Life in ‘El Chipote’ – A Nicaraguan priest’s story of prison, torture and exile
Last August, a small group of priests, seminarians, a deacon, and a few lay people were held by police in an unofficial house arrest in the home of Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, who was imprisoned with them.
The detention came after Álvarez protested a government decision to close 10 radio stations in his diocese.
After two weeks in the bishop’s house, police took Álvarez into custody, and his seven collaborators were sent to El Chipote, a Nicaraguan prison for political prisoners, where torture is reportedly a common practice.
In February, Bishop Álvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison, and his collaborators were sentenced to 10 years in prison, stripped of their national identities, and then exiled by the Nicaraguan government to the United States, alongside more than 215 other political prisoners.
The Pillar spoke with a priest who was detained with Bishop Álvarez, imprisoned for six months, and then exiled from his country.
To protect his family in Nicaragua, the priest spoke under the condition of anonymity.
