Nicaraguan authorities have returned a Catholic bishop to jail after he refused to go into exile in Italy.
Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa was sent back the Jorge Navarro de Tipitapa National Penitentiary System, a notorious prison known as “La Modelo”, after negotiations with government officials broke down.
The hard-left dictatorship of President Daniel Ortega was hoping that he could be persuaded to accept exile Rome but he refused to go.
He was taken from La Modelo to the headquarters of the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference in Managua, the capital, but sent back to jail after just two days.
