New EO Expands US Sanctions Authority for Nicaragua

President Joe Biden signed an executive order this week authorizing new sanctions and trade restrictions against Nicaragua. The U.S. also announced new Nicaragua-related designations and issued a general license.

The order amends the 2018 Executive Order 13851 and "expands Treasury’s authority to hold the Ortega-Murillo regime accountable for its continued attacks on Nicaraguans’ freedom of expression and assembly," Treasury said. The new E.O. gives Treasury the authority to target persons operating in the gold sector of the Nicaraguan economy or other sectors to be identified by the secretaries of treasury and state. The new E.O. also provides expanded sanctions authorities that could be used to prohibit new investment in those sectors, the import of Nicaraguan products into the U.S. or the export of certain items to Nicaragua from the U.S. or by U.S. persons.

Alongside the new order, the Office of Foreign Assets Control added the General Directorate of Mines, Nicaragua's mining authority, and Reinaldo Gregorio Lenin Cerna Juarez, a Nicaraguan government official, to its Specially Designated Nationals List. The agency also issued General License 4, which authorizes the winddown of certain transactions involving the Directorate General of Mines of the Nicaraguan Ministry of Energy and Mines and its subsidiaries through 12:01 a.m. Nov. 23. OFAC also published new Frequently Asked Question 1093, which outlines the scope of General License 4.

“With President Biden’s new Executive Order, we can and will use every tool at our disposal to deny the Ortega-Murillo regime the resources they need to continue to undermine democratic institutions in Nicaragua," said Brian Nelson, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.