Old Dominion News

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Jun 8, 2023, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced bipartisan legislation, which would extend the U.S. government’s authority to impose sanctions on the Nicaraguan regime through December 31, 2028. The bill would also expand sanctions to include Nicaraguan officials responsible for violations of the human rights of religious believers, direct the U.S. State Department to enforce sectoral sanctions, and direct State to work with allies and partners to stop providing investment to Nicaragua through the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).

The bill builds upon the Nicaragua Human Rights and Anticorruption (NICA) Act of 2018 and the Reinforcing Nicaragua’s Adherence to Conditions for Electoral Reform (RENACER) Act of 2021, which authorize sanctions and other international pressures against the criminal and oppressive Ortega-Murillo dictatorship. 

Following Ortega’s wave of violence, repression, arbitrary arrests, and forceful exiles after the 2022 sham elections, the U.S. must develop a cohesive plan to address the criminal nature of the Ortega-Murillo regime.  

“The decision made by the criminal Ortega-Murillo regime to completely undermine the presidential election process in 2022, as well as their decision to force into exile nearly all of Nicaragua’s opposition and actively repress members of the Catholic Church, indicates that the regime’s vile nature continues to grow. U.S. policy towards Nicaragua should no longer be the same, we must implement policies that respond to the current reality," said Senator Rubio.

“The decline of democracy in Nicaragua under President Ortega drives irregular migration and harms the stability of our hemisphere. This bill addresses the corruption and human rights abuses of the Ortega regime by imposing tougher sanctions on individuals and institutions that have cracked down on civil society organizations, targeted the Catholic Church, and silenced Nicaraguans who have spoken out against these abuses, including individuals like Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was stripped of his Nicaraguan citizenship, sentenced 26 years in jail, and labeled by the Ortega regime a ‘traitor to the homeland’ for rightly criticizing the regime’s crackdown," said Senator Kaine.

Full text of the bill is available here.

Original source can be found here.