Nicaragua expelled 19 imprisoned clergymen to the Vatican.
Among the group are prominent political prisoners including Bishop Rolando Álvarez and Bishop Isidoro Mora. Additionally, 15 priests and two seminarians were among the expelled.
“We're glad to see the release of these religious leaders. Every individual deserves the right to worship at home & abroad,” wrote Ambassador Brian A. Nichols on X on Jan. 14. Nichols is the assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs for the United States Department of State.
“We continue to call for the release of all those unjustly detained & the full restoration of fundamental freedoms for the Nicaraguan people,” he added.
President Daniel Ortega has denounced the Catholic Church, which has been publicly critical of his government in recent years. Roughly half of the population of Nicaragua is Catholic.
According to the Wilson Center:Things boiled over in early 2018, when Ortega responded to largely peaceful protests by students and others with brutal force. More than 350 protestors were killed. Some Catholic bishops tried to protect the protestors by offering them asylum in their churches. Other church leaders attempted to act as mediators in the crisis—a move which Ortega viewed as a direct threat to his leadership and authority. In response, priests were bloodied by beatings and churches were desecrated. Since then, according to the Vatican News, the Ortega regime has carried out nearly 400 attacks against the Church and its adherents, ranging from defacing church buildings to attacks and arrests. The regime even expelled Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity and declared the Vatican’s representative to Nicaragua Archbishop Waldemar Sommertag persona non grata.
Ortega called the Catholic Church a “perfect dictatorship” during a televised speech in 2022 because it does not hold elections for the pope. He also called the Church “coup plotters” that worked on behalf of “American imperialism,” per Al Jazeera.
Bishop Álvarez was arrested in 2022 for being a “traitor to the homeland” and served roughly one year of his 26-year sentence for treason. Álvarez had been an outspoken proponent of free and fair elections in 2018. He was arrested after refusing to get on a plane with 222 political prisoners who were being deported to the United States. He said he would not go into exile unless ordered to by Pope Francis.
“We must continue to work to combat the brutal Ortega regime and free the remaining prisoners — including courageous Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who refuses to abandon his flock,” said Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey at the time of the bishop’s sentencing, per the Catholic News Agency. “He is truly a Christ-like figure with a servant’s heart, and we continue to urge Pope Francis to speak unequivocally on his behalf and seek his release.”
Bishop Mora was arrested in December 2023. He was taken into state custody by police after he told his congregation that the bishops of Nicaragua were “united in prayer” for Álvarez, a remark that was believed to have prompted his arrest, per the BBC.
