Nicaraguan police raid residence of Catholic bishop essential of Ortega | Politics Information

Church and rights advocates condemn detention of Ronaldo Alvarez, who police say is underneath home arrest in Managua.

Nicaraguan police have forcibly eliminated a Roman Catholic bishop essential of President Daniel Ortega from his residence, the church and rights group mentioned, because the authorities mentioned Ronaldo Alvarez is underneath home arrest within the nation’s capital.

Alvarez, the pinnacle of the northern diocese of Matagalpa, had been underneath home arrest for 2 weeks together with 5 clergymen, one seminarian and a cameraman for a spiritual tv channel.

“#SOS #Urgente. Right now the Nationwide Police have entered the Episcopal rectory of our Matagalpa diocese,” the diocese posted on social media early on Friday.

Police later mentioned they’d taken Alvarez to Managua, the place he stays underneath home arrest, whereas the cameraman and clerics had been transferred to a jail within the Nicaraguan capital.

Pablo Cuevas, a lawyer with the non-governmental Everlasting Committee on Human Rights, condemned Alvarez’s detention however mentioned it was not surprising.

“What was clearly going to occur has occurred, the arbitrary and abusive arrest of Monsignor Alvarez,” he mentioned in a video message.

The pre-dawn raid got here after Nicaraguan authorities accused the bishop of “organising violent teams” and inciting them “to hold out acts of hate in opposition to the inhabitants”.

Authorities have detained no less than three clergymen in latest months whereas others have gone into exile amid a sweeping government crackdown on Ortega’s critics within the months main as much as and following elections final November.

Dozens of opposition figures, together with a number of who sought to challenge Ortega’s re-election bid, had been detained, and plenty of have since been sentenced to prolonged jail phrases.

The connection between the Catholic Church and the federal government has been severely strained after a harsh crackdown on anti-Ortega protests in 2018.

The motion in opposition to Alvarez, 55, began with riot police stopping him from leaving residence to say mass earlier this month, and days later the bishop introduced he was successfully underneath “home arrest”.

There was no official phrase on Alvarez’s obvious detention on Friday.

The Vatican additionally provided no touch upon the raid and didn’t report the information instantly on its in-house media portal.

Ortega, Nicaragua’s longtime chief, received a fourth consecutive time period in workplace after a November 2021 vote that america, European Union and different worldwide observers denounced as a “sham”.

Days earlier than the elections, Ortega accused Nicaraguan bishops of getting drafted a political proposal in 2018 on behalf “of the terrorists, on the service of the Yankees … These bishops are additionally terrorists”.

In March, Nicaragua expelled the papal nuncio, the Vatican’s high diplomat in Nicaragua.

“With a coronary heart filled with ache and indignation, I condemn the nighttime kidnapping of Monsignor Alvarez,” exiled Nicaraguan Bishop Silvio Baez mentioned in a tweet on Friday, calling for Alvarez to be freed and urging these with info on his whereabouts to return ahead.

The top of the Group of American States, Luis Almagro, additionally condemned the detentions in a press release and demanded “their speedy freedom and people of all political prisoners”.