A group of US congressmen asked the Joe Biden government on Wednesday to increase the economic sanctions against the government of Daniel Ortega, in Nicaragua, after denouncing a increased repression of civilian groups and the Catholic Church in the Central American country.
The legislators spoke during a hearing convened before the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives, to which Nicaraguan opposition leaders Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro were also invited, released and exiled by Ortega on February 9.
Deborah Ullmer, director of programs for Latin America of the National Democratic Institute (IND), and the pacifist Bianca Jagger, director of the Human Rights Foundation that bears her name, also participated in the hearing, called “The war of the Ortega- Murillo against the Catholic Church and civil society in Nicaragua”.
“Sanctions should target gold, lumber and energy, as well as Army pensions invested in the United States,” Ullmer said. He also called for a “review” of the free trade agreement with Central America, known as Cafta, regarding the benefits that Nicaragua obtains through that agreement.
For her part, Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar said that the White House should alert US investors about “the risk of doing business” with Ortega.
Salazar recounted the “war” of the Sandinista government against the Catholic Church in 2022 and condemned the expulsion of nuncio Waldemar Sommertag, the closure of Catholic universities and radio stations, and the recent ban on religious processions.
Then he called Ortega a “dictator” and asked him “to remember that the Catholic Church, throughout its history, has defeated demons much greater than you and your wife, the satanic Rosario Murillo.”
In her turn, Bianca Jagger denounced that the Catholic bishop Rolando Álvarez was imprisoned and sentenced to more than 26 years in prison, because he refused to be banished by Daniel Ortega along with 222 released opponents.
The opponent Félix Maradiaga also called on the United States government to increase pressure on Ortega, because “despite the efforts of the international community, the regime has only become more ruthless.”
“It is time to move to a new stage, where all the tools of diplomacy are used with all their might, including the closure of direct financing channels,” he said.
In Nicaragua “there is no law, there are no means and there are no civil rights,” said Juan Sebastián Chamorro, also an opponent who was released from prison.
On March 17, congressmen Bob Menéndez and Michael McCaul asked to stop the flows of financing that Ortega receives from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).
The legislators sent a letter to the presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, citing a recent report by a UN expert group that accused the Nicaraguan government of committing “crimes against humanity” against civilians during the last five years.
In that letter, the congressmen asked the presidents to “stop financial support” for Ortega, after noting that in recent years CABEI has approved resources of almost 3.5 billion dollars to finance projects managed by the Nicaraguan government.
Nicaragua is experiencing a serious political crisis that erupted with the april 2018 rebellion, which was suppressed with violence by police and paramilitaries. The repression left at least 355 dead, some 2,000 injured and more than 100,000 exiled, according to humanitarian organizations.
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