Has a Deal Been Struck with Sandinistas for Imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez?

Yesterday the Nicaraguan police, better known as "Ortega militias", stormed the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa and arrested the bishop and several priests, seminarians and laymen.

(Managua) On Friday, Ortega militias stormed the curia of the Diocese of Matagalpa in Nicaragua and arrested Bishop Rolando Álvarez and eight others. Noters of solidarity come from other Nicaraguan dioceses and from the USA. The secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America announced a statement from Pope Francis for Sunday. Nevertheless, it is becoming apparent that this time there will be no papal condemnation of the persecution of the Church.

In July 2021, Pope Francis retired Msgr. Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara SDB, Bishop of Estelí and Secretary General of the Nicaraguan Bishops' Conference, who had been the most fearless critic of the regime among the bishops up to that point. Bishop Silvio José Báez, who was critical of the regime, had previously been summoned to Rome in 2019 to remove him from the country. Most recently, Msgr. Rolando Álvarez, Bishop of Matagalpa and since last year also Apostolic Administrator of Estelí, has followed in their footsteps.

In May, Bishop Álvarez went on a hunger strike to protest the repression by the Sandinista regime aimed at 'silencing' the Church. Since then, the climate between the regime and the church has intensified. A number of church organizations were banned, and Catholic radio stations closed.

Since August 4, Bishop Álvarez has been effectively held hostage by the regime, which has had the diocesan curia of Matagalpa besieged by the police. The bishop, some priests and seminarians and two laymen stayed in the building. Bishop Álvarez continued to raise his voice through social media.

Yesterday, Ortega stormed the curia and arrested the bishop, and everyone present.

The national police, dubbed the "Ortega militias" in the country, released a statement saying the bishop and his companions had to be taken into custody for their "destabilizing and provocative activities". The bishop was taken to his family home in Managua and placed under house arrest. His eight companions were transferred to the new El Chipote prison, built specifically for the Ortega regime's political prisoners and notorious for reports of torture. Among the eight prisoners are the priests José Luis Díaz and Sadiel Eugarrios, the two vicars of the Episcopal Church of Matagalpa, the priest Ramiro Tijerino, rector of the Catholic Juan Pablo II University, the priest Raúl González, the two seminarians Darvin Leyva and Melkin Sequeira and the layman Sergio Cárdenas.

El Nuevo Chipote, the infamous prison of the Ortega regime

As first became known, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua and Primate of Nicaragua, had surprisingly been allowed to visit his fellow bishop at the place of his imprisonment.

"The Pope's silence does not mean inaction"

One of the first reactions came from the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Rodrigo Guerra, a staunch Bergoglian who had traveled throughout Latin America for years to defend the controversial post-synodal exhortation Amoris laetitia and the opening of access to Communion. Guerra told Aleteia that Pope Francis would soon give a statement on the situation in Nicaragua. With this allowed at the Angelus are expected on Sunday. So far, Santa Marta has been silent on the Sandinista persecution of the Church - because Francis has great sympathy for socialist regimes. Ortega himself accuses the Church in Nicaragua of preparing a coup d'etat, but calls Pope Francis a "friend".

The euphemistic police communiqué

Rodrigo Guerra stressed that Pope Francis is "well aware of what is happening in Nicaragua". The head of the Church was “very well informed about Nicaragua and his silence does not mean inaction or indecisiveness, no, nothing like that. It means that work is being done on other levels. And of course, if the Holy Father thinks it wise, he will intervene.”

“I wouldn't be surprised if, after the imprisonment of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, the Pope will make a first statement, perhaps on Sunday when he will say the Angelus prayer. That wouldn't surprise me. But that is the external problem. The Holy See works mainly with discreet diplomacy.”

According to Guerra, he himself is involved in the matter, since there is no apostolic nuncio in Nicaragua. Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag had been effectively expelled from the country by the Ortega regime in the spring.

“Yes, they believe that politics is primarily made through speeches and that the absence of a public statement from the Pope means that the Holy See is abandoning the Nicaraguan bishops or becoming an accomplice to the dictatorships. No, it's not like that," says Guerra.

 

Guerra, who is Mexican himself, made a somewhat strange comparison with the Mexican Cristeros a hundred years ago:

"In this regard, we must be very careful, because that is not the most desirable direction: entering into an armed conflict with a government. On the contrary, we must always try to favor peaceful means, even if they are slower but less bloody."

 

It was not the Cristeros who had started an armed conflict with the Masonic government. It was the regime that wanted to brutally strangle and wipe out the Church. The Cristeros were the answer of a desperate people. They were crushed with brutal violence by the officially "liberal" Mexican regime under the indifferent gaze of the US, which otherwise intervened repeatedly throughout Latin America.

A negotiated deal?

Cardinal Brenes published a very low-threshold statement on behalf of the Archdiocese of Managua, in which he expressed his solidarity with "the sister diocese of Matagalpa" but did not mention those arrested - neither Bishop Álvarez nor his companions - nor the storming of the episcopal curia and the arrests.

From this it is concluded that the rumors that Cardinal Brenes, with the support of Santa Marta, negotiated a deal for Bishop Álvarez with the regime are correct. Accordingly, the bishop does not go to prison, but has to leave the country and go into exile. That is also the reason why Cardinal Brenes was surprisingly admitted to Bishop Álvarez: to tell him about the deal and to convince him of it. After Bishop Báez, who has lived in Florida since 2019, Monsignor Álvarez would be the second bishop to have to leave the country to avoid arrest. Nicaragua would lose another leading dissident voice. A victory for the regime. A bishop in exile, see Msgr. Báez, is less dangerous than a bishop in prison. Since Msgr Álvarez is too young to let him become emeritus like Bishop Mata Guevara, harsher measures were resorted to. With the bishop's exile, the Sandinista regime is able to maintain its climate of intimidation and deterrence. 

With that, however, the likelihood of the reaction from Santa Marta promised by Rodrigo Guerra, that Pope Francis would denounce the persecution of the Church and the Ortega dictatorship, has decreased significantly again. Will one price of the deal be that Santa Marta will continue to exercise restraint? You will know tomorrow.

In contrast to the US government, the bishops of the USA showed solidarity with the church in Nicaragua. The American Bishops' Conference noted that "threats to the Catholic Church in Nicaragua are increasing amid the local social and political crisis."

The background

From 1979 to 1990, the Marxist-revolutionary Sandinistas under Daniel Ortega and the Cardenal brothers ruled Nicaragua dictatorially with a mixture of communism and liberation theology. No sooner had the Eastern bloc collapsed than the Sandinista regime fell. 

Due to the quarrels between the bourgeois parties, Daniel Ortega managed to return to power in 2006 with only 38 percent of the votes, this time through a democratic process. Conveniently, before the polls were held, the electoral law had been changed so that someone with 35 percent of the votes could be elected head of state or government. Since then, Ortega and the Sandinistas have been determined not to be ousted from power a second time.

The systematically erected Ortega regime changed the constitution and the electoral law in his favour, abolished the de facto separation of powers, abused the judiciary to fight political competitors and used the police and army mercilessly against its own citizens. Hundreds of people were killed in the crackdown on civil protests in 2018. 

After the Sandinistas eliminated or brutally controlled the opposition, the Church attracted their attention because it was able to retain some leeway. The Church became the only free voice in the country, a situation that is intolerable for the Marxist rulers for reasons of power politics, especially for the superstitious and paranoid Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife and also his vice president.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image : Articulo66/Google Maps/Policia Nacional/Curamanagua.org (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG