Pope returns Rome to the uncomfortable voice of the Nicaraguan Church | Internationale

With a touching message on Twitter the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Mgr Silvio Báez, announced that Pope Francis had asked him to return to the Vatican, which was greeted with surprise and sorrow by those who see in this religious born in 1958 in the rebel Masaya a a man committed to the freedom of Nicaragua, beyond religion. For many, it is a kind of Nicaraguan Romero, a belligerent voice, willing to risk his safety to avoid a mbadacre and who, while demanding a stop of the critical repression of the pulpit with severity towards the regime led by Daniel Ortega. Perhaps that is why it is a too uncomfortable voice at a time when the Vatican has turned its diplomacy to reach an agreement that will put an end to the crisis that has bled to death the country of Central America.

"I thank Pope Francis who, after confirming my ministry and my episcopal style, asked me to go to Rome for a while, and I bring to my pastor's heart the joys and sorrows, the pains and the hopes of my Nicaraguan people, thank you all for your love! "wrote Báez. A few hours ago, at a press conference with Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes in Managua, Báez said he had not asked to leave Nicaragua. "I have been called by the Holy Father, this decision to leave Nicaragua is the responsibility of the Holy Father," he said.

Baez had been the object of the hatred of Ortega's followers, to the point that he himself denounced the fact that he was warned of a draft plan for the # 39; s murder. Ortega had already turned his weapons against the priest, whom he accused of speaking as "courage and radicals", while a campaign was launched in the media controlled by Ortega's children and on social networks. The bishop has not stopped criticizing, even when he called Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, "beasts" of the apocalypse. "There are texts," said Báez, "where they are invited to pray for the rulers, but there are other texts, especially the last of the New Testament, when the persecution began, the Apocalypse, when the power is already identified with a beast, or two beasts, the one who exercises the power and the one who speaks in his name, making it the propaganda, this is in apocalypse, chapter 13. What do the Christians ask? Be ready to give your life, you must fight, you must denounce. "

Báez will leave Nicaragua at a time of great diplomatic tension. The Vatican will try to conduct negotiations blocked by Ortega 's refusal to release all those imprisoned as part of the crackdown on protests that have been demanding for nearly a year the end of the works. his mandate and discuss institutional reforms and the progress of the elections, a thorny issue for the Sandinista, who shows no interest in leaving the power to Nicaragua convulsive.

The Vatican played a crucial role in this negotiation process with the opposition Civic Alliance, its representative in Managua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, playing a guarantor role at the table of dialogue, without reaching a concrete agreement the demands of the opponents. In Nicaragua, many suspect Sommertag's role, which they accuse of being more aligned with the Ortega regime, but the same Nuncio moved away from criticism and badured in mid-March that I have no interest. countries out of this situation or want to live another ten months with this attitude where they asked for dialogue? ", he said, referring to his role as mediator in the negotiations.

On March 16, Yaritza Rostrán, one of the dozens of prisoners released after six months of imprisonment, badured EL PAÍS that, during a visit to the women's prison "La Esperanza", Sommertag had asked them to leave their hunger strike. a group of detainees in protest against the Ortega regime. "I do not know what his intentions were: I do not know who he came from, but it seems to be the government's, and he even told us to stop delaying the negotiation process with the strike of the hungry, to eat, that it was not a way to protest … He came to urge us not to continue to protest, which we thought was incredible coming from a nuncio who should be neutral we know we can not be on the side of the regime, "said the student after his release.