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Biden signed an executive order that includes the authority to ban U.S. companies from doing business in Nicaragua’s gold industry, while U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions the head of Nicaragua’s mining authority, along with another top government official, the department said in a statement.
The order’s expanded sanctions powers could also be used to block new U.S. investment in certain other sectors in Nicaragua, the importation of certain Nicaraguan products or the exportation of certain items to Nicaragua, it added.
“The Ortega-Murillo regime’s continued attacks on democratic actors and members of civil society and unjust detention of political prisoners demonstrate that the regime feels it is not bound by the rule of law,” Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said. He said the U.S. actions aimed to deny them “the resources they need to continue to undermine democratic institutions in Nicaragua.”
The two sanctions announced on Monday target Nicaragua’s General Directorate of Mines, a unit of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Energy and Mines that manages most mining operations in the country, and Reinaldo Gregorio Lenin Cerna Juarez, a close Ortega confidante, Treasury said.
Under the move, any property they have in the United States would be frozen and any U.S. persons are prohibited from doing business with them.
