Media outlets in Nicaragua and opposition activists in exile denounced the detention of a bishop on Thursday. According to him, the Episcopal Conference was praying for Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, a critic of Daniel Ortega’s government who has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Although the Nicaraguan police have not commented on the allegation, exiled opposition members in Costa Rica and the United States reported the detention of Bishop Isidoro Mora, who is in charge of the Siuna diocese, a Caribbean town located approximately 300 km northeast of Managua.
Martha Molina, a lawyer and researcher of Nicaraguan Church affairs exiled in the United States, told AFP that the police arrested the bishop on Wednesday along with two seminarians in the municipality of La Cruz de Río Grande.
Media outlets like La Prensa, El Confidencial, and 100%Noticias, operating from Costa Rica, stated that Mora was detained after he expressed during a Mass in Matagalpa on Tuesday, where he serves as a bishop, that members of the Episcopal Conference are “always united in prayer for Monsignor Rolando.”
Mora, aged 53, served as the vicar general in Matagalpa before being appointed as the bishop of Siuna in April 2021.
Álvarez, aged 57, was arrested in August 2022 and sentenced on February 10 to 26 years in prison on charges of treason, spreading false news, and contempt of court, one day after he refused to leave for the United States along with 222 imprisoned opposition members expelled from the country.
In February, President Daniel Ortega referred to Álvarez as “arrogant” and “deranged.” UN Human Rights rapporteurs in November called on the Ortega government to release Álvarez “immediately and unconditionally,” citing his “arbitrary detention.”
The government responded by stating that they were following “medical care protocols” for the bishop and that he enjoyed “preferential” detention conditions.
Álvarez has chosen prison over exile. In July, he was briefly released but returned to prison after refusing to leave the country.
He was also not among the 12 priests released in October and sent to Rome following an agreement between the government and the Vatican, making him the only bishop still imprisoned in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua has tightened laws regarding NGOs and has closed nearly 3,500 of them, including religious organizations, following the protests in 2018, which left over 300 dead in three months, according to the UN.
An investigation by Molina revealed that since 2018, there have been 740 attacks against the Church, and 176 priests and nuns have been expelled, deported, or banned from entering the country.
