U.S. President Joe Biden banned, on Tuesday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo from entering the United States.
This decision is a response to the government's brutal crackdown before recent presidential and legislative elections.
Moreover, the travel ban applied to all of Nicaragua’s “elected officials,” apparently including security force members, judges, mayors and others seen as undermining democracy in the Central American nation.
“The repressive and abusive acts of the Ortega government and those who support it compel the United States to act,” Biden said in the decree.
Biden’s order came just a day after the United States, Britain and Canada imposed targeted sanctions on Nicaraguan officials in a concerted response to the Nov. 7 election which many countries have called a sham.
They agreed on a firm action after Ortega’s re-election to a fourth consecutive term after jailing political rivals and cracking down on critical media.
Ortega has derided his U.S. critics as “Yankee imperialists” and accused them of trying to undermine Nicaragua’s electoral process. In this manner, Cuba, Venezuela and Russia have offered Ortega their support.
Previous sanctions and travel bans on certain Nicaraguan officials imposed by Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, have failed to deter Ortega, and many analysts are paranoid whether new measures will have much impact.
On Friday, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted a resolution, stating that Nicaragua’s election lacked “democratic legitimacy.” Twenty-five nations voted in favour and seven abstained, including Mexico, Honduras and Bolivia.
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