OFAC Sanctions Nicaraguan Officials

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Nicaraguan government officials who allegedly “persecute Nicaraguan citizens,” “enact repressive laws,” silence the press and restrict medical care to the country’s people, Treasury said in a June 21 press release. OFAC is sanctioning Gustavo Eduardo Porras Cortes, Orlando Jose Castillo Castillo, Sonia Castro Gonzalez and Oscar Salvador Mojica Obregon.

Porras, president of the Nicaraguan National Assembly, is being sanctioned for leading the NNA, an entity that undermines the country’s democratic processes or institutions, Treasury said. Porras is the “senior-most political operator” of President Daniel Ortega, according to the press release, and has “significant control” over the Institute of Social Security and Ministry of Health.

Castillo is the general director of the Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Service, which threatens the security and stability of Nicaragua, Treasury said. The service has been used by Ortega and Castillo to “silence independent media.”

Castro is the minister of Health, Treasury said, and has “engaged in significant human rights abuse violations,” including refusing to treat “victims of violent regime repression.” The lack of treatment “exacerbated injuries and even led to death,” the press release said. The health ministry required hospital staff where injured protesters were admitted to report them to “parapolice,” who then removed them from the hospitals, resulting in “forced disappearances,” Treasury said.

Mojica is a retired major general of the Nicaraguan Army and the current minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, where he promoted on television the Ortega regime’s “‘exile, jail, or death’ strategy to silence the opposition,” the press release said. The policy left “hundreds dead, thousands wounded, and tens of thousands either incarcerated, driven into exile, or internally displaced,” Treasury said.

“We will not hesitate to take action against those who perpetuate oppression or prop up the Ortega regime at the expense of the Nicaraguan people,” Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said in a statement.