Central America
Nicaraguan bishop critical of Ortega ordered to trial for ‘conspiracy’
January 11 | By AFP |
A Nicaraguan bishop who has been sharply critical of President Daniel Ortega’s government was ordered Tuesday to stand trial for charges of conspiracy and spreading false news.
Rolando Alvarez, a 56-year-old bishop from the northern Matagalpa department, has been held under house arrest since August in the capital Managua.
During the pre-trial hearing Tuesday, “evidence was admitted and the case was sent to trial,” the Managua court said in a press release, without specifying a date for the trial.
Alvarez was also ordered to remain under house arrest.
Alvarez was taken into custody in late August and moved to the Central American country’s capital.
After his arrest, police said the bishop, who is a member of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, was being investigated for trying to “destabilize the country.”
He was not charged until December, with prosecutors alleging Alvarez had committed “crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news through information and communication technologies to the detriment of the Nicaraguan state and society.”
Along with Alvarez, at least six other clergy members were also detained and remain in a Managua jail without any official charges against them.
The charges against Alvarez come amid tense relations between the Catholic Church and the Ortega government that began in 2018, when the country was rocked by huge anti-government protests.
The president linked the demonstrations to a failed coup he said was being pushed by the opposition with the support of Washington and accused bishops of being complicit in the alleged plot.
Ortega’s government last year expelled apostolic nuncio Waldemar Sommertag, outlawed the Missionaries of Charity Association, of the order of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and closed several Catholic media, including the television channel of the Episcopal Conference.
Ortega, a 77-year-old former guerrilla, has governed Nicaragua since 2007, winning three successive reelections.
The last vote took place in November 2021 with Ortega’s main rivals in jail alongside dozens of other government opponents and critics.
In December, UN rights chief Volker Turk said that there was a “systematized effort to stifle opposition and dissent” in Nicaragua, while the White House in August condemned a “dramatic deterioration” of human rights in the country.
Central America
Arévalo calls corruption the “fuel of inequality” and reaffirms commitment to public transparency
Guatemala’s President, Bernardo Arévalo, stated on Friday that corruption is “the food of misery” in his country and reaffirmed his government’s commitment to continuing to strengthen public spending transparency.
During the first anniversary of the National Commission Against Corruption (CNC) established by his administration, the president expressed his satisfaction with the progress made.
“The road has been difficult,” he said, “but I am greatly satisfied with the fight against corruption, which is the fuel of inequality and the food of misery,” the president declared before members of the international community and government officials.
Arévalo also mentioned that the people who elected him in 2023 for a four-year term that began on January 14, 2024, “demand that we combat corruption.”
Central America
Zúñiga hopes CIDH experts can help investigate intellectual authors of Berta Cáceres’ murder
Bertha Zúñiga, daughter of the murdered Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres, expressed her hope on Friday to EFE that the expert group appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) will help investigate the authorship of the crime to “heal the wounds” and rebuild the social fabric in indigenous communities affected by the hydroelectric project her mother opposed.
The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) represents an “effort to exhaust the investigations” into the responsibilities of all individuals involved in Cáceres’ murder, as well as in the “violence suffered” from the implementation of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric project, led by the company Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. (DESA), emphasized Zúñiga.
“We hope that, with the collaboration of the prosecutorial entities, (the experts) will effectively collaborate to move forward on what we have proposed and demanded for many years: formally requiring the intellectual authors of this crime and analyzing the related crimes,” including corruption and other violations, as well as proposing a comprehensive reparation plan for the victims of the hydroelectric project,” Zúñiga explained.
The CIDH appointed a group of four experts from Argentina, Chile, the United States, and Guatemala on Friday to provide technical assistance to Honduras in investigating the intellectual authorship of Cáceres’ murder, which occurred on March 2, 2016, while she was sleeping in her home in La Esperanza, despite the multiple death threats she had reported due to her opposition to the Agua Zarca project.
Central America
Nicaragua’s family confinement program: 7.18% of released prisoners reoffend
Nicaraguan authorities have released a total of 48,964 common prisoners under the family confinement regime over the past ten years, with 7.18% of them reoffending by committing at least one crime, according to the country’s vice president, Rosario Murillo.
Murillo, who is also the wife of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and appointed “co-president” in a reform to the Constitution, stated through official media that “7.18% are individuals who have reoffended in criminal activity from 2015 to today, February 14, 2025.”
This means that 3,515 out of the 48,964 common prisoners with final sentences who have been granted family confinement privileges have returned to criminal activity, according to the report.
The early release of common prisoners has faced criticism, particularly from feminist organizations, who argue that these benefits have contributed to an increase in femicides and general crime in Nicaragua.
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