Nicaragua giving Putin a foothold on our doorstep
With the heartbreaking images of cities leveled and horrifying atrocities occurring in Ukraine, it is easy not to notice a brutal tyranny taking place in our own hemisphere. Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have turned Nicaragua into a ruthless dictatorship again.
In April 2018, when Nicaraguans protested Ortega, they were met with brute force. As if massacring over 350 people from the protests was not enough, on June 9, 2021, Ortega began arresting potential presidential candidates and civil society members beginning with Felix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastian Chamorro. The Ortega dynasty has seized 12 universities, closed over 100 nongovernmental organizations, and jailed approximately 170 political prisoners for fear of losing power.
One political prisoner has died in prison. Prisoners are subjected to prolonged solitary confinement, limited access to medical treatment, torture, severe weight loss and unfair sentences of years in prison.
Their lives remain at serious risk, especially since Ortega expelled the Vatican’s representative, Archbishop Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, and Thomas Ess, the chief of mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
For Ortega to maintain an iron grip, inflict fear and use the police and military to carry out human rights abuses, he needs assistance from Cuba, Venezuela and, increasingly, from Russia.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared: “The Soviets and the Sandinistas must not be permitted to crush freedom in Central America and threaten our own security on our own doorstep.” Thirty-six years later, the Russian presence has returned to Nicaragua.
The brutalities being committed in Ukraine and Nicaragua are linked by one individual: Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin sent T-72 tanks to Nicaragua and its warships are allowed to dock at Nicaraguan ports. Even more troubling, Ortega has given Putin permission to install a satellite station in Managua, allegedly to spy on the United States. Ortega has also defended Putin’s unjust war against Ukraine and wrongfully recognizes South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent as a nod to Putin, instead of territories that are rightfully part of Georgia.
During my tenure working for Rep. Ileana Ros-lehtinen, R-fla., on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, we teamed up with her close friend and fellow democracy champion Rep. Albio Sires, D-N.J., to pass the Nica Act to deny Ortega access to loans from international financial institutions. Later, Congress passed the Renacer Act to build upon the success of the Nica Act and reinforce the tools needed to hold Ortega accountable.
And while the Trump and Biden administrations have imposed sanctions against Ortega and his inner circle, more needs to be done to enforce these bipartisan laws. Nicaraguan news outlet Confidencial reports that Canada has applied more sanctions than the United States.
To help restore democratic order and apply pressure against Ortega to unconditionally release all political prisoners, the U.S. should impose sanctions more often. It should target Nicaragua’s Ministerio de Gobernacion and the National Penitentiary System, which oversee prisons including the notorious El Chipote. Focus on the military, its leaders and their pension fund. Investigate the traitors in the private sector who have abandoned the people of Nicaragua and collaborate with the tyrannical regime. Sanction those who have perpetrated the judicial farces against the political prisoners.
Second, expeditiously nominate an incoming U.S. ambassador who will be unafraid to hold the regime accountable.
Third, suspend Nicaragua from the Dominican Republic — Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The Biden administration suspended trade conversations with Burma, terminated trade preferences with Mali, Guinea and Ethiopia, and suspended permanent normal trade relations with Russia. Yet, Ortega and his hand-picked oligarchs are still using trade with the U.S. to fill their coffers.
Fourth, halt the U.S. importation of beef. It is unconscionable that the U.S. is currently the largest importer of Nicaraguan beef, which totaled a recordhigh of $361 million in 2021.
Fifth, use America’s voice, vote and influence to invoke the Inter-american Democratic Charter at the Organization of American States to expel Nicaragua.
We must put authoritarians on notice that the U.S. will be a muscular presence in the region. We cannot let a belligerent Putin maintain a foothold close to our border. Freedom in the hemisphere matters. Ultimately, stopping atrocities in Nicaragua matters, too.
Eddy Acevedo was recently sanctioned by the Russian Federation. He is chief of staff and senior adviser to Ambassador Mark Green, president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He formerly was national security adviser at the U.S. Agency for International Development and senior foreign policy advisor for former Rep. Ileana Ros-lehtinen, R-fla. This opinion is solely that of the author and does not represent the views of the Wilson Center.