Status: 02/11/2023 03:27 am
Catholic bishop Alvarez was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison in summary proceedings. The allegations: disobedience and undermining national integrity. The government critic had previously opposed his deportation.
In authoritarian Nicaragua, a bishop critical of the government has been sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison. In summary proceedings, Rolando Álvarez was convicted of disobedience, undermining national integrity and other offences. The day before at the airport, the cleric had refused to be deported to the United States along with 222 other inmates, all of whom are considered government critics.
He was also stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship, the judge in Managua said. The Catholic bishop will now be in prison until April 13, 2049 and will also have to pay a fine.
House arrest since August
Álvarez was arrested in August at the bishop’s house in the Diocese of Matagalpa along with seven other people. However, he was not sent to prison at the time, but placed under house arrest. He was also accused of spreading false news.
The authoritarian President Daniel Ortega accused the bishop on Thursday of resisting the ordered deportation to the United States.
Spain wants to take in deportees
Spain has now offered the 222 deported and expatriated government critics Spanish citizenship. Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares offered this to other people who should be in a similar situation.
For the erosion of democracy and civil liberties under Ortega, the US and the European Union have repeatedly imposed sanctions on the country’s leadership and the president’s family. His government has recently used increasingly harsh means against its critics. More than 350 people died in anti-government protests in 2018. Thousands of people have left the Central American country in recent years, often for fear of reprisals or arrests. Many of them moved to the USA.