The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned five individuals and seven companies tied to Nicaragua’s gold sector on April 16.
Among those sanctioned are the sons of the country’s co-presidents, who are alleged to be helping the ruling regime generate revenue and maintain political control.
Maurice Ortega and Daniel Edmundo Ortega—both sons of Nicaragua’s co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo—were the highest-profile individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. The sanctions were imposed because of their official roles in the Murillo-Ortega regime.
Also targeted were Santiago Hernan Bermudez Tapia, who is Nicaragua’s vice minister of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Nicaraguan entities involved in the forceful seizure of U.S.-owned property, and gold companies that assumed concessions previously held by already-sanctioned parties….