Bishop Alvarez is sentenced to a common prisoner jail by Ortega as punishment for refusing to go into exile
The Nicaraguan dictator also admits that his wife had the idea to deport the 222 "terrorists." "She phoned the U.S. ambassador and decided alongside him. After receiving a good response, we made it"
Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista dictator, claimed yesterday that Rolando Álvarez, the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa and Estelí, had refused to leave Nicaragua with the 222 opponents who had been freed the day before. In a unified network message broadcast on radio and television, Ortega said that the bishop "was in line to board the plane and started saying he was not leaving", and as a result, he was transported back to prison in Managua. There are currently only three religious prisoners in Nicaragua: two priests who were detained "for common crimes" and the bishop who was arrested for "terrorism," according to the dictator, who also claimed that a dozen priests, deacons, and seminarians willingly boarded the plane that freed 222 opponents.