(Reuters) – The Biden administration is prepared to impose further sanctions and ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government following elections set for this Sunday, senior U.S. officials said.
Escalating U.S. criticism of Ortega as he is firmly favored to win a fourth consecutive term, a senior State Department official said on Friday that Washington sees the vote as ushering in a “dictatorship” in the Central American nation.
Since the last election in 2016, Ortega has abolished presidential term limits, expanded his family’s business empire and piled pressure on independent media. In recent months, he has jailed opposition contenders, activists, journalists and business leaders. Other critics have gone into exile.
The United States will maintain its diplomatic presence in Nicaragua despite regarding the election as the end of Ortega’s democratic mandate, the official told reporters.
But President Joe Biden’s administration will limit certain trade “interactions” with Managua and uses its vote in international financial institutions to discourage lending to a “corrupt government.”
Biden is likely to add his voice to condemnation of Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla, by issuing a statement on Sunday, a senior administration official said.
Biden also intends to sign legislation to increase pressure on Ortega, who has arrested opponents and cracked down on critical media, all but guaranteeing his re-election, the official said. “You’re going to see broad international rejection of fraudulent elections,” the administration official told reporters.
