to 1990.
Relations between Daniel Ortega and the Catholic Church are experiencing moments of great tension, characterized by the expulsion and imprisonment of priests, the prohibition of religious activities, and the suspension of diplomatic relations.
(With information from EFE)
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