- US sanctions Nicaraguan attorney general for suppressing dissent
- Accused of facilitating property theft from political detainees
- Measures include asset seizure, transaction bans between nations
The United States has sanctioned the attorney general of Nicaragua because she allegedly participated in the “unjust persecution of political prisoners and civil society” by the government.
The attorney general since 2019, Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina, “has exploited her office to facilitate a coordinated campaign to suppress dissent by unlawfully seizing property from government political opponents,” according to a statement released on Thursday by Brian Nelson, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Department of the Treasury.
The Treasury Department stated that Morales Urbina oversaw the theft of property from 222 political detainees who were transferred to the United States in 2023 and stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship.
The United States shall seize any assets or investments she possesses within the nation and prohibit any transactions between the two countries.
US Department of State spokesman Mathew Miller stated that the attorney general supported the “ruthless oppression of peaceful opposition members in Nicaragua by President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.”
In a post on X, he added, “We will continue to take action against anti-democratic actors and human rights violators.”
Sincere “terrorism” allegations deprived 300 individuals of their citizenship under Ortega’s administration last year. They included the 222 political prisoners, who were exiled after a law was enacted, stripping them of their citizenship. Among these were prominent opposition figures and student activists. Despite negotiations leading to their release to the United States, these individuals could not return.
Since he led a revolution that deposed a US-backed government over four decades ago, Washington has opposed Ortega, a former Marxist rebel. However, his government’s escalating human rights abuses have further estranged Nicaragua from the majority of the Western world.
The Treasury Department stated that Morales Urbina was “crucial” in the formulation of policies that labelled members of the Nicaraguan opposition “terrorists”. It blocked their financial resources with an “anti-terrorism” law.
Morales Urbina was previously placed on a corruption blocklist by the State Department, which prohibits her from entering the United States.
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Ortega and Murillo, along with numerous other officials and justices, are presently subject to severe sanctions imposed by the United States.
From 1979 to 1990, Ortega initially governed Nicaragua with popular leftist policies. Upon his re-election in 2007, he progressively exerted greater control over state institutions, executing dissenters, including esteemed members of the Catholic Church.
On April 18, 2018, when citizens took to the streets to protest austerity measures and social security cutbacks, and the government retaliated with lethal force, more than 300 people were killed.
The Ortega government has consolidated power, according to a report published by Amnesty International on the anniversary of the protests last year, via “excessive use of force, use of criminal laws to unjustly criminalise activists and dissidents, attacks on civil society, and forced exile.”
