The quiet resistance of Mons. Rolando Álvarez
who for eleven months rejected the banishment of the dictatorship
by DIVERGENTES, February 8, 2024
The firm rejection of Mons. Rolando Álvarez to be part of the massive banishment of the 222 Nicaraguans ordered by the dictatorship in February 2023 cost him eleven months in prison, humiliations, and isolation. Nevertheless, the spiritual resistance of the religious exposed the falsehood of the accusations against him and the political hypocrisy of the regime, which was not able to break the bishop.
When the 222 political prisoners expelled by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo boarded the plane provided by the United States on the morning of February 9, 2023 among the dozens of questions that erupted in their heads about their future and their families, one stood out: Where was Mons. Rolando Álvarez?
That day, Mons. Álvarez only reached the International Airport of Managua. His freedom had been taken from him in the early morning of August 19, 2022, when a squadron of the Police of the regime abducted him, along with other religious and laity, after storming the Episcopal Curia of Matagalpa. He had been turned into the most relevant political prisoner of the Ortega dictatorship.
Mons. Álvarez was taken to a home under guard, and the rest of the priests and lay people were sent to the jail of the Office of Judicial Support (DAJ), known as El Chipote.
The mystery about the fate of Mons. Álvarez Daniel Ortega clarified himself on the day of the banishment of the 222 prisoners of conscience in an appearance in which he lambasted the bishop, who he did not even refer to by name or his position in the Catholic Church, calling him just “that Álvarez guy”.
“He was in line and got to the stairs [to board the plane] and begins to say that he is not leaving. That first he would have to meet with the bishops and demand a meeting. I do not know what this man was thinking. That facing a decision of the Nicaraguan State, he says that he is not obeying. A resolution from a tribunal of justice which is ordering him to leave the country. He says that he is not obeying,” the dictator related.
The former political prisoners, now free on US soil, revealed that in reality, Mons. Álvarez was never seen in the airline terminal. What was known later, which was omitted by Ortega in his speech, is that after refusing to go into exile, the dictator, in an act of fury, sent him directly to the La Modelo jail, to imprison him in a maximum security cell, called by the prisoners as EL Infiernillo (little hell).
The annoyance of the dictator was made evident as he continued with his twisted tale. He said that Álvarez at that time was “irritated, because then he was in jail.” He also stated that the religious man “was rabid” and that was why he did not obey “the decision of the Nicaraguan authorities.”
He added that Álvarez behaved “arrogantly” and considered himself to be the head of the church in Nicaragua. “He is deranged. He arrived at La Modelo a lunatic (…) He did not accept being put in a cell where there were hundreds of prisoners,” said the dictator.
Since that day, Mons. Rolando Álvarez began a quiet resistance, in the face of the constant abuses and humiliations of the dictatorship. He was tried and sentenced in absence and without the right to defense to 26 years and four months of prison.
He did not learn of his sentence until March 25, 2023 in a family visit scheduled by the regime to exhibit him to the propaganda media.
Five times he was exhibited by the propaganda of the dictatorship in an attempt to relieve the national and international pressure which was demanding his unconditional freedom during the time in which Mons. Álvarez was imprisoned.
While the regime continued releasing and banishing religious, Mons. Álvarez remained firm in his calvary. Visibly thinner, he always showed himself peaceful and cordial with the operators of the dictatorship who lent themselves to the farce organized by El Carmen.
Finally, as a result of the direct negotiations between the Vatican and the dictatorship on January 14, 2024 Mons. Álvarez joined a new group of 18 priests exiled by the dictatorship. The figure of religious victims of this repressive measure of Ortega now exceeds 203.
The last time that he was seen was in the Vatican, free and smiling, doing what he most liked, celebrating Mass, as part of his pastoral work. In the words of Mons. Silvio Báez, when he announced the liberation of Mons. Álvarez with deep emotion, “the criminal dictatorship of Ortega and Murillo has failed against the power of God.”
