The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has recently imposed sanctions against the Nicaraguan Public Ministry and nine Nicaraguan government officials.
The action comes in response to what the Department of State called a “sham election” orchestrated by President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo in November, according to a department release.
Nicaraguans were denied “their ability to vote in free and fair elections, following months of repression and the imprisonment of 39 individuals, including seven potential presidential candidates, opposition members, journalists, students, and members of civil society," the release said. "For years, the Ortega-Murillo government chipped away at Nicaragua’s democratic institutions and allowed corruption and impunity to reign.”
The U.S. Department of the Treasury said the Nicaraguan Public Ministry played a key role in the arrests of potential opposition presidential candidates, civic leaders, students and journalists before the elections were held.
“The Ortega regime is using laws and institutions to detain members of the political opposition and deprive Nicaraguans from the right to vote,” Office of Foreign Assets Control Director Andrea M. Gacki said in a Treasury release. “The United States is sending an unequivocal message to President Ortega, Vice President Murillo, and their inner circle that we stand with the Nicaraguan people in their calls for reform and a return to democracy.”
Canada and the United Kingdom also imposed sanctions against Nicaragua and called for the release of political prisoners and a return to democracy, the State Department said. The nine government officials who have been sanctioned are blocked from acquiring or utilizing all property and interests in property under U.S. possession or control.
