USA announced on Monday more sanctions against Nicaragua in response “to the farce of national elections orchestrated by the president Daniel Ortega and the vice president Rosario Murillo“.
The Treasury department imposes sanctions on the Nicaraguan Public Ministry and nine high-ranking government officials, including the Vice Minister of Finance, José Adrián Chavarria Montenegro; the minister of Energy and Minas, Salvador Mansell Castrillo; and several mayors whom he accuses of being involved in the repression of peaceful demonstrations in 2018.
The Foreign Assets Control Office (OFAC) of Treasury Department accuse the Public ministry (federal prosecutor’s office) for having “unfairly arrested and investigated presidential candidates and prevented them from running for public office, thus undermining democracy in Nicaragua.”
US President Joe Biden called the November 7 elections a “farce”, in which Ortega won for a fourth consecutive term, along with his wife Rosario Murillo as vice president, without strong opponents.
The Secretary of State, Antony Blink, had warned that Washington was considering imposing new sanctions.
“The Ortega regime is using laws and institutions to detain members of the political opposition and deprive Nicaraguans of the right to vote,” he declared. Andrea M. Gacki, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
“The United States is sending an unequivocal message to President Ortega, Vice President Murillo, and their narrow circle that we support the Nicaraguan people in their calls for reform and a return to democracy,” he adds.
The new punishment measures imply the blocking of all the properties and possible assets of these people in the United States.
The sanctions “are not intended to be permanent, but are issued to encourage a positive change in behavior on the part of the identified individuals and the authoritarian regime they support,” he says.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx