U.S. sanctions Nicaraguan officials for exiling critics

The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed sanctions on three Nicaraguan officials who had a role in revoking the citizenship of more than 300 critics of President Daniel Ortega's communist regime. 

“The United States is taking further action to hold accountable perpetrators of the Nicaraguan regime’s repressive actions,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press statement.

In February, Ortega’s government released more than 200 political prisoners from its prisons and sent them to the United States after stripping them of their Nicaraguan citizenship, rendering them stateless. 

One week later, the government also revoked the citizenship of 94 other Nicaraguan exiled citizens, some of which were living in the country. 

The U.S. sanctioned three judges from Managua, Nadia Caimla Tardencilla Rodriguez of the Second District Trial Court of Managua, Ernesto Leonel Rodriguez Mejilla of the Managua Appeals Court, and Octavio Ernesto Rothschuch Adino of the First Criminal Appeal Court of Managua. Blinken said the three were “directly responsible” for the controversial decision to leave many “individuals stateless.”

“The Ortega regime continues to engage in anti-democratic actions that target the most vocal opposition figures in Nicaragua, including through its judicial system,” Brian Nelson, the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement on Wednesday.

Human rights groups and the United Nations have accused Ortega’s regime of using the country’s judiciary to target and repress political opponents, a measure that increased since the government cracked down on the opposition following protests in 2018. 

Human Rights organization Amnesty International released a report on Tuesday claiming that the Ortega regime has consolidated its power through the “excessive use of force, use of criminal laws to unjustly criminalize activists and dissidents, attacks on civil society and forced exile.”

“We will continue to use available diplomatic and economic tools to promote accountability for the Ortega-Murillo regime’s abuses,” Blinken added.