Msgr. Silvio Báez, the Auxiliary Bishop of Managua described as it is “disgusting and cynical” the staging that the Nicaraguan government carried out over the weekend when presenting Msgr. Rolando Álvarez.
Media related to the dictatorship released last weekend photos and a video of the Bishop of Matagalpa, who met his brothers on Saturday, March 25, in the prison known as La Modelo.
The bishop can be seen in his blue prisoner uniform, in a clean room surrounded by white curtains, while eating with his brothers Vilma and Manuel Antonio at a circular table, in the images released by the media.
Next to the dining room, there are also three blue armchairs with a coffee table and several pots around it.
“I was very happy to see the photos of my brother, Bishop Rolando. I thank God he’s alive! The scenery of the dictatorship has been disgusting and cynical and does not erase its crime”, Mons. Silvio Báez , Auxiliary Bishop of Managua, exiled in the United States, wrote on Twitter.
“The strength of the people’s prayer and international pressure have been revealed. Release him now!” added the Prelate.
Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer and researcher, that “the regime gave in to social pressure, and obviously everything was staged to put on a show and say that the bishop is not kidnapped, but in a vacation spot, ” reports ACI Prensa.
“Monsignor Rolando José is a bishop of peace and good. We have observed a humble bishop, strengthened, serene and joyful, but mistreated in his physical aspect of him. He demonstrated humility all the time to teach his executioners that he does not pay evil for evil,” said the author of the report “Nicaragua, a persecuted Church?”.
Félix Maradiaga, a former presidential candidate who was deported to the United States in February with more than 200 political prisoners, specified on Twitter that “for those of us who know the prisons of the dictatorship, we know that the serene smile of Bishop Álvarez is due to his courage and faith in God”.
“With these images, the dictatorship is not fooling anyone! The Monsignor’s rights are cut off and he is kidnapped! We demand his immediate release,” he remarked.
Maradiaga pointed out in a second tweet that “Monsignor Álvarez is in prison because he was the only voice left free to preach the truth in Nicaragua: ‘We are created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable Rights, among these are Life, Freedom and the search for Happiness’ #Freedom”.
Fr. Uriel Vallejos, a priest who managed to escape the persecution of the regime in September 2022 and who now lives in exile, denounced on Twitter that “the regime presents Monsignor Rolando on a stage prepared to sell a false image; which does not correspond to the daily treatment of psychological and inhuman torture.”
“His spirit is firm and presents the dignity of a people humiliated and sullied by the cruel dictatorship,” said the priest.