US Imposes Visa Restrictions On 100 Nicaraguan Officials

The United States has imposed a visa ban on 100 officials of the administration led by President Daniel Ortega of the Central American country of Nicaragua, accusing them of human rights violations.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed this information in a briefing in Washington on Friday (September 29).

Various international and local Nicaraguan human rights organizations have been accusing the Ortega administration of repressing the country's opposition political party leaders, media, business leaders, and priests of the Catholic Church for a long time. Blinken said that this action was taken on the basis of those complaints.

Earlier, the US State Department imposed visa restrictions on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Vice President and Ortega's wife Rosario Murillo, their three children, and several high-ranking officials in the government administration, police, and military.

The Sandinista Guerrilla Movement, a left-wing armed political group, seized power in Nicaragua in 1979 through a revolutionary coup that overthrew the government led by dictator Anastasia Somoza Dibayel. Daniel Ortega led the Sandinista Guerrilla Movement in that coup. He moved directly to the center of power in the coup.

He has been in and out of power for the past 44 years. Ortega, who last came to power in 2007, is still the president of Nicaragua.

A delegation from the United Nations Human Rights Organization (UNHRO) said last March that they found the allegations of repression and violence against Ortega to be true.