This archive report was first published on 12 December 2019.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has announced sanctions against Rafael Ortega, a key figure in the Ortega family's illicit financial schemes, as part of efforts to target the Nicaraguan regime.
According to Mnuchin, Rafael Ortega works closely with his mother, Rosario Maria Murillo De Ortega, the vice president and first lady, to generate profits, launder money, and gain preferential access to markets.
The sanctions come as the Organization of American States has released a report in November 2019, stating that Ortega's government tightly controls and subordinates branches of government, making democratic functioning unviable.
Since April last year, Daniel Ortega's forces and pro-government militias have been blamed for more than 300 deaths, following protests against his rule that mushroomed into an uprising brutally suppressed.
Ortega's critics accuse him of running a repressive leftist dictatorship, while the government has attributed the protests to a failed coup attempt and Ortega has accused Catholic bishops of being 'coup plotters' for supporting the protesters.
