US sanctions Nicaragua attorney general

The United States on Thursday announced sanctions against Nicaragua’s Attorney General Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina for supporting Nicaragua’s “relentless repression of peaceful opposition members.”

In one report, the Treasury Department called Morales Urbina “the central figure in the Nicaraguan regime’s unjust persecution of political prisoners.” press release announced sanctions. Morales Urbina supported the policies of President Daniel Ortega, a former Sandinista leader who has been under U.S. sanctions for decades and has been president since 2007, the statement said.

The sanctions prohibit U.S. companies, including financial institutions, from working with Morales Urbina and freeze her U.S.-based assets.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions were directly related to Morales Urbina’s actions following large-scale public protests in 2018. The statement claims Morales Urbina supported Ortega in “suppressing popular protests, imprisoning political opponents, silencing critical voices in the media or forcing them into exile.” are doing.

“Mr. Morales Urbina was key to developing a strategy to designate Nicaraguan opposition members as terrorists and use existing anti-terrorism laws to disrupt their sources of funding,” the Treasury Department said. statement.

The Treasury also announced that Morales Urbina had illegally nationalized opposition property and confiscated more than 200 political prisoners.

The State Department issued a similar statement statement Explained the sanctions imposed by the Ministry of Finance.

“As Attorney General, Mr. Morales Urbina silenced the voices of opposition and seized the property of more than 300 Nicaraguans,” the State Department said in a statement. “She supported Ortega’s move to strip the citizenship of exiled political prisoners. She is responsible for the arbitrary closure of more than 3,500 civil society organizations, including more than 250 evangelical groups. ”

“Mr. Morales Urbina participated in baseless attacks on religious institutions by the Ortega Murillo government, including the false accusations and unjust detention of religious leaders,” the ministry continued. “We reaffirm our commitment to promoting accountability for the egregious actions of the Nicaraguan regime and its collaborators.”