The Department of State is imposing visa restrictions on 116 individuals complicit in undermining democracy in Nicaragua. The list includes mayors, prosecutors, university administrators and police, prison and military officials.

Also, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned six members of the Ortega-Murillo regime for currently serving as officials of the Government of Nicaragua or for having served at any time on or after Jan. 10, 2007.

“We are undertaking these economic sanctions and visa restrictions to promote accountability for the Ortega-Murillo regime’s escalating authoritarianism and abuses,” government officials said in a State Department release.

The regime is holding 170 political prisoners, according to the release. Many of those detained, according to reports, lack adequate food and medical care. Others are in solitary confinement. The State Department said Ortega’s corrupt security and judicial system arrested these individuals for practicing activities considered normal in a free society such as independent journalism, working for civil society organizations, seeking to compete in elections and publicly expressing an opinion contrary to government orthodoxy.

“We join the European Union in taking a strong stand against the human rights abuses and disrespect for the Nicaraguan people, demonstrated by the Ortega-Murillo regime,” government officials said in the release. “President Ortega inaugurated himself for a new presidential term, but the pre-determined election he staged on Nov. 7 does not provide him with a new democratic mandate; only free and fair elections can do that. The Nicaraguan people deserve nothing less.”