Statement from NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson on Actions Against the Ortega-Murillo Regime Repressing People and Preying on Migrants in Nicaragua
Today, the United States is taking coordinated action in response to the Ortega-Murillo regime’s continued repression of the people of Nicaragua and ongoing exploitation of vulnerable migrants, including via the facilitation – and profiting off of – irregular migration to the United States. These actions are taken as part of the President’s efforts to crack down on irregular migration and in support of his affirmative agenda for the Western Hemisphere for a more democratic, secure, and prosperous region.
The United States is taking the following specific actions:
- The Departments of the Treasury, State, and Homeland Security jointly issued a policy alert to travel companies with information about the ways smuggling networks and transnational criminal organizations prey on vulnerable migrants, ongoing U.S. actions to hold these malicious practices actors accountable, and key steps that the travel industry can take to avoid complicity in the exploitation of migrants.
- The Department of the Treasury sanctioned a Russian Military Training Center that supports repressive actions by the Nicaraguan National Police to persecute political opposition and two gold companies that enrich the Ortega-Murillo regime.
- Additionally, the Department of State imposed visa restrictions on over 250 members of the Nicaraguan government, non-government actors, and their immediate family members for their roles in supporting the Ortega-Murillo regime’s attacks on human rights and fundamental freedoms and repression of civil society organizations.
The Administration urges the Nicaraguan regime to cease its systemic violations of human rights and to stop its cynical practice of selling short-term visas upon arrival in Managua that support the exploitation of vulnerable migrants, to the financial benefit of the regime.
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