The United States has imposed sanctions against Nicaraguan Attorney General Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina over allegations she was complicit in “ruthless” oppression under President Daniel Ortega’s regime.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the sanctions in a March 21 press release, noting they target a “key actor in the Nicaraguan regime’s unjust persecution of political prisoners and civil society within the country.”
Under the sanctions, all property, interests, and assets belonging to Ms. Urbina located in the United States, including those in the possession or control of U.S. persons, will be blocked and must be reported to OFAC.
Additionally, U.S. companies, including financial institutions, are blocked from working with her.
Ms. Urbina, who was appointed attorney general of Nicaragua by Mr. Ortega in 2019, enabled the former Sandinista leader’s regime to seize property from government political opponents, including independent media outlets, international organizations, and political prisoners, OFAC said.
Later, in her official capacity as attorney general, she presented deeds to new owners of the properties that had been seized from political opponents or declared the properties were now being made for public use, according to OFAC.
Political Prisoners Banished
The Treasury Department pointed to Mr. Ortega’s deportation of 222 political prisoners to Washington in 2023, having declared them traitors who could never serve in Nicaraguan public office or hold Nicaraguan citizenship.As a result, Nicaragua stripped the former political prisoners—which included political and business leaders, priests, journalists, civil society representatives, and students—of their Nicaraguan citizenship.
According to OFAC, Ms. Urbina carried out the dispossession of all properties of the 222 political prisoners who were banished from Nicaragua and played a key role in formulating the strategy to designate Nicaraguan opposition members as terrorists and block their financial resources under the existing anti-terrorism law.
Ms. Urbina had not practiced law for the requisite 10 years prior to her appointment as attorney general, meaning she was appointed in violation of Nicaraguan law, according to the Treasury Department.
Protests erupted across Nicaragua, the second poorest nation in Central America, in 2018 when Mr. Ortega, who first took office in 2007, moved to reduce welfare benefits.
Urbina ‘Silenced Opposition Voices’
In response, Mr. Ortega and his extreme leftist rule under the Sandinista National Liberation Front, responded by incarcerating political opponents.“The Attorney General of Nicaragua, in concert with the Ortega-Murillo regime, has exploited her office to facilitate a coordinated campaign to suppress dissent by seizing property from government political opponents without a legal basis,” said Brian Nelson, under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “The United States reiterates its enduring support for the Nicaraguan people, who continue to bravely reject the authoritarianism of President Ortega and his inner circle.”
The State Department issued a similar press release announcing the sanctions against Ms. Urbina, accusing her of having “silenced opposition voices, and seized the property of over 300 Nicaraguans.”
“She is responsible for the arbitrary shuttering of over 3,500 civil society organizations, including over 250 evangelical groups. Morales Urbina took part in the Ortega-Murillo regime’s baseless attacks on religious institutions, which included false charges and unjust detentions of religious leaders,” the department said.
“We reaffirm our commitment to promote accountability for the malign conduct of the Nicaraguan regime and its collaborators,” it added.
Mr. Ortega was elected to a fourth term in office in 2022.
