The Bishop of Matagalpa Rolando Álvarez was arrested on August 19, 2022, after 15 days of begin confined in his office by a contingent of police, using special troops and drones. Four priests, two seminarians and a diocesan cameraman were all arrested with the bishop. He has been kept under house arrest in the home of some relatives in Managua and had his first hearing on January 10, 2023 – 144 days later – when the law mandates that it must be held within 90 days. He was charged with spreading false news and conspiring to do harm to the country. Since then, several priests from his diocese have gone into exile, most recently the pastors of the parish of San Dionisio and Tuma La Dalia.
The Nicaraguan Human Rights Center has called this an attempt to dismantle the entire diocese.
This whole event raised two big unanswered questions: why such an attack on this particular bishop and diocese, and why haven´t Church authorities clearly spoken out to denounce it. Neither Cardinal Brenes, nor the Nicaraguan Bishops Conference, nor the Pope himself have clearly addressed this very serious incident.
The following interview provides answers to these two questions. In the interview Fr. Uriel Vallejos, the former pastor of the Church in Sébaco and currently in exile in Spain, reveals that because of the amount of people who came to the Church as victims of serious human rights abuses on the part of the government, Bishop Álvarez had talked to his clergy about opening a clandestine human rights office, but warned them that it might cost all involved jail or exile. This in fact is what has happened.
Why was this not revealed sooner? Fr. Vallejos reveals the reason in the last sentence of the interview: he feels the need to speak the truth in spite of the fact that it might result in the torture of priests currently in jail.
The silence of the authorities of the Catholic Church in the face of the arrest of the bishop and priests has been noteworthy. It even led priests and religious to write an open anonymous letter to Brenes to complain about the lack of a prophetic voice in this situation. On the other hand, priests of Estelí did write a strong statement of denouncement of the persecution of the Church.
The fear which the regime instills has successfully kept important facts secret and immobilized those sectors of society which, under similar contexts in other countries, have played a role of speaking the truth despite the costs.
“I paid a coyote to leave the country”
By José Calerero de Aldecoa and Israel González Espinoza en
Alfayomega.ES
All those who participated in the clandestine human rights office of Bishop Álvarez are today in prison or in exile, like Fr. Uriel Vallejos.
The kindness with which Fr. Uriel Vallejos receives Alfa y Omega clashes with his condition as a fugitive of justice. Supposedly an international arrest warrant issued by Nicaragua hangs over him. “You are not going to believe it, but it was a hoax of the Government. They said that they had asked Interpol to arrest me, but a contact within the UN confirmed for me that the Ortega regime had not officially issued any warrant against me,” stated the priest, who has received this newspaper during the celebration of the trial where he was accused along with Rolando Álvarez, the Bishop of Matagalpa. “They are accusing both of us of conspiring against the national integrity and the propagation of false news damaging to the State.”
The judicial process began to be cooked up after the cruel repression of the Government against youth in 2018. In April of that year society came out to protest over the cuts in pensions and over the dictatorial and violent drift of the Executive Branch of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The Church responded to the bullets of the Sandinistas- which produced 355 deaths according to the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights – “speaking the truth about what was happening and putting ourselves on the side of the people,” says the priest, whose homilies they were accustomed to record without permission to be able to use them against him. According to his account, even military personnel dressed as civilians would come to his parish who he recognized by their boots.
In this way, he relates, parishioners began to show up asking for help. “They had jailed the son of one of them, another one they had killed, a third had to go into exile.” In the face of this situation, Rolando Álvarez brought together his priests and informed them that he was going to open a clandestine human rights office – whose existence was not known until now – to attend to these people and denounce their cases. “In that meeting he asked who wanted to participate, freely, and warned that whoever did could end up in jail or in exile.” And that is how it has been: all the volunteers, like Fr. Uriel, are today in prison or outside the country.
The flight of Vallejos began, paradoxically, with a confinement in the middle of last year. At that time the priest was responsible for the Divina Misericordia Parish in Sébaco, which also had a school, a television and radio station. “Several sources had told me that they were coming for me, so when the regime closed down the two Catholic radio stations at one end of the country, I thought that the next ones were going to be us,” he explained. The authorities showed up at the Church on August 1. “Four people came to shut down the radio station. They wanted to go into the area where the equipment was, but I refused, and before leaving, they warned me, “You are going to face the consequences”. A quarter hour later six police showed up with bolt cutters to break open the door. “We had taken the precaution of locking everything with double bolts, and we huddled in a room,” recalled the priest. A little while later, Fr. Uriel could see through the security cameras the assistant director general of the Police himself, Ramón Avellán, enter the building with 200 agents. “That is when I realized that they were not coming for the radio, but also for me,” he confessed.
Fear of priests
The raid lasted three days. “They installed themselves in the chapel and they cut off our electricity. We did not have food either.” The siege only ended when the bishops intervened. “The president of the Episcopal Conference told me that the Government wanted me in jail, but Rolando Álvarez began to negotiate and got them to accept that I would go to the seminary in Managua in exchange for my silence,” he continued. The transfer, more appropriate for a dangerous terrorist, was closely watched by 200 police who had taken part in the home invasion.
But the persecution did not end there. At the gate of the center two police trucks were posted so that they could not leave the building. An unsustainable situation, which is why Uriel Vallejos decided to go into exile. “I paid a coyote who got me out of the seminary in a car taking advantage of the change in the guard,” he narrated. The crossing of the border, nevertheless, happened on foot. “I was half dead. I had spent several days without seeing the sun, eating poorly, and had to walk for hours in the mud. I even had to throw myself into the river when an Army patrol surprised us.” When he got to Costa Rica, the priest was not able to breathe safely. “Both countries are close and there are cases of people who have been kidnapped and taken back to Nicaragua. There have even been murders.” The Church in Costa Rica gave refuge to Vallejos until he decided to go even farther away. “I cannot help but tell the truth, even though I am afraid that because of this interview they might torture the priests who are in jail,” he concluded.