Bishop Rolando Álvarez, the 58-year-old Nicaraguan priest falsely imprisoned for political reasons, was quietly released last week.
A strong critic of Nicaragua’s far-left dictatorship, Alvarez was charged with “treason,” detained under house arrest, and then imprisoned for 26 years, in early February 2023.
His alleged crime was “spreading misinformation, hate speech, and inciting violence,” during pro-freedom protests in 2018.
Alverez’s own freedom rides on the back of a Vatican negotiation with the Ortega government, the Washington Post reported.
An official Vatican communique added that “a total of 19 representatives had been released.”
Alverez, who went to prison after refusing to renounce his citizenship, and take Ortega’s offer of exile in the United States, was joined by 17 fellow Central American clergymen.
The Christian political prisoners were flown to Rome on Sunday, as “guests of the Vatican.”
To recap: Soviet-era Sandinistas sieged churches in 2022, under the pretext of fighting domestic terrorism.
Christian ministers that sheltered fleeing, battered, and bruised student protesters in 2018, were arrested on the charge of treason, by way of rushed anti-treason legislation passed in December 2021.
Nicaraguan priests were also accused of “spreading fake news, hate speech and inciting violence.”
In what was described as a politicisation of Nicaragua’s legal system, and a judicial monstrosity, political opponents were also affected.
Popular 2021 presidential candidate, journalist, and opposition leader, Cristiana Chamorro, was forced out of the election after police raided her home minutes before a scheduled press conference.
Ortega’s regime then sought to ban Chamorro from the ballot, and from holding public office.
Included in the political purge was the forced closure of 1,200 non-government organisations, such as 8 Christian radio stations.
In sum, for Ortega, any criticism of his rule is regarded as “domestic terrorism.”
Adopting the global trend of conflating political opposition with domestic terrorism, gave the socialist Sandinista’s a blank cheque to harass, hinder, and hurt anyone for saying anything deemed “offensive by the State.”
The Ortega regime is the only “source of truth.”
Thus, the plight of Alverez and the Nicaraguan church in general speaks volumes about how misinformation/disinformation laws can quickly deteriorate into weapons of forced speech and mass censorship.
Of additional significance here, is the way in which Ortega’s subtle corruption of legislation deployed bad laws to suppress content inconvenient to the government.
These bad laws offer the appearance of legitimacy behind the curtain of “national security,” and “saving democracy” (in order to overthrow it.)
This is on par with Democrat lies targeting Donald Trump.
Like Democrats, the 79-year-old Ortega, even appealed to the bible, stating in a rant that dissenting pastors have no “respect for Christ, nor God.”
He, not a lot unlike his American counterparts, quoted the Bible and blabbered on about the Church being a bunch of Pharisees.
Case in point, career leftist, and Hollywood veteran, Rob Reiner’s latest remarks following Trump’s victory in the Iowa caucus, “Jesus told us to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. How in God’s name can anyone who believes in the teachings of Jesus support Donald Trump?”
Here is an obsessed Trump hater, and non-Christian lecturing Christians on why hating Donald Trump is “true Christian discipleship.”
Reiner failed to see the incongruity, proving his appeal to Christ is nothing but a disingenuous, whip statement designed to advance his hate-filled obsession.
Reiner’s words share the same characteristics as Ortega’s vitriolic abuse of power.
As I pointed out in an exposition written for Caldron Pool in August 2022, it’s worth noting the similarities.
Ortega’s persecution of the Church aligns with recent moves made by the Democrat White House in the United States against pro-life advocates, J6 peaceful protesters, and former president Donald Trump.
