U.S. makes fresh call for jailed Nicaraguan bishop’s release

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols on Monday put fresh pressure on Nicaragua to release an anti-government bishop condemned last week to a
26-year prison sentence.
The sentencing of Rolando Alvarez, 56, Bishop of Matagalpa and one of the most influential leaders of the country’s Catholic Church, came after more than 200 political prisoners in Nicaragua were released and flown to the United States last Thursday in what Washington described as a “constructive step”
toward improving human rights.
Alvarez declined to be expelled to the United States as part of the mass release, however. The Nicaragua government handed down his prison sentence shortly after.
“We condemn the Nicaraguan government’s sentencing of Bishop Rolando Alvarez to 26 years in prison, as well as the decision to strip him and all released political prisoners of Nicaraguan citizenship,” Nichols wrote on Twitter.
Pope Francis, a critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, on Sunday also voiced his concern over the imprisonment of the bishop.