US imposes visa restrictions on more than 100 Nicaraguan municipal officials

Government of USA Visa restrictions have been imposed on more than a hundred local Nicaraguan officials linked to Sandinism, the State Department reported this Friday.

According to Washington, those sanctioned are “involved in the relentless attacks by the governments of (Daniel) Ortega and (Rosario) Murillo on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Nicaraguans.”

The measures bar affected people, who were not identified, from entering the United States.

The State Department maintained that the Ortega government “engaged in a repressive campaign that silences civil society and unjustly detains people brave enough to exercise their fundamental freedoms.”

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The announcement of the United States’ move comes in the same week that the Daniel Ortega regime released its sixth information bulletin on regional elections in the Caribbean region that are scheduled to take place on March 4.

.@StateDept Moved to impose visa restrictions on more than 100 Nicaraguan municipal officials for their role in the Ortega-Murillo regime, which suppresses voices in 🇳🇮 and unjustly detains brave people who support a free civil society.…— Brian A. Nichols ( @WHAAsstSecty ) February 16, 2024

Although the regime started the election campaign, as well as maintaining the approval of the electoral ballot that the final list of candidates to consolidate the regional councils has already been published, the truth is that for some opponents the process lacks legitimacy and transparency.

According to Open Ballots, the electoral context has been marked by recent incidents of political violence and arbitrary arrests, mainly the cancellation of the Yatama indigenous party, which represents the demands and interests of significant sectors of the coastal population.

Reports indicate that Yatama leaders such as Brooklyn Rivera face illegal detention and enforced disappearance, raising concerns about respect for human and political rights in the region.