The Nicaraguan regime has responded to calls for proof that a jailed bishop is still alive by releasing photographs and a film of him being visited by his family in prison.
The images and short video of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa came a week after human rights defender Bianca Jagger demanded that Nicaraguan despot Daniel Ortega showed the world that the Catholic leader was still alive.
Writing exclusively for The Catholic Herald, Ms Jagger also challenged Ortega to allow her to visit Bishop Álvarez in the Jorge Navarro de Tipitapa National Penitentiary System, a notorious prison known as La Modelo.
She repeated her plea in evidence submitted to a committee of the U.S Congress and the following day U.S Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said he was following the bishop’s case and called for his release.
El 19 Digital, a pro-Ortega media outlet broadcast a video showing Bishop Álvarez sharing a meal with his brother and sister during a visit to the prison following his imprisonment for more than 26 years in February after he was convicted of being a “traitor to the homeland”.
The day before he was jailed Bishop Alvarez refused to board a flight with 222 political and religious prisoners which would have taken him into exile in the United States.
According to ACI Prensa, when asked about how he was doing by an interviewer, the bishop replied: “Thanks be to God I’m well, with a lot of inner strength, with a lot of peace in the Lord and the Most Holy Virgin.”
Commenting on the visit from Vilma and Manuel Antonio Álvarez Lagos, Bishop Álvarez said that they “talked, had very tasty food here with a little meal that our friends from the penitentiary system graciously and kindly provided us”.
He thanked the prison for good treatment, and asked the interviewer: “Do I look good, healthy, and how does my face look?”
In a prison uniform and looking visibly thinner, he also thanked “the Most Holy Virgin because today, the Annunciation of the angel to the Mother so that with her yes the Word would become flesh and dwell among us for our salvation and redemption, because on her day my siblings have been able to come to see me”.
His comments date the interview to Saturday March 25, the solemnity of the Annunciation of the Archangel St Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“The Mother protects us and always covers us all with the same maternal love,” Bishop Álvarez said in his first recorded words since his conviction.
The bishop is said to be among 37 other political prisoners who remain in Nicaraguan jails since Ortega, a hard left dictator, cracked down on political rivals, the free press and the Catholic Church.
While some Catholics expressed relief that he was still alive and apparently well, the video and photographs were met with disdain by others.
Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Báez of Managua, who is in exile in the United States, described the prison interview as a “repugnant and cynical” stunt.
“I was very happy to see the photos of my brother, Bishop Rolando. I thank God he’s alive! The scenography of the dictatorship was repugnant and cynical and does not expunge its crime,” Bishop Báez tweeted.
“The power of the prayer of the people and international pressure have been revealed. Release him now!” he added.
Martha Patricia Molina, a Nicaraguan lawyer and researcher, told ACI Prensa, Catholic News Agency’s Spanish-language news partner, that “the regime yielded to social pressure, and obviously everything was staged to put on a show and say that the bishop is not imprisoned but in a vacation spot”.
“Bishop Rolando José is a bishop of peace,” she continued. “We have observed a humble bishop, strengthened, serene and joyful but mistreated in his physical aspect. He demonstrated humility the whole time to show his executioners that he does not repay evil for evil.”
Félix Maradiaga, a former presidential candidate who was deported to the United States in February with more than 200 political prisoners, said 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 isn’t fooling anyone,” he said. “The bishop’s rights are infringed and he has been abducted. We demand his immediate release.”
In a second tweet he added that “Bishop Álvarez is in prison because he was the only voice left free to preach the truth in Nicaragua”.
Fr Uriel Vallejos, a priest who managed to escape the persecution of the regime in September 2022 and who now lives in exile, also used Twitter to say that “the regime presents Bishop Rolando on a stage set up to sell a false image; which does not correspond to the daily treatment of psychological and inhuman torture”.
He said: “His spirit is strong and he shows the dignity of a people humiliated and shamefully treated by the cruel dictatorship.”
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