MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nicaragua: UK and US announce new sanctions against the country after elections

The validity of the elections in Nicaragua continues to be discussed at the level of the international community.

The US Treasury Department and the United Kingdom announced new sanctions against members of the Nicaraguan government in retaliation for the controversial presidential elections held on 7 November.

The US imposed new sanctions on nine members of Daniel Ortega's government and the Central American country's federal prosecutor's office. The UK, meanwhile, sanctioned Nicaragua's vice president, Rosario Murillo, and seven other officials.

The British government reported that the restrictive measures, which include a ban on entry and the freezing of bank accounts in the country, also affect the president of the National Assembly or Parliament of Nicaragua, Gustavo Porras Cortés, and the secretary-general of the Mayor's Office of the capital, Managua, Fidel Antonio Moreno Briones, the attorney general, Ana Julia Guido Ochoa, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Alba Luz Ramos Vanegas, the member of the Central Electoral Committee Lumberto Ignacio Campbell Hooker, the chief inspector of police Juan Antonio Valle and the chief of police of León, Fidel de Jesús Domínguez Álvarez.

On the other hand, the validity of the elections in Nicaragua continues to be discussed at the level of the international community. A group of countries condemned the absence of the opposition in the elections, the imprisonment of its leaders, the absence of international observers and independent media, and the persecution of journalists.

Countries such as Russia and Venezuela condemned the US decision not to recognise the results. Meanwhile, Spain rejected the validity of the elections and called them a “mockery”.

The 2022-2026 term will be the fourth consecutive presidential term and the fifth in the political career of Ortega, who has survived along with Murillo the political crisis unleashed by street protests since 2018.

In the presidential elections, the ruling Sandinista Popular Liberation Front, with presidential and vice-presidential candidates Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, won 75.87% of the vote. The turnout in the elections, in official figures, was 65.26%. However, these figures were refuted by some 1,450 unofficial observers mobilised in the country's polling stations. The non-governmental organisation 'Urnas Abiertas' claimed, for its part, that turnout averaged only 18.5% in Nicaragua.