Nicaragua Bans New US Ambassador from Entering Country

Nicaragua decided to bar newly-appointed US Ambassador Hugo Rodriguez from entering the country due to his previous unfriendly statements in regard to Managua.

"The government of Nicaragua, in use of its powers and in exercise of its national sovereignty, immediately withdraws the approval granted to the candidate Hugo Rodriguez," The Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Rodrigues was nominated on May 6 this year by U.S. President Joe Biden to serve as the next American ambassador in Nicaragua, replacing Kevin Sullivan.

Rodrigues made statements earlier that in the capacity of the US ambassador to Managua he would support the use of all economic and political tools to change the political direction of the country.

Last November, Biden banned Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, from entering the United States in response to the government’s brutal crackdown before the presidential and legislative elections.

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.

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.