On February 9, 2023 when Ortega released 222 political prisoners by putting them on a plane and flying them to the US, Mons. Álvarez, bishop of Matagalpa and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Estelí, refused to leave the country. Ortega said he ordered him immediately moved from house arrest to the general Penitentiary in Tipitapa known as “La Modelo” as punishment. Since then no one had heard from him, nor was his whereabouts independently confirmed. This caused an international reaction. So on March 25, 2023 the regime televised a lunch he had with relatives in the Penitentiary, to show that he “was fine.” What follows is an analysis of those scenes done by a psychologist who also had been a political prisoner.
Mons. Álvarez is undergoing psychological torture, states a psychologist
In nicaraguainvestiga.com, March 28, 2023
“Mons. Rolando Álvarez of course is suffering from this type of psychological torture, from the simple fact of not allowing him a visit with relatives for so much time, for keeping him in isolation,” explained the psychologist.
The fact that the Ortega regime has tried to show the best shots of the encounter of Mons. Rolando Álvarez with his relatives in the “La Modelo” jail did not fulfill the mission that they hoped, because there were several signs that the bishop was not being treated well.
Róger Martínez, who is a psychologist by profession and in addition was under arrest in the dungeons of the dictatorship and is familiar with the torture that the political prisoners are subjected to, explained that certain mannerisms that Álvarez made at the moment they interviewed him show that he is undergoing “psychological torture.”
“Of course Mons. Álvarez is experiencing this type of psychological torture, by the simple fact of not allowing him the visit of relatives for so much time, keeping him isolated and abducted where nothing is known about him nor does he know about what is happening outside. The food and exposure to the sun seems to be insufficient because of the obvious deterioration of his physical appearance and skin which shows blemishes,” explained Martínez.
The gestures of Álvarez
In a video released by official media, it is observed that when the journalist asks the bishop of Matagalpa, “how has this family encounter been for you?”, Álvarez scratches his left ear, this is a type of “non-verbal language” which according to the psychologist Róger Martínez, shows anxiety, nervousness, insecurity or doubt, in addition to the possibility that he is trying to hide something or “avoid directly responding to a question.”
“Scratching behind the ear can be a sign that a person feels anxious or nervous in that moment…that the person is trying to think about something or that they are trying to make a decision,” explained the psychologist.
Another one of the signs that can be observed in the video is that Mons. Rolando Álvarez moves his jaw from one side to the other while responding to the questions of the propagandist, this can be a sign of frustration and anger, according to psychological concepts.
“In some situations, moving the jaw from one side to the other can be a sign that a person is experiencing frustration or anger. It can indicate that the person is trying to control his emotions or is trying to control his discomfort,” explained Martínez.
In addition to that, this type of facial movement “can be a habitual expression that indicates that they are concentrating or reflecting,” another one of the possible reasons is that he might be “trying to think about something or find ways of saying it.
Venancio Alaniz, the tormentor of political prisoners
The gestures done by Rolando Álvarez the day of the encounter with his relatives are not the only signs that he is suffering acts of torture, the simple fact that the deputy prefect of the penitentiary, Venancio Alaniz, has been present raises another issue, because he has been identified as intimidating, threatening and ordering beatings of the political prisoners in the Penitentiary System.
“Venancio Alaniz was the person responsible for receiving and distributing us political prisoners from 2018 who were left in the blocks of common prisoners and in gallery number 16. He is the official who has most risen in rank in the Modelo jail. We remember that after a beating ordered by him, within days he showed up to the gate of our blocks with a new rank on his shoulders and in a Hilux double cabin white pickup truck up. Today we understand that he is the deputy prefect in the penitentiary,” explained Martínez the psychologist.
Alaniz showed up in the blocks where the political prisoners were and he “gathered them all in the shower area,” for the purpose of “intimidating us and threatening us,” he would tell them that “he was not afraid to take a weapon and shoot, that the system had all the force to crush us in case we tried anything,” said the also former political prisoner Róger Martínez.
“I remember on a Sunday after he was recently promoted he showed up in the Hilux (pickup) dressed in a t-shirt with the image of (Ernesto) Ché Guevara and a green military cap with the Cuban flag on it to tell us that it we tried to carry out a hunger strike he would personally dump our food and cancel the water `so we could have a real strike,´” he recounted.
[from Martínez´s twitter page]
Martínez pointed to Venancio Alaniz as the person who ordered “beatings in December when at midnight we sang the national anthem and hugged one another for Christmas and New Years,” like another one that occurred on February 19, 2019 when several political prisoners “had head wounds and broken bones,” and were denied urgent medical attention.
“His threats and psychological torture always included our relatives by not allowing them to see us, which in itself was a form of punishment because the normal thing are weekly or biweekly visits for common prisoners, while they would allow us visits every 21 days,” recounted Róger Martínez.
The regime is responsible for what happens to Álvarez
Unfortunately, the real situation of Mons. Rolando Álvarez cannot be known, because according to a recent statement of the human rights defender Gonzalo Carrión, “we would have to have in hand a credible medical assessment and have interviewed him,” something that is impossible in an authoritarian regime like what Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo are exercising.
After more than two weeks without responses to the question of “where is Mons. Roland Álvarez?” and in the face of national and international demands, the Ortega regime prepared a full scenario before television cameras to make it appear that the bishop “is fine” and “to be on the safe side”, explained the journalist Israel González, who for years has covered religious topics.
“Mons. Rolando is not just another political prisoner. He is the political prisoner. Orteguism is responsible for anything that might happen to him, and in the case that the life of the bishop is violated, reactions on the international level as well as internally can be unpredictable, so they have wanted to `play it safe´, showing Mons.,” explained González.
In light of this situation, the journalist said that “the international community and Christians should not let their guard down. They must continue demanding the liberation of Mons. Rolando Álvarez by all means possible, because he is innocent and has only fulfilled his task of a pastor accompanying the people in the midst of authoritarianism.”