Just before dawn on August 19, 2022, police surrounded the home of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, the Catholic prelate of Matagalpa, a city in central Nicaragua. Without obtaining a warrant, they arrested the bishop and seven other members of the Catholic Church. For the fifteen days before his arrest, he had been confined to his house and unable to leave, even to celebrate Mass in the cathedral just down the road.

The charges that the government brought against the bishop were serious.