The United States government has extended its sanctions against officials in President Daniel Ortega’s Nicaraguan administration.
In a statement, the U.S. State Department announced the imposition of visa restrictions on “more than 250 regime officials of the Nicaraguan dictatorship.”
With this latest round of sanctions, the United States has now placed visa bans on over 2,000 officials from the Central American country.
According to the statement, “Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime” has deprived Nicaraguans of their basic freedoms, driving countless citizens into exile.
The U.S. government commended the bravery of protestors and their “desire to live in a Nicaragua free from tyranny,” noting that seven years have passed since a “brutal wave of repression” began.
“The United States will not stand for Ortega and Murillo’s continued assault on Nicaragua,” the State Department asserted.
Recently, Nicaragua’s Congress approved a constitutional amendment that grants President Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, the status of “copresidents.”
The legislature, dominated by the couple’s Sandinista party, also extended the presidential term from five to six years, reinforcing the family’s hold on power.
Murillo, as reported by state media, claimed the controversial reform “strengthens the model of people’s President, the model of direct democracy.”
Since 2018, the Ortega administration has detained political opponents, religious figures, journalists, and others, stripping many of their Nicaraguan citizenship and forcing thousands into exile.
