The United States announced on Thursday arms restrictions on Nicaragua and called on the international community to hold President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo accountable for their “brutal repression.”
The US today (for Thursday) imposes restrictions on the import and export of defense items and defense services of U.S. origin to or from Nicaragua, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller in a statement.
The State Department amended the regulations on international arms trafficking (ITAR), which control defence-related items, to include Nicaragua as an outlawed destination.
The U.S. remains deeply concerned about the continued and brutal repression by the Ortega-Murillo authorities against the Nicaraguan people, including the recent simulated elections on the Caribbean coast populated mainly by indigenous people and people of African descent, Miller added.
In that regard, he announced that Washington will continue to use all available diplomatic and economic tools to promote the accountability of the Ortega-Murillo regime and to support the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Nicaraguans in their search for a more just and prosperous future.
“We call on the international community to continue to hold the Ortega-Murillo regime accountable for its repression,” concluded the spokesman.
In mid-February, the United States imposed visa restrictions on more than a hundred Nicaraguan municipal officials for their participation in an alleged government’s so-called “repression campaign.”
Managua denounces that US financial and diplomatic coercion against the country is abusive, authoritarian and does not comply with the Charter of the United Nations.
This article has been translated from the original which first appeared in El Pais