State Department places sanctions on 100 Nicaraguan officials 

The U.S. State Department on Saturday placed sanctions on 100 Nicaraguan officials for their participation in restricting Nicaraguans’ human rights under the regime of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo.

The State Department said Saturday it is imposing visa restrictions on 100 Nicaraguan municipal officials to “promote accountability for the Ortega-Murillo regime’s relentless attacks on civil liberties.” 

The State Department said these officials participated in attempts to “repress civil society organizations, close civic spaces” and “unjustly” detained critics of the government, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a vocal critic of the Nicaraguan government.

Under the Ortega regime, Álvarez was among multiple priests arrested last year after he spoke out against the government’s closure of several Catholic radio stations and called out the government’s human rights record, according to U.S. officials.

In February, Álvarez, who refused to be exiled to the U.S., was sentenced to 26 years in prison for undermining the government, spreading false information, and obstruction of functions and disobedience, the Associated Press (AP) reported. He was also stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship

“We call on the regime to unconditionally and immediately release Bishop Álvarez and all those unjustly detained,” State Secretary Antony Blinken wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

The sanctions come days after Nicaragua’s government confiscated a prestigious Jesuit-run university, claiming it was a “center of terrorism,” marking the latest threat against the Catholic Church in the country.

Dozens of Ortega’s opposition figures were jailed before he won his fourth consecutive term in 2021, which many called a farce. Some of these opponents have since faced trial or been convicted on vague charges equivalent to treason. 

Earlier this year, the Treasury Department announced sanctions for six officials in Nicaragua ahead of Ortega’s inauguration in January.  The Treasury Department also froze the U.S. assets of the defense minister and other leaders in the army, telecom and mining sectors. 

In 2021, the Biden administration placed visa restrictions on 100 individuals of Nicaragua’s political and judicial systems, including those part of the Nicaraguan National Assembly, prosecutors, judges and some of their family members.