Ollantay Itzamná
Catholic bishop arrested in Nicaragua in rebellion against justice
Regularly, in the Catholic Continent of Abya Yala, we do not hear news about “imprisonment” or “detention by justice” of bishops. Much less in countries with “progressive” governments. The “impunity” of the Catholic or evangelical hierarchy in these lands full of faith is almost a tradition.
In Nicaragua, a Catholic Bishop and some other members of religious orders were arrested for crimes committed against the internal order and security of the country, during the vandalic social revolts that took place in 2018, with hundreds of deaths.
In those revolts against the government of Daniel Ortega, several members of the Catholic episcopate of Nicaragua opened the doors and protected the leaders and members of the violent groups, who organized and executed criminal acts from the churches. At the moment, some bishops are no longer in the country.
Why did a solitary bishop cloistered in a church in Matagalpa make the news?
Bishop Rolando Alvarez (55 years old), seeing himself cornered by the Nicaraguan justice system, decided to cloister himself, together with 5 priests, 2 seminarians and laymen in the church of Matagalpa. From this Catholic compound, he tried to portray himself as a victim in order that the world believe that what was happening in Nicaragua was a “religious persecution”.
Sectors of international opinion, prey to fake news, became alarmed and once again launched their artillery against the Nicaraguan government with the same slogans as always.
In the end, Bishop Alvarez and his accomplices were arrested, as is the case with any crime of public order, and in any part of the world, and awaiting trial. Their accomplices, such as Bishop Silvio Baez, currently a refugee in Miami, are still at large.
Nicaragua: A lesson for the progressive governments of Abya Yala
Normally, in the Catholic Continent of Abya Yala, we do not hear news about “imprisonment” or “detention by justice” of bishops. Much less in countries with “progressive” governments.
The “impunity” of the Catholic or evangelical hierarchy in these lands full of faith is almost a tradition.
Apostolic Nuncio Genaro Verolino and Castillo Armas. After the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz. Guatemala. 1954
In 1954, the Apostolic Nuncio of Guatemala and the Catholic hierarchy bombed the cities of Guatemala, Xela and Cobán, from North American airplanes, with anti-communist pastoral letters against the government of that time Jacobo Árbenz. Immediately followed the military invasion in the name of Christ… And thus, they destroyed that noble and praiseworthy liberal revolution that was not communist. Guatemala is now one of the most plundered and impoverished countries on the continent.
Recently, in Honduras, the Coup d’Etat of 2009 was consummated and sustained for 13 years, thanks to the efficient political religious work of Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez. Currently, this is an example of impunity for future mitered who commit crimes of public order against the stability of governments. In Honduras, even with underreporting, thousands of people have been murdered as a result of that ongoing conservative Catholic coup d’état.
The most recent case is Bolivia. In 2019, in the Catholic University, no less, in the city of La Paz, convened, promoted and sacramentalized by the Catholic hierarchy, the Coup d’Etat against the peoples of Bolivia was devised and executed, with about 40 indigenous people massacred.
Currently, in that country of the South, the executors of the Coup d’Etat, such as the usurper Jeanine Añez, and military chiefs, were sentenced to prison, but the religious criminals, still continue unpunished, protected by their religious investiture. For how long?
Catholic hierarchy gathered in the act of the coup d’état with the usurper Jeanine Áñez, currently in prison.
Hopes dashed in the name of God
The history of the Continent is full of hopes torpedoed by interventions of the local Catholic hierarchies. All the coups d’état promoted by the North American Empire were blessed and agreed upon by the Catholic Clergy! And they will be so in the future if those responsible are not punished. After all, the Law is universal for all crimes of public order.
As a cultural Catholic, and as a practicing Catholic theologian, I demand that the states of Honduras, Bolivia, Chile, Peru… apply justice to investigate and punish all those responsible for the crimes committed, regardless of sacred or secular investiture.
The impunity of the Catholic clergy not only condemns to eternal despair the relatives of the thousands massacred in this Via Crucis of the Continent, but above all turns the entire Abya Yala into a Dantesque hell of misery and dispossession in the name of the “opulence/development” of a few Christians in the name of an insensitive God.
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 