Nicaraguan churches demand the freeing of the Lutheran pastor arrested in Guatemala

Managua, Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Special Attorney For Civic Participation of Nicaragua, Sixto Ulloa and pastors of different churches and institutions, such as the Inter-Ecclesial Center for Social Studies (CIEETS, Spanish acronym), declared themselves to be in solidarity and demanded the immediate release of Lutheran pastor, José Pilar Alvarez, arrested in Guatemala for the alleged crime of interfering with private possession.

Alvarez was arrested by a great military force as a result of his having defended 22 indigenous communities that demand the conservation and use of the sources of water in the area of the Granadillas Mountain. 

Ulloa said that it is God who gives the water and that to withhold it is a serious sin, above all when denied to people who do not have financial resources. On the other hand, the big foreign companies who commercialize the water have its exploration facilitated, he added.

The Special Attorney, who is also a Baptist leader, exhorted his counterpart in Guatemala to accompany the Lutheran Church in the effort to have Alvarez released, and also the communities in their struggle, because to deny them the water is to deny them life; to deny them the water is a violation human rights, emphasized Ulloa.

Pastor Marcelino Basset, Coordinator of the Inter-Religious Committee for Peace, stated that the human rights of Pastor Alvarez are to be respected, and asked that he be released immediately, saying also that it is another act of injustice of the Guatemalan authorities, who always marginalize the indigenous communities.

Mennonite pastor and Secretary of CIEETS, Jairo Arce, also expressed his solidarity with the Lutheran pastors and called on the churches of Meso America to declare their solidarity and to demand Pastor Alvarez's release, who has also received a death threat. Pastor José Luis Rodríguez of the Pastoral Committee of the Council of Evangelical Churches (CEPAD, Spanish acronym) to the north of the capital city of Managua, and Pastor William González of the Church of God in Nicaragua, said that the action on the part of the Guatemalan authorities is a violation of a sacred right to life, such as the use of water.

Trinidad Vásquez

Latin America and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC)

www.alcnoticias.org

More information:

Lutheran pastor José Pilar Alvarez continues under house arrest in Guatemala (Mayra Rodríguez / ALC, 29.01.2009)