The Nicaraguan dictatorship reported that it has released 12 priests it had imprisoned and sent them to the Vatican after an agreement was reached with the authorities of the Catholic Church.

Bishop Rolando Alvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa was not among those released. Bishop Alvarez was sentenced on Feb. 10 to 26 years and 4 months in prison. A day before the sentence, the prelate refused to be part of the group of 222 deportees who were sent to the United States, and who were then stripped of their nationality and property in Nicaragua by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega.

In a press release dated Oct. 18, the Ortega regime announced that the release of the 12 priests took place “after fruitful conversations with the Holy See.” The priests, the release said, are headed to the Vatican and “traveled to Rome, Italy, this afternoon.”

In the release, the government stated that the agreement was reached “with the intercession of high authorities of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua and the Vatican.”

The group will be received “by personnel of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See,” the release said.

ACI Prensa and CNA reached out to the Vatican’s office of communications for confirmation of the Holy See’s involvement but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The released priests are Father Manuel Salvador García Rodríguez and Father José Leonardo Urbina Rodríguez, from the Diocese of Granada; Father Jaime Iván Montesinos Sauceda, from the Diocese of Matagalpa; and Father Fernando Israel Zamora Silva, from the Diocese of Siuna.

Also released are Father Osman José Amador Guillén, Father Julio Ricardo Norori Jiménez, Father José Iván Centeno Tercero, Father Yessner Cipriano Pineda Meneses, Father Álvaro José Toledo Amador, and Father Eugenio Rodríguez Benavidez, all from the Diocese of Estelí.

Completing the group of released priests are Father Cristóbal Reynaldo Gadea Velásquez, from the Diocese of Jinotega; and Father Ramón Angulo Reyes, from the Diocese of Bluefields.

On Oct. 15, eight of these priests were sent to El Chipote prison, known as a torture prison.

In a statement sent to ACI Prensa, Felix Maradiaga, a political prisoner and president of the Foundation for Nicaraguan Freedom, expressed his “deep joy for the release of the unjustly detained pastors.”

However, he expressed his “firm demand for the release of Bishop Rolando Alvarez of the Diocese of Matagalpa and the numerous other political prisoners who remain in custody.” This group would be made up of more than 80 people.