On April 19, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated three Nicaraguan officials – Ernesto Leonel Rodriguez Mejia, Nadia Camila Tardencilla Rodriguez, and Octavio Ernesto Rothschuh Andino – in connection with recent court decisions that revoked the citizenship of more than 300 Nicaraguans and sentenced a prominent Nicaraguan Catholic bishop to more than 26 years in prison, stripping him of his citizenship for being critical of the Ortega regime. According to OFAC, the designated individuals are judges or presiding magistrates in the Managua court system who affirmed these decisions and thereby engaged in human right abuses and the Ortega regime’s broader oppression of the most vocal opponents of Ortega’s government. The three were designated pursuant to Executive Order 13851, as amended, for being an official or serving as an official of the Government of Nicaragua on or after January 10, 2007.
As a result of these designations, all property and interests in property of today’s designees within the United States or within the possession or control of a US person are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions involving the designated persons. In addition, entities owned 50 percent or more by one or more designated persons are also blocked.