Liam Conner
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced new sanctions and other restrictions on Nicaragua, aimed at curbing migration to the US southern border and penalizing the country for alleged human rights violations and its close ties to Russia.
Some of the actions against the country are being taken to respond to “significant concern about the government of Nicaragua and its continued repression of the people of Nicaragua and its exploitation of migrants,” a senior administration official told reporters this morning.
U.S. authorities have accused Nicaraguan government leaders — the husband-and-wife duo of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo — of “profiting from desperate and vulnerable migrants.”
“O [Nicaraguan] “The regime sells visas on arrival at its airports to migrants that require them to leave the country within 96 hours,” explained a US official. toward our southwestern border.”
Because this often involves air travel, the Biden administration also today issued an aviation alert to air carriers and charter companies, which is intended to notify airlines that migrants are being exploited through the use of their planes. The US recommends that these companies participate in travel document validation processes, work with the Biden administration to identify known migrant smuggling routes, and report concerns about the Nicaraguan government’s actions at airports.
Wednesday’s sanctions are both logistical and political: Russia is also implicated in the actions taken by the administration. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Training Center in Managua is one of the Nicaragua-based organizations being sanctioned because, according to US officials, this Russian military training center trains the Nicaraguan National Police “to prosecute the political opposition.” .
“Daniel Ortega and Rosário – and those under their command – continue to unjustly detain their own countrymen for courageously defending free civil society, religious freedom and freedom of expression,” explained a US official. “They chose to align themselves with the authoritarian Russian government and follow its playbook of repression.”
Lastly, the U.S. hopes to target Nicaragua’s financial elites by sanctioning two government-run gold companies and imposing visa restrictions on 250 government members and society leaders that inhibit the rights and freedoms of the Nicaraguan people, U.S. officials said. Americans.
Bo Erickson
