Exiled priest says bishop on trial in Nicaragua created secret human rights office

CNA Newsroom, Jan 30, 2023 / 10:20 am

Exiled Nicaraguan priest Uriel Vallejos recounted how the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, who has been held under house arrest since Aug. 19, created a secret human rights office to address the persecution coming from the dictatorial regime of President Daniel Ortega.

In an interview with the Spanish Catholic weekly Alfa y Omega published Jan. 26, the priest first clarified that there is no international warrant for his arrest.

“You’re not going to believe it, but it was a hoax by the government. They said that they had asked Interpol for my capture, but a contact within the U.N. confirmed to me that the Ortega regime had not officially issued any request against me,” the priest told the weekly at an undisclosed location.

Vallejos explained that both Álvarez and he “are accused of conspiracy to undermine national sovereignty and security and spreading fake news to the detriment of the State.”

In a hearing held Jan. 10 amid complaints of irregularities in the proceedings, the court determined that the bishop’s case will go to trial.

Three days later the justice system issued a “fabricated” list of witnesses against the prelate, some of whom had nothing to do with the case and didn’t even know beforehand that their names were on that list.

Vallejos said that the persecution against the Catholic Church worsened with the anti-government protests in 2018, when bishops and priests responded by “telling the truth about what was happening and siding with the people.”

At that time, people began to come asking for help, the priest explained.

For example, the priest said “one had their son imprisoned, another had been killed, a third had had to go into exile.”

Given the situation, Álvarez called together his priests and told them that he would open a secret human rights office to help these people and make their cases known.

“At that meeting he asked who freely wanted to participate and warned that whoever did could end up in jail or in exile,” Vallejos told Alfa y Omega.

Arrest and escape

The priest said that at his Divine Mercy parish in Sébaco in the Diocese of Matagalpa, soldiers arrived to record his homilies to later use against him.

He also was the director general of the Sébaco Catholic Channel and Radio, which operated on the parish premises. The station was forcibly shut down by the dictatorship on Aug. 1, 2022. Riot police prevented Vallejos and a group of the faithful from leaving the rectory.

The police “settled into the chapel and our power was cut off. We also had no food,” the priest recounted. The parish remained under siege for three days until Aug. 4, when Vallejos was arrested and taken away.

“The president of the bishops’ conference told me that the government wanted me in jail, but Rolando Álvarez began to negotiate and got them to accept my going to the seminary in Managua in exchange for my silence,” the exiled priest related.

Shortly after, the priest fled the country to Costa Rica, where he received help from the local Church.

“I cannot silence the truth, although I’m afraid that because of this interview they may torture the priests who are in jail,” Vallejos concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.