US President Joe Biden renewed this Thursday an executive order issued in 2018which declares Nicaragua as an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
The Democratic president extended the order after assessing that the situation in Nicaragua, “including the violent response by the Nicaraguan government to the protests that began on April 18, 2018” continues in the Central American country.
In addition, Biden notes that the continued systematic dismantling and undermining of democratic institutions” as well as “its use of indiscriminate violence and repressive tactics against civilians” continues to pose a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. .
Based on this, President Biden had previously issued a decree to take additional actions regarding the national emergency declared by Washington, such as sanctions on different items that finance the Ortega administration.
The gold was the first item sanctioned by Washington after this measure, on October 25.
The government of Daniel Ortega, accused of serious human rights violations, has reacted on different occasions to Washington’s measures and has branded them absurd.
Regarding the sanctions against his administration, he has indicated that they are an incentive for the massive migration of Nicaraguans. “Keep imposing sanctions and more immigrants will go to the United States,” Ortega said sarcastically during the 43rd anniversary of the Ministry of the Interior, in October 2022.
During fiscal year 2022, the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded arrests of 164,600 Nicaraguans who fled the political crisis in this Central American country.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a political crisis since 2018, after demonstrations against President Ortega, who returned to power in 2007.
The protests were repressed with violence, according to human rights organizations, which They count more than 300 people killedincluding students, human rights activists and members of civil society.
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