The US sanctions dozens of Nicaraguan officials and companies for attacking human rights.

USA launched this Wednesday a round of sanctions against the Government of the Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega that affect dozens of officials and companies, for attacking human rights and being “complicit in the exploitation of migrants.”

Senior White House officials reported in a call with the press that the State Department has imposed visa restrictions on more than 250 people, including dozens of members of the Nicaraguan Government and their families, for supporting “the attack on human rights by the Ortega and Murillo regime.”

Additionally, an international police alert was issued to inform the aviation industry about the ways in which smugglers are facilitating illegal migration and to remind the industry “key measures they should take to avoid complicity in these actions.”

Immigration practices and repression in Nicaragua worry the US

The Government of President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo is responsible “to weaponize and profit from desperate and vulnerable migrants” to whom “sells visas upon arrival”according to the United States.

“The actions of the government of Nicaragua are of grave concern as President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo have implemented permissive immigration policies, such as the 96-hour limit, that have introduced opportunities to exploit migrants and encourage dangerous irregular journeys to the southwestern border of the United States. Joined”, they stated.

Among those sanctioned by the State Department are police and paramilitary personnel, prison officials, prosecutors, judges, and public higher education officials.

Through a statement, the department led by Antony Blinken recalled that in November 2021, President Joe Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation restricting the entry into the United States of those people responsible for threatening democracy in Nicaragua and since then measures have been taken to impose visa restrictions on more than 1,400 officials.

“We are deeply concerned by the ways in which the Otega-Murillo regime continues to engage in a repressive campaign that silences civil society and unjustly detained people exercising their fundamental freedoms,” White House sources told the press.

Sanctions reach companies

In a parallel action, the Treasury Department today sanctioned three entities based in Nicaragua, including the Training Center of the Russian Ministry of the Interior in Managua (RTC).

Through a statement, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury detailed that the RTC is a subdivision based in Nicaragua of the Ministry of the Interior of the Government of the Russian Federation (GOR), which trains those who are under the command of the Ortega-Murillo Government “under the oppression manual of the Russian authoritarian government.”

“It is a key actor in the repression of civil society by the Nicaraguan regime and in the unjust detention and imprisonment of people for expressing their dissent or peacefully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms”points out the text.

Also sanctioned are Compañía Minera Internacional, Sociedad Anónima (Cominisa) and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua, two mining companies that trade in gold and, as “affiliated with the government,” “they generate income for the Ortega-Murillo regime.”

“Gold is Nicaragua’s main export product and this action aims to degrade the Ortega-Murillo regime’s ability to manipulate the sector and benefit from corrupt operations”the statement states.

Following the sanctions, all Americans will be prohibited from carrying out transactions with these entities and any assets they have in the United States will be blocked.

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