The Undersecretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian A. Nichols, celebrated the sanctions imposed this Friday, June 17, by the United States Department of the Treasury on the Nicaraguan Mining Company (Eniminas) and its president, Ruy Delgado López.
“The Ortega-Murillo regime continues to undermine Nicaragua’s democratic institutions and allows corruption and impunity to reign. Today, the US is taking additional steps to promote accountability for the Nicaraguan regime’s nefarious behavior,” the US official wrote on his Twitter account.
State Department spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter that the United States “supports the international chorus condemning the Ortega-Murillo regime’s attacks on civil liberties and democracy.” He added that the sanctions on the Nicaraguan state mining company and the president of its Board of Directors “make corrupt actors and institutions responsible.”
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“Nicaragua is deepening its relationship with Russia while turning its back on the Nicaraguan people. The United States took additional steps to promote accountability for the Ortega-Murillo regime’s attacks on civil liberties and democracy,” Price said in an official US state statement.
According to the State Department, the Ortega-Murillo regime promotes the mining industry, boosting the profits of its allies in the private sector and increasing the income of Eniminas, which “are managed by high-ranking officials of the ruling party.”
“As the Ortega-Murillo regime continues to isolate itself by repressing Nicaraguan democracy and the human rights of Nicaraguans, it finds itself closing in on other authoritarian nations like Russia,” he added.
The United States joined the regional calls for a return to democracy in Nicaragua and assures that it will continue to use the diplomatic and economic tools at its disposal to promote the accountability of the Ortega-Murillo regime.
