18 de enero 2023
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Former Minister of Education Humberto Belli considers the imprisonment and political trial against the Bishop of Matagalpa, Monsignor Rolando Álvarez –whom the regime of Daniel Ortega is prosecuting for "conspiracy" and "fake news" in a case that "lacks evidence"--, to be an unprecedented case in the history of Nicaragua and Latin America.
"This is being watched around the world with dismay. I wonder whether there will also be an increase in dissatisfaction among many public servants," said Belli in an interview on the television program Esta Semana, broadcast on YouTube and Facebook.
For the former minister, the case against Álvarez represents the "most costly political action yet" taken by Ortega in a long time. This case has been accompanied by prohibitions of religious activities in an atmosphere of growing tension in the country, where public employees are being watched as discontent grows against the dynastic pretensions of the presidential family.
"No one outside the [Ortega] family can be trusted or have power. It is a regime with no internal ideological cohesion, such as the Cuban communist party might have. It is simply a family that seeks, through threats and perks, to build a circle of support around itself. But outside this intimate circle they trust no one," explained Belli, who is also a sociologist and historian.
This week the regime subjected Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, bishop of Matagalpa, to a political trial while keeping him under house arrest for the alleged crimes of "conspiracy against national sovereignty" and "propagation of fake news". Is there any precedent in Nicaragua or Latin America?
No, there isn't anywhere in the world. Most of all because of the secrecy and total lack of evidence of the charges against him. Even in the Eastern European communist countries during the times of Stalinism and communist control, they made pretensions of trials, but they did it publicly with cameras. They had already obtained forced confessions by the accused, but there was at least some publicity. Now we have trials in the shadows, without any information, without even revealing details about the alleged crimes.
We'd like to know what fake news Monsignor Álvarez spread. Where is the evidence of the bishop's conspiracy? With whom did he meet in secret and what did they plan? What I'm trying to say is that these are unsustainable accusations, without evidence. They have not allowed him to speak with his defense attorney. In what country in the world does an accused person not have access to his lawyer?
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The assigned lawyers are government employees whose salaries depend on obedience to the State, and even when there has been contact with a defense attorney, they are not given access to the necessary documents to know what the defendant is being accused of. They arrive without being able to prepare for the hearing. The regime doesn't even attempt to hide the grotesque way in which these types of trials are being carried out.
The accusations, which are without any legal basis, have generated a lot of indignation and repudiation. What does the dictatorship gain by putting together such a sham judicial process? Will it have any cost for them?
This case is the most politically costly action Ortega has carried out in a very long time. The expulsion of the Sisters of Charity provoked international outrage because no one could ever accuse these nuns of being enemies of the State, or even of being political. That caused a great blow to the regime. But attacking a bishop, to have him imprisoned and to make these kinds of accusations, really represents a tremendous collapse of what little credibility, if any, the Ortega government has left.
The world is looking on in dismay. The political cost is great, although sometimes it seems that they don't care very much about that. But the cost is great among the citizenry itself, and among government functionaries and members of the Army. If any of them have any notion of the rule of law, if there are any lawyers within the Sandinista regime who studied the minimum due process requirements of a criminal process, they are now seeing how flagrantly they are being violated.
So I wonder whether there will also be an increase in dissatisfaction among many public servants who, however needy they may be of their government salaries, retain some critical capacity. This is an unprecedented act: never before in the history of Nicaragua has a bishop been thrown in prison. The only exception is the assassination of Bishop Valdivieso in the 16th century. We have had dictatorships –we have had Zelaya and Somoza– but the imprisonment of a bishop has never been seen. I don't know if this has ever happened in any other Latin American country.
On the other hand, since Álvarez was confined by the police in the Curia of Matagalpa, there are stories that the regime has offered him exile instead of prison. And that he said: "I am the bishop of Matagalpa and I am staying here. I have not committed any crime," accepting the martyrdom that jail means. How do you interpret Monsignor Álvarez' message?
It is an act of extreme courage. There has even been information that the Vatican itself has been trying to negotiate the release, at least for a while, of Monsignor Álvarez with the Presidency and has presented him with the dilemma of which is preferable: to be able to speak from outside the country, or to be submerged in a jail cell in Nicaragua, in complete silence. It is an extremely difficult situation for him.
It would be a triumph for the dictatorship to have managed to silence the bishop, and to nullify him by getting him out of the country. But if the regime throws him into prison, and the bishop heroically accepts this very challenging destiny of being incarcerated in Nicaragua, this becomes a demonstration of great heroism, and at the same time an implicit condemnation of a government that would have in its hands a hot potato that is a basis for permanent indignation, both in Nicaragua and worldwide. We'll see what happens. As a Christian, I hope the Holy Spirit will guide Monsignor Álvarez, the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, and even Rome itself, on the best path to follow for the good of Nicaragua and of the bishop.
There are seven other clergy who are also being accused of political crimes. Others have been condemned who were accused of common crimes. That is, this is not an isolated event, but a very frontal attack. Earlier, Bishop [Silvio] Baez of Managua was threatened, and other priests in different dioceses of the country have also been threatened.
But this offensive against the Church is not only political, explained as an attempt to have a subdued, silent or complicit church. They have also expelled the Sisters of Charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and they have closed the Fabretto Foundation that worked with poor children in the north of the country and in a political way. The closing of many evangelical NGOs that worked in religious and charitable projects reveals that, in addition to their political intention, they are also anti-religious.
That is to say, there is an express desire to attack Christian faith in Nicaragua, because otherwise it's inexplicable the fact that they don't limit themselves to attacking the clergy they consider opponents of the government, but are also preventing processions, prohibiting the entry into the country of many priests, and expelling others.
The regime tolerates religious activities in dioceses where there is apparent complacency of the bishops or priests. But at the same time, last week they forcibly prohibited the procession of San Sebastian in Masaya and they have prohibited other processions and want to prevent people from congregating and going out on the streets.
It reveals the terror they feel. They are very afraid of the people. They know what happened in 2018, that the people mostly detest them, and that if they had the opportunity to take to the streets again, they would do so. That fear is what makes them keep so many police on the streets, so many prisoners in jails. It's what makes them keep up all the prohibitions, because a democratic government with popular support would not be afraid to allow demonstrations, meetings, opposition activity.
This regime is terrified. They project an image of being powerful, not afraid of anyone or anything, that they don't care about the political costs of their actions. But it is also a regime which is very much afraid of its people. That is why they threw all the opposition candidates into prison before the last elections. They were afraid that any one of them might gain popular support. They are even terrified of religious processions, because when they see ten, twenty, or more Nicaraguans gathered together, they tremble.
This week Daniel Ortega completed 16 consecutive years in power, surpassing even Somoza García and Zelaya. In fact he's been in power 27 years if you include the decade of the 80's. What impact might this crusade against the Catholic Church have on the dynastic succession plans of the Ortega regime that are already underway? On January 9, Rosario Murillo said she is the co-president, a position that does not legally exist in the Constitution.
We are seeing a repeat of what Nicaragua went through with the Somoza dynasty. It seems inconceivable that we could repeat the phenomenon of a dynasty that, because it went on so long, provoked a tremendous civil war in the end. Well, we are heading in the same direction, because Rosario Murillo is clearly a co-ruler.
There are those who claim that she manages more the day-to-day as well as the whole management of the State than Ortega himself. It's also clear that she is putting together a plan so that in case either of them is no longer around, succession would continue through Laureano [Ortega Murillo] or another member of the presidential family.
This also reveals their fear and distrust, because no one outside the family can be trusted or have power. It is a regime with no internal ideological cohesion, such as the Cuban communist party might have. It is simply a family that seeks, through threats and perks, to build a circle of support around itself. But outside this intimate circle they trust no one.
Even the fact that they have kept General Avilés in the Army demonstrates their distrust of other members of the Army General Staff. They distrust senior military officers in the Army who might have a more independent attitude. They have clung on to an extremely servile military man, and they are keeping him indefinitely as the head of the Army. All this distrust shows their level of fear.
Every day we are seeing that there are also high-level public officials in jail, in prison, or under siege, some accused of crimes attributed to political prisoners, others accused of corruption. Others complain that their passports have been withheld to prevent them from traveling out of the country. Is a dynastic succession viable?
These kinds of measures against their own public officials are additional expressions of the ruling couple's fear of their own support circle. It is a symptom of a tremendous distrust and a dynastic desire to pass power from Rosario Murillo to her children, which would be a replica of what happened with the Somoza family.
In this sense, it's worth remembering what happened when Luis Somoza came to power during the Somoza dynasty, which ended so tragically. He was an engineer, with a modern education, more civilian. He feared that the Somoza dictatorship could cause the collapse of the regime and bring about big problems, so he opposed "continuism". He made changes in the Constitution to prevent reelection and he himself went home after completing his term. He was always opposed to his brother Anastasio occupying the Presidency after him and this caused bitter arguments within the family.
I know, from revelations by some of them, how the family fought so that Tacho Somoza [Debayle] would not try to maintain the "continuist" route. They felt that continuing against all odds in this tradition would only produce greater dissension within the State. Let's not forget that a large number of the Sandinistas who are with the Ortegas fought against the Somoza dynasty. So they will see there is a new dynasty, and it will be more difficult to justify.
There is also the danger that when all civic avenues and possibilities of an opening or some democratic solution are closed, there will be the temptation of some sectors to resort to violence, to think about bombings and attacks, to arm themselves. This has happened so many times in the history of Nicaragua.
It would be so much wiser if within the Ortega family itself, there were members who, like Luis Somoza, would have a little more vision and see what is best for the country and for themselves. They would look for a different solution than the Korean path. They could go for gradual democratization, making concessions, freeing political prisoners, and announcing a more cooperative, less antagonistic position. They need to be smart enough to see that it's better to negotiate with the whole world and recover credibility and legitimacy than to stubbornly stick to what history has shown to be an extremely dangerous path.
This article was originally published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by our staff.
