The United States and the European Union announced new sanctions against Nicaragua this Monday (10), as dictator Daniel Ortega takes office for his fifth five-year term, the fourth in a row.
The European Union approved new sanctions against a daughter and a son of Ortega, as well as five other people linked to the regime, as well as against three entities in the country.
Specifically, the EU sanctioned Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo and her brother Laureano Facundo, as well as, among others, the president of the Superior Electoral Council, Brenda Isabel Rocha Chacón.
The member countries approved the sanctions because they consider that the people and entities involved committed “serious human rights violations” and supported the “fraudulent” elections of November last year, in which Ortega was reelected without facing the main opponents at the polls – they had been arrested in previous months.
The restrictive measures also apply to the Nicaraguan National Police, the Supreme Electoral Council and the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Posts.
The EU applied the first sanctions against Nicaragua in 2020, and in total they affect 21 people – including Vice President and Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, and another of his sons, Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo – and these three entities.
None of them will be allowed to enter EU countries, and all their assets in the bloc have been frozen.
The EU began preparing this latest package of sanctions after the November elections, which member countries deemed fraudulent because key opposition leaders were arrested.
According to the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, the elections were held without “democratic guarantees”, because the Ortega regime “deprived” Nicaraguans of a “trustworthy, inclusive, fair and transparent” contest.
In turn, the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets (Ofac) of the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against six senior officials of the Ortega regime.
For the repression of opponents and activists since April 2018, Brigadier General Bayardo de Jesus Pulido Ortiz, head of the Department of Personnel and Cadres of the Nicaraguan Army, was sanctioned; Major General Bayardo Ramon Rodriguez Ruiz, Army Chief of Staff; and Rosa Adelina Barahona de Rivas, Minister of Defense of Nicaragua.
For the dissemination of disinformation and persecution of independent media by Telcor, the agency responsible for regulating the telecommunications and postal services sectors in Nicaragua, Celina Delgado Castellon, deputy director, and Nahima Janett Diaz Flores, director general of Telcor, were cited.
The sixth target of the sanctions is Ramon Humberto Calderon Vindell, chairman of the board of directors of Eniminas, a state-owned company created in 2017 to increase state involvement in the mining sector.
According to a statement released by the Department of the Treasury, all assets owned by these people who are in the United States are blocked, as well as those of any legal entity that has a 50% or more interest in those mentioned, directly or indirectly.
“The Ortega-Murillo regime continues to subjugate democracy through mock elections, silencing peaceful opposition and holding hundreds of people as political prisoners,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.
“The United States and our partners are sending a clear message to President (sic) Ortega, Vice President Murillo and their inner circle that we continue to support the Nicaraguan people in their calls for the immediate release of political prisoners and a return to democracy. ,” added Nelson.
At the same time, the US State Department has imposed visa restrictions on “116 individuals who are complicit in undermining democracy in Nicaragua, including mayors, prosecutors and university administrators, as well as police, prison and defense officials,” the statement said. secretary Antony Blinken in a statement.
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