United States and European Union announced new sanctions against Nicaragua this Monday (10), when dictator Daniel Ortega takes office for his fifth term of five years, the fourth in a row.
The European Union approved new sanctions against a daughter and a son of Ortega, in addition to five other people linked to the regime, as well as against three entities in the country.
10151650Specifically, 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.
Member countries approved the sanctions because they consider that the people and entities involved committed “serious human rights violations” and supported the “fraudulent ” of November last year, in which Ortega was reelected without facing the main opponents at the polls – they had been arrested in the previous months.
The restrictive measures also apply to the Nicaraguan National Police, the Supreme Electoral Council and the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Posts. 10151650The EU applied the first sanctions against Nicaragua in
, and in total they affect 21 people – including Ortega’s vice president and wife, Rosario Murillo, and another of his children, Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo – and these three entities.
None of them will be able to enter EU countries, and all their assets in the bloc have been frozen.
10151650The EU started preparing this latest package of sanctions after the November elections, which member countries considered fraudulent because the main l opposition leaders were arrested.
According to the EU High Representative for Foreigners, Josep Borrell, the elections were held without “democratic guarantees”, because the Ortega regime “deprived” Nicaraguans of a “trustworthy, inclusive, fair and transparent” contest. 10151650In turn, the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets (OFAC) of the Department of the Treasury of the United States States announced sanctions against six senior officials of the Ortega regime.
For the repression to opponents and activists since April 2018, Brigadier General Bayardo de Jesus Pulido Ortiz, head of the Department of Personnel and Staff of the Nicaraguan Army; Major General Bayardo Ramon Rodriguez Ruiz, Army Chief of Staff; and Rosa Adelina Barahona de Rivas, Minister of Defense of Nicaragua.
By Dissemination of disinformation and persecution of independent media by Telcor, the agency responsible for regulating the telecommunications and postal services sectors in Nicaragua, cited Celina Delgado Castellon, deputy director, and Nahima Janett Diaz Flores, director general of Telcor.
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 2018 to increase the involvement of the State 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 10% or more of a stake of the aforementioned, directly or indirectly.
“The Ortega-Murillo regime continues to subjugate democracy through mock elections, silencing the peaceful opposition and maintaining hundreds of people as political prisoners”, declared the 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 immediate release of political prisoners and for the return to democracy”, added Nelson.
, the US State Department has imposed visa restrictions on “116 individuals who are accomplices in undermining democracy in Nicaragua, including mayors, prosecutors and university administrators, as well as police, prison and defense officials,” said the Secretary Antony Blinken in a statement.
