WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2021) US Senate has approved a bill to boost sanctions against Nicaragua over what it perceived as anti-democratic activities of its longtime leader Daniel Ortega, the US Senate Committee on Foreign relations announced on Friday.
"Senate approves bipartisan legislation to bolster U.S. engagement in Nicaragua as crisis deepens. Renacer act requires heightened efforts to confront blatant anti-democratic activity by Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega," the statement said.
The legislation introduces new initiatives to "monitor, report on, and address corruption" by Ortega's government and family, "as well as human rights abuses perpetrated by Nicaraguan security forces," it continued.
"The RENACER Act also requires the United States government to increase sanctions on key actors in the Ortega regime and expand coordination with Canada and the European Union. The bill calls for the executive branch to review Nicaragua's participation in the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)," the statement said.
The US has repeatedly voiced its concern about the situation with alleged violations of human rights and the restriction of civil society activities in Nicaragua and vowed to continue to work in a multilateral format with its regional partners, including Costa Rica, to change the situation.
On November 7, Nicaragua will hold presidential and parliamentary elections, including a vote for representatives for the Central American Parliament. Incumbent Ortega is running for another term in office.
Earlier this week, Nicaraguan opposition party Citizens Alliance for Liberty (CxL) announced that its vice-presidential candidate, former beauty queen Berenice Quezada, was put under house arrest. Quezada, who won the 2017 Miss Nicaragua beauty pageant, is the running mate of the CxL presidential candidate, former Contra commander Oscar Sobalvarro, who fought against the� Ortega's government back in the 1980s.
The incident with Quezada follows the arrests of seven other presidential hopefuls running against Ortega, including Cristiana Chamorro, daughter of former Nicaraguan President Violeta Chamorro. The last of them, Noel Vidaurre, was arrested by the police on July 25 for allegedly undermining the country's sovereignty.
