Catholic Church accused of ‘inciting hatred’ in Nicaragua
The latest wave of repression by the government of Daniel Ortega has led to the closure of several Catholic radio stations this week.
Bishop Rolando Alvarez, a critic of President Daniel Ortega’s government, has been entrenched in his bishopric since Thursday.
AFP
The Nicaraguan police announced on Friday that they had opened an investigation for “criminal acts” due to incitement “to hatred”, denouncing “the situation created (…) under the auspices of the Bishop of Matagalpa”, besieged since Thursday in his bishopric by the police.
In an official statement, the Nicaraguan police accuse the “high authorities of the Catholic Church of the diocese of Matagalpa, led by Bishop Rolando José Alvarez Lagos, of “attempting to organize violent groups, inciting them to commit acts of hatred once morest the population”.
Archbishop Rolando Alvarez, critic of the government of President Daniel Ortega, celebrated a mass on Friday broadcast from his bishopric on social networks live from his bishopric of Matagalpa, 130 km northeast of the capital Managua.
Riot police “continue to close the street” of the bishopric, denounced Friday Bishop Alvarez during this service. “The main door and the garage are also blocked” by the police, said the 55-year-old prelate, who has been prevented since Thursday from reaching his cathedral, four streets away. “We are in the bishopric. No one can leave or enter,” one of the priests entrenched with Bishop Rolando Alvarez told AFP.
Police “harassment”
These “actions” are “intended to destabilize the State of Nicaragua and to attack the constitutional authorities”, assures the press release of the police. The police announced that they had “opened an investigation to determine the criminal responsibility of those involved in these criminal acts”.
“The people under investigation will remain at their homes,” said the police, who have been preventing the bishop and the priests accompanying him since Thursday from leaving the episcopal seat. Bishop Alvarez on Thursday demanded respect for religious “freedom” following the authorities closed Catholic radio stations and denounced police “harassment”.
The deputy Wilfredo Navarro, of the Sandinista party of Daniel Ortega, denounced Friday “a provocative attitude” of the bishop of Matagalpa. Rolando Alvarez “incites violence (…) He has already done so in 2018. Let us remember that he led, with other priests, the coup attempt ( once morest Daniel Ortega) which caused so much suffering and tears in Nicaragua,” said the MP in an article published on the website of public television Canal 4.
Expulsion of the Apostolic Nuncio
“We support the religious who, like Rolando Alvarez, resist with dignity, coherence and courage the persecutions of the Ortega government,” the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) said on Twitter. The European Union on Thursday condemned the “arbitrary” closure this week of seven Nicaraguan Catholic radio stations as well as the “unprecedented” use of violence since 2018 to intimidate government opponents.
Relations between the Catholic Church and the government of Daniel Ortega have been strained since 2018 when protesters demanding the resignation of the Nicaraguan president took refuge in churches. President Ortega has accused the Catholic Church of being complicit in a coup attempt hatched by Washington. The crisis even led to the expulsion in March of the Apostolic Nuncio (Vatican Ambassador) Bishop Waldemar Sommertag.
AFP
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