Bob Menéndez: “Daniel Ortega is the Kim Jong-un of the Western Hemisphere”

US Senator Bob menendez refers to the critical political situation in Nicaragua, a country whose regime has four presidential candidates imprisoned and other adversaries. “I watch Daniel Ortega and think he’s the Kim Jong-un of the Western Hemisphere“, He expressed.

“I think the Ortega regime has to face more consequences for its actions»Declared Menéndez in dialogue with cnn in spanish, after your country has decided to apply more sanctions against the regime.

And he added: “Last week Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo carried out a brutal attack on democracy in Nicaragua like we have not seen in our hemisphere since the day of the cold war ”.

Then he underlined: “The truth is I watch Ortega and think he is the Kim Jong-un of the Western Hemisphere because of the way he acts”.

And he concluded: “We must be clear in our position against the Ortega regime. They consolidate the third dictatorship in the region. It’s something that we can’t accept”.

Nicaraguan authorities on Wednesday continued the arrests of opposition leaders, who include four presidential candidates from Nicaragua, while United States sanctions four advisers to the president Daniel Ortega, including her daughter Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, called on Nicaragua to release the opposition leaders detained in recent days and to restore their political rights.

The Spanish government has also asked the “immediate launch“Candidates for the presidential elections of Nicaragua”detained, imprisoned or detained“-Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Félix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastián Chamorro-, as well as” other opponents “.

Night police raid

Nicaraguan police jailed the applicant on Tuesday evening Chamorro, to the former president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep) José Adán Aguerri, and the opposition activist Violeta granera, while this Wednesday the measure was imposed on the opposition politician and former vice-chancellor Jose pallais.

Tuesday afternoon and after appearing before the Public Prosecutor’s Office, stopped Maradiaga.

These five opponents were detained on charges of “perform acts which undermine independence, sovereignty and self-determination, incite foreign interference in internal affairs, require military intervention”, And other crimes, as reported by the National Police, led by Francisco Díaz, Ortega’s father-in-law.

The first inmate, last week, was Christian Chamorro, daughter of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997) and opposition figure with the highest probability of winning the presidential elections next November, and the second was Arturo cruz, who served as the Ortega government’s ambassador to the United States between 2007 and 2009.

Washington sanctions Ortega’s daughter

Following these arrests, the United States Department of the Treasury decided to sanction Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo, daughter of Ortega who runs the Nicaraguan fashion event Diseña and the National Commission for the Creative Economy; to the President of the Central Bank of Nicaragua, Ovidio reyes; and the leader of the Sandinista parliamentary group, Edwin castro.

Also to the brigadier general Julio Modesto Rodriguez Balladares, executive director of the Instituto de Previsión Social Militar (IPSM), the financial arm of the Nicaraguan army.

Following the sanctions all goods are frozen that those involved may have in the United States.

In addition, They are prohibited from carrying out any financial transaction with American citizens or involving any type of transit through American power., which seeks to make it difficult for sanctioned persons to access the international financial system, based on the dollar.

Washington had previously sanctioned the vice president and first lady of the country, Rosario Murillo, as well as three other children: Rafael Antonio, Laureano and Juan Carlos, all Ortega Murillo.

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