Nicaraguan bishop arrested after two-week standoff at Matagalpa residence

Heavily armed Nicaraguan police have arrested a bishop who is an outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega’s government, launching a raid after a two-week standoff at his residence in the latest blow against the Roman Catholic church in the country.

Rolando Álvarez, the bishop of Matagalpa, was detained early on Friday, along with eight others – including several priests – who had been holed up for two weeks after police blocked the bishop from reaching the city’s cathedral to celebrate a mass.

Police then launched an investigation into Álvarez, accusing him of “organizing violent groups and inciting them to carry out acts of hate against the population … with the aim of destabilizing the Nicaraguan state”.

The nine men were forced to ration their food after police refused to allow any deliveries to the besieged residence.

Before dawn on Friday, the Matagalpa diocese tweeted: “#SOS #Urgent. At this time the National Police have entered the Episcopal rectory of our Matagalpa diocese.”

Police later released a statement saying that Álvarez had been transferred to the capital Managua, where he was being held under house arrest.

Church sources fear that he may be forced into exile, like the former bishop of Managua Silvio José Báez Ortega, who left Nicaragua in 2019 after a wave of death threats.

Ortega’s government has systematically crushed voices of dissent. Dozens of opposition leaders were arrested last year, including eight potential presidential candidates.

Álvarez has been an outspoken advocate for democracy in Nicaragua since 2018, when a wave of protests against Ortega’s government was followed by a bloody crackdown on dissent.

Friday’s operation was directed by Ramón Avellán, the police chief who helped lead the government repression in 2018. It followed weeks of heightened tensions between the church and the government. Police have surrounded churches, blocking priests from entering and preventing them from saying mass.

Three priests have been arrested this year, and12 Catholic radio stations and three Catholic cable TV channels have been forced off air. The congress, which is dominated by Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front, has ordered the closure of more than 1,000 NGOs, including Mother Teresa’s charity.

Roman Catholicism is Nicaragua’s main religion, but Ortega and his wife and vice-president, Rosario Murillo, have had a complicated relationship with the church for decades.

The former Marxist guerrilla forged an alliance with the church as he sought to regain the presidency in 2007 after a long period out of power, disowning his previous support for reproductive rights, and signing into a law a strict ban on abortions.

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But relations frayed after the Nicaraguan church mediated in failed talks during the 2018 uprising, and ruptured after senior clerics denounced the bloody crackdown that claimed about 350 lives.

Ortega described the country’s bishops as “terrorists” before winning his fourth term in office in elections widely denounced as a sham, and in March, the government expelled the papal nuncio.

“The dictators have been steadily annihilating anyone who represents a threat to their power. Today, after dismantling almost all of Nicaragua’s civil society, political opposition and media, the only space for citizens to express their resistance are the churches, and especially the Roman Catholic church,” said pro-democracy activist Haydée Castillo.