These images provided by the pro-government Nicaraguan media show the Bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, receiving a visit from his family.
The Bishop has been in prison for more than a month after being convicted of treason. A charge that he says is false.
The government is attempting to use these photos as proof that the Bishop is alive. Silvio José Báez, auxiliary bishop of Managua, said he was relieved to see him alive, although the photos are “staging of the disgusting and cynical dictatorship.”
Others such as Father Rafael Aragón—who spent 40 years as a missionary in Nicaragua—agree that the photos are staged.
FR. RAFAEL ARAGÓN MARINO
Missionary, Order of Preachers
They set up a meal with his two relatives to say that Bishop Alvarez is well. But how long was he missing?
The government is trying to clear their image, but we all know how the regime acts.
The Bishop's imprisonment has further strained relations between the Vatican and Nicaragua. In a recent interview with Argentina's Infobae news agency, Pope Francis said that the country's president may be suffering from some kind of “imbalance.”
In response, the government expelled from the country the chargé d'affaires of the Nunciature in Managua. Before him, in 2022, the Ortega regime had expelled the apostolic nuncio, Waldemar Stanisław Sommer.
RM/JRB
TR: AT
