The administration of US President Joe Biden on Monday introduced a new package of sanctions against the regime of authoritarian Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The measures are aimed at the important mining sector of the Central American country.
Biden’s decree includes the power to prohibit US companies from doing business in Nicaragua’s gold mining operations. In addition, the U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on the country’s mining authority and on a close friend of Ortega, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
tensions
The US sanctions come amid recent tensions between the Netherlands and Nicaragua. Earlier this month, the country severed diplomatic relations with the Netherlands after a decision by The Hague to cut funding for a hospital construction project due to deteriorating democracy and human rights. The EU ambassador to Nicaragua was also declared persona non grata. After that, Europe dismissed the Nicaraguan envoy from the EU.
With the new US sanctioning powers, the country became increasingly isolated. The sanctions could also be used to block new US investment in certain other sectors in Nicaragua, imports of Nicaraguan products or exports of items to Nicaragua.
Gold was Nicaragua’s most important export product last year, with a total of $867 million worth of exports of the precious metal. 79 percent of that went to the United States, according to data from the country’s central bank.
According to US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Brian Nelson, the Ortega regime believes it is not bound by the rule of law and Washington’s actions are aimed at denying the country “the resources it needs to continue to undermine democratic institutions in Nicaragua.” ”.
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