State Dept. sanctions more than 100 Nicaraguan officials for 'undermining democracy'

The U.S. State Department on Saturday sanctioned more than 100 Nicaraguan officials for “undermining democracy” and committing human rights violations under the regime of President Daniel Ortega. 

The U.S. “has taken steps to impose visa restrictions on 100 Nicaraguan officials who restrict Nicaraguans’ human rights and undermine democracy,” wrote Secretary of State Antony Blinken on social media.  

The officials sanctioned are being accused of repressing civil society and closing civic spaces, such as the closing of the Central American University (UCA), as well as carrying out unjust detentions and restricting fundamental freedoms. The sanctions include a ban on travel to the U.S. 

The move comes after the government seized all of the assets belonging to one of the country’s top universities, UCA, after it accused it of being a “center for terrorism organized by criminal groups” and “transgressing against the constitutional order.”

Government officials ordered the university to immediately suspend all classes and administrative activities, leaving its 9,500 enrolled students stranded. 

Many UCA graduates took part in the violent 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, which left more than 300 civilians dead and left over 2,000 injured. Since then, the regime has stripped the university's public funds and blocked its bank accounts. 

“We call on the regime to unconditionally and immediately release Bishop Álvarez and all those unjustly detained,” Blinken continued. 

Catholic Bishop Rolando Alvarez, who led the Matapalga diocese and was a prominent critic of the regime, was jailed by the government last August after a two-week standoff with local police.

He was sentenced to 26 years in prison for allegedly “organizing violent groups and inciting them to carry out acts of hate against the population … with the aim of destabilizing the Nicaraguan state.”