{"id":29804,"date":"2024-01-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/bishop-alvarez-lagos-among-19-roman-catholic-political-prisoners-expelled-6148\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T19:10:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T18:10:43","slug":"bishop-alvarez-lagos-among-19-roman-catholic-political-prisoners-expelled-6148","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/bishop-alvarez-lagos-among-19-roman-catholic-political-prisoners-expelled-6148\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Alvarez Lagos among 19 Roman Catholic political prisoners expelled from the country"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Jos\u00e9 \u00c1lvarez Lagos was expelled from Nicaragua on 14 January, almost a year after he was sentenced<\/a> to 26 years and four months in prison on unfounded charges<\/a> of conspiracy against the state.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a statement<\/a> from the Nicaraguan government, Bishop \u00c1lvarez Lagos was one of 19 Roman Catholic political prisoners who were expelled to the Vatican. Also among the group was Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega, who was arrested<\/a> on 20 December 2023 after he told his congregation that Nicaragua’s bishops were \u2018united in prayer\u2019 for Bishop \u00c1lvarez Lagos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its statement on 14 January the government thanked Pope Francis and other members of the Roman Catholic Church for \u2018the very respectful and discreet coordination carried out to make possible the trip to the Vatican\u2019 for the group, which also included 15 priests and two seminarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop \u00c1lvarez Lagos \u2013 a prominent critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega \u2013 was placed under house arrest on 19 August 2022. On 10 February 2023, he was sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison in a summary trial one day after the Nicaraguan government released<\/a> 222 political prisoners into exile in the United States. The bishop was stripped of his Nicaraguan nationality and his civil rights for life, and was also not among a group of 12 other political prisoners \u2013 all Roman Catholic priests \u2013 who were released<\/a> into exile in Rome in October 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Head of Advocacy Anna Lee Stangl said: \u2018While CSW welcomes the news that these religious leaders are now free, this should not be interpreted as a gesture of good will on the part of the government. Bishop \u00c1lvarez Lagos, Bishop Mora Ortega and the 17 others have been forced to leave their country because the government compels those who are critical of the regime to choose between prison or exile. We continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua, for the restoration of citizenship for Bishop \u00c1lvarez Lagos and all others who have been stripped of their nationality, and for the international community to hold President Ortega to account for the campaign to eliminate independent voices in the country.\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note to Editors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The full list of those released is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n
  1. Bishop Rolando Jos\u00e9 \u00c1lvarez Lagos<\/li>\n\n\n
  2. Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega<\/li>\n\n\n
  3. Oscar Jos\u00e9 Escoto Salgado<\/li>\n\n\n
  4. Jader Danilo Guido Acosta<\/li>\n\n\n
  5. Pablo Antonio Villafranca Mart\u00ednez<\/li>\n\n\n
  6. Carlos Jos\u00e9 Avil\u00e9s Cant\u00f3n<\/li>\n\n\n
  7. H\u00e9ctor del Carmen Treminio Vega<\/li>\n\n\n
  8. Marcos Francisco Diaz Prado<\/li>\n\n\n
  9. Fernando Isa\u00edas Calero Rodr\u00edguez<\/li>\n\n\n
  10. Silvio Jos\u00e9 Fonseca Mart\u00ednez<\/li>\n\n\n
  11. Mikel Salvador Monterrey Arias<\/li>\n\n\n
  12. Ra\u00fal Antonio Zamora Guerra<\/li>\n\n\n
  13. Miguel Agust\u00edn Mantica Cuadra<\/li>\n\n\n
  14. Jhader Antonio Hern\u00e1ndez Urbina<\/li>\n\n\n
  15. Gerardo Jos\u00e9 Rodr\u00edguez P\u00e9rez<\/li>\n\n\n
  16. Ismael Reineiro Serrano Gudiel<\/li>\n\n\n
  17. Jos\u00e9 Gustavo Sandino Ochoa<\/li>\n\n\n
  18. Tonny Daniel Palacio Sequeira<\/li>\n\n\n
  19. Alester de Jes\u00fas S\u00e1enz Centeno<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Jos\u00e9 \u00c1lvarez Lagos was expelled from Nicaragua on 14 January, almost a year after he was sentenced to 26 years and four months in prison.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43940,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[137,142],"class_list":["post-29804","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-latin-america","regions-nicaragua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40388,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29804\/revisions\/40388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29804"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}