US to impose visa restrictions on over 250 Nicaragua government officials

Washington: The United States will impose visa restrictions on more than 250 officials of the Nicaraguan government of President Daniel Ortega, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday, citing human rights abuses.

Why it's important

Ortega's government has been accused of serious human rights violations and crimes, in what the United Nations has described as a "tightly coordinated system of repression."

UN experts say Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who serves as Nicaragua's co-president after a recent constitutional reform, have built a centralized and repressive regime that has co-opted all branches of government and blurred the boundaries between party and state.

Nicaragua experienced mass anti-government protests in 2018 when Ortega's crackdown on dissent resulted in the death of over 350 people and sparked an international outcry over rights abuses.

Key quote

"With this new set of restrictions, the U.S. government has now taken steps to impose visa restrictions on over 2,000 officials in Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo's regime, which has deprived the Nicaraguan people of their fundamental freedoms and forced so many into exile," Rubio said in a statement.

"The United States will not stand for Ortega and Murillo’s continued assault on Nicaragua."

Ortega's government in the past has ignored accusations of rights abuses and repression, which it says are part of an international campaign against it.

Context

Rights experts and advocates have also recently condemned the U.S. government for what they call attacks on free speech, academic freedom and human rights over issues like visa revocations for students, funding threats to universities, deportation drives and U.S. support for Israel's war in Gaza.