ACI Prensa Staff, Jun 7, 2023 / 15:30 pm
A recent investigation by the Nicaraguan newspaper El Confidencial revealed that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega has withheld more than half a million dollars that was donated to the Church in Estelí by the U.S. bishops’ humanitarian aid agency Catholic Relief Services (CRS).
The independent media reported June 2 that according to sources with ties to the diocese, the donation of $563,206 was legally made on June 14, 2012, to Estelí Caritas when Abelardo Mata was diocesan bishop.
The charity, whose legal personhood was canceled on Feb. 7, 2022, by the National Assembly, agreed to a “total donation” of the money to the Diocese of Estelí, whose apostolic administrator is currently Bishop Rolando Álvarez. The prelate was unjustly sentenced in February to 26 years and four months in prison, charged with treason by the regime.
The money, the news outlet said, was the remainder of a donation that CRS had earmarked for the construction of a hospital.