Senior Biden administration officials said in a background call with reporters today that the State Department has imposed visa restrictions on more than 250 individuals, including dozens of Nicaraguan government officials and their family members.

The sanctions are being imposed for supporting the Ortega-Murillo regime’s “assault on human rights.”

In addition, a law enforcement alert has been issued to inform the aviation industry about how smugglers are facilitating illegal migration and the “key steps they should take to avoid complicity in these actions.”

The administration of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, is “profiteering off of desperate and vulnerable migrants” by “selling them visas upon arrival,” according to Washington.

“The Government of Nicaragua’s actions are deeply concerning as President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo have implemented permissive immigration policies, such as the 96-hour limit, which have created opportunities to exploit migrants and have encouraged dangerous irregular migration to the U.S. southwest border,” the White House officials said, according to the EFE news agency.

Those sanctioned by the State Department include police and paramilitary forces, prison officials, prosecutors, judges, and public university officials.

“We are deeply concerned by the Ortega-Murillo regime’s continued engagement in a campaign of repression that silences civil society and unjustly imprisons individuals exercising their fundamental freedoms,” the White House officials said.

In a parallel action, the Treasury Department today sanctioned three Nicaragua-based entities, including the Russian Interior Ministry Training Center in Managua (RTC).

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in a statement that the RTC is a Nicaragua-based subdivision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Government of the Russian Federation (GOR) that trains those under the command of the Ortega-Murillo government “in the authoritarian Russian government’s playbook of oppression.”

“It is a key player in the Nicaraguan regime’s repression of civil society and the unjust detention and imprisonment of individuals for expressing dissent or for peacefully exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the statement said.

Also sanctioned were Compania Minera Internacional (COMINTSA) and Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua (Capital Mining), two gold mining companies that, as “close affiliates of the government,” generate “revenue for the Ortega-Murillo regime.”

“Gold is Nicaragua’s top export, and this action is intended to degrade the Ortega-Murillo regime’s ability to manipulate the sector and benefit from corrupt dealings,” the Treasury Department said.

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