Biden’s tough sanctions against Nicaragua’s dictatorship make Trump look like a softie
You will not hear this in conservative media, but President Biden has imposed much tougher sanctions on Nicaragua’s leftist dictatorship than former President Trump ever did. Biden deserves credit for this.
On Nov. 16, Biden announced a blanket ban on members of Nicaragua’s government from entering the United States.
The measure, which is expected to affect thousands of Nicaraguan officials and their families, was in response to the sham Nov. 7 elections. Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega reelected himself for a fourth consecutive term in office after jailing all major opposition candidates.
The travel ban will apply to all of Nicaragua’s “elected officials” who are part of the ruling regime, including Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. Members of the security forces also will be included, along with judges, mayors and their allies in the private sector who played a role in violating democratic rules or have helped commit humanrights abuses.
The new measures go far beyond the targeted sanctions against selected Nicaraguan officials involved in humanrights abuses that the Trump administration imposed after the 2018 street protests that left more than 300 dead and 2,000 injured.
On Nov. 15, Biden had announced coordinated measures with Great Britain and Canada to prohibit companies that do business in their countries from dealing with Attorney General’s office of Nicaragua. That ropes in all kinds of business transactions, including the sale of computers and software programs.
“These are the widest, most solid and strongest sanctions against a Latin American dictatorship in recent U.S. history,” says José Miguel Vivanco, head of the Americas Department of the Human Rights Watch advocacy group. “There’s no comparison with recent U.S. sanctions.”
And, judging from what I’m hearing from U.S. officials, the Biden administration may consider even more sanctions against Nicaragua.
“If the Ortega-Murillo regime continues acting as they have, you’ll probably see more sanctions going forward,” a wellplaced administration official told me. “The commitment of the Biden administration to supporting the return to democracy in Nicaragua is very deep.”
The big question now is whether the 27-country European Union and Latin American democracies will follow suit and prohibit Nicaraguan officials from entering their countries.
Nicaraguan opposition sources tell me that Biden’s latest measures are extremely important, but would be even more devastating for Ortega if they were echoed by other countries.
There are reasons to be optimistic. Spain, which alongside the United States is the favorite destination of many Nicaraguans, has issued an official statement condemning Ortega’s latest elections as a “joke.”
Spain’s Socialist Party government may soon impose sanctions on the Nicaraguan regime, in coordination with all other European countries, a European diplomat told me. It’s a slow bureaucratic process, but it’s underway, the diplomat said.
Unfortunately, few — if any —