Nicaragua: False Witness Turned US Parole Beneficiary
Her invented testimony was against imprisoned Bishop Rolando Alvarez
HAVANA TIMES – Gabriela Alejandra Rayo, a Nicaraguan who acted as a witness for the fabricated court case the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship staged against Monsignor Rolando Alvarez, has reached the United States, together with her entire family. She was benefitted with humanitarian parole, a measure initiated by US President Joe Biden in January 2023, allowing Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Cubans and Haitians to enter the country and remain there legally for two years.
Information on the couple’s history was shared on social media by the former judicial functionary and expert in justice administration, Yader Morazán, himself in exile. Rayo’s husband, according to Morazán, is Juan Alberto Soza, recognized in Matagalpa as a paramilitary for the Ortega dictatorship.
“Both beneficiaries deleted all their posts in support of the Ortega regime and the “revolution” at the request of their sponsor, Anna Soza Jarquín,” Morazán denounced.
In mid-January, the regime enlisted the help of twelve witnesses and four experts to testify in the bogus trial they staged against the Bishop. Their witnesses included three policemen, two state workers and several Sandinista sympathizers, including Gabriela Alejandra.
Monsignor Rolando Álvarez, a religious leader who spoke out in opposition to the regime’s actions, was detained in August 2022, while in the Matagalpa Curia. Originally accused of “undermining the national integrity,” and “spreading false news,” the prelate was abruptly tried and sentenced to 26 years in prison, in an express “trial” held in February, immediately after he refused to be exiled to the United States along with a group of 222 political prisoners. Monsignor Alvarez currently remains imprisoned in the Jorge Navarro Penitentiary System known as “La Modelo”.
Morazan indicated that now the family can complete the “dance group” they founded in Matagalpa, where several members of the family appear with hoods and weapons, a dance they’ve replicated in Miami, where they have relatives.
“Although they’re no longer cradling the AKA-47 rifles, (they’re still dancing),” Morazan wrote.
Family involved in “criminal actions”
According to Morazan, it’s no secret to anyone that the Soza family in Matagalpa “is dedicated to criminal actions… that range from attacks on (Catholic) Church activities, to false witness statements and paramilitarism.”
He indicated that “even once they were in the US, one of them posted about a member of the opposition who had gone into exile for their security.”
In previous declarations to La Prensa, Morazan noted that a Nicaraguan Assistant Police Chief, Maria de Jesus Guzman, had been admitted to the US. At the time, he commented that this type of case “should sound an alarm or be cause for reflection, so that those determining eligibility for parole improve or perfect their control mechanisms.”
He notes that the problem of humanitarian parole “lies in the fact that the requirements for parole aren’t very strict, and they don’t engage in any deep investigation that could call into question the eligibility of a person who has been involved in some way in repressive or corrupt acts in Nicaragua. Basically, for granting parole they reference only the economic solvency of the sponsor and screen the potential beneficiary for any criminal record in the US. It doesn’t involve a detailed examination, like in the case of political asylum, and for that reason we see that many people close to the regime have come to the US.”