Pope largely silent on Nicaragua's detainment of Catholic bishop ahead of upcoming hearing
Fox News
A Nicaraguan Catholic bishop and outspoken critic of the country’s authoritarian regime was arrested and charged with 'trumped-up' crimes, but Pope Francis and the Vatican have been largely silent on the matter.
On Dec. 13, he was formally charged with crimes of conspiracy and "propagation of false news" with a hearing scheduled for Jan. 10, according to the government’s media site, the Associated Press reported. Kendall Tietz is a Production Assistant with Fox News Digital.
Alvarez remains under house arrest, where he has been detained since Aug. 19 after he was publicly arrested and led out of his rectory at gunpoint in the early morning hours by the Nicaraguan National Police. He has been a prominent religious and political voice in Nicaragua since 2018, when protests broke out against Ortega’s government, which led to a crackdown on opponents.
The Nicaraguan regime has unknowingly made Álvarez even more famous than he already was by publicly arresting him, where he is shown in photos forced to his knees, in his robes, with army men behind him, pointing machine guns at his head, said Ryan C. Berg of the Center for Strategic & International Studies.