Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez was arrested in August along with several other priests and lay people.
MEXICO CITY — A Nicaraguan judge sentenced Roman Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez to 26 years in prison Friday, one day after he refused to get on a flight to the United States with 222 other prisoners.
The plane was barely off the ground Thursday when word began to spread of the surprise release of opposition figures, journalists, activists and priests that most considered political prisoners. Ortega said Vice President Rosario Murillo, his wife, first came to him with the idea of expelling the prisoners.
On Friday, Emily Mendrala, a deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, emphasized to reporters that it was Nicaragua’s decision. “This seems to be some sort of escape valve because there has been a lot of international advocacy, of pressure from the EU, from from the U.S., from others,” said Antonio Garrastazu, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Republican Institute in Washington. “They do more harm inside of Nicaragua than they do outside.”
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