Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently announced plans for the United States to impose a new round of sanctions on Nicaraguan government officials and on the country's gold industry.
The sanctions follow an amendment to an executive order President Joe Biden signed Monday that works to expand sanction authorities,according to an Oct. 24 Department of State news release. The restrictions will be on more than 500 Nicaraguan individuals and their family members.
"We are doing so pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 10309, which suspends entry into the United States as immigrants and nonimmigrants of members of the government of Nicaragua and other persons who formulate, implement or benefit from policies or actions that undermine democratic institutions or impede the return to democracy in Nicaragua,” Blinken said in the release.
“These individuals include members of Nicaraguan security services, such as the Nicaraguan National Police, penitentiary officials, judges, prosecutors, higher education officials and non-government actors who enable regime repression and corruption as well as their family members,” he added, according to the release. “No member of the Nicaraguan government nor anyone who facilitates the Ortega-Murillo regime’s abuses should believe they can travel freely to the United States.”
The Ortega-Murillo regime demonstrated it thinks it is not bound by the rule of law through its attacks on democratic actors and members of civil society and by unjustly detaining political prisoners, Under Secretary of the Treasury of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said, a Treasury Department news release reported Oct. 24. The new executive order will enable the use of every tool available to deny the regime what it needs to continue undermining democratic institutions in Nicaragua.
Sanctions were also placed on the Nicaraguan mining authority General Directorate of Mines, according to the Department of Treasury release. DGM managed mining operations on the Ortega regime’s behalf. Gold sales revenue has funded the regime. By designating DGM, doing business in Nicaragua’s gold industry essentially becomes illegal for Americans.
This action was the first time the U.S. identified a specific portion of the country’s economy as off-limits, according to the Associated Press. Future sanctions may expand to include other industries.
AP News reported gold was Nicaragua's largest export in 2020, and that the country is the largest producer of gold in Central America. Monday’s sanctions have placed a crucial blow on one of the country’s biggest sources of revenue.
