US Calls On Ortega To Release Opposition Figures Arrested Over Past Week - State Dept.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2021) The United States is urging Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to promptly free opposition figures who were arrested over the past week, US State Department spokesperson Ned price said on Wednesday.

"The United States calls on President Daniel Ortega and the Nicaraguan government to immediately release Presidential candidates Cristiana Chamorro, Arturo Cruz, Felix Maradiaga and Juan Sebastian Chamorro as well as other civil society and opposition leaders who have been arrested over the past week in increasing wave of oppression," Price said. "The United States condemns these actions in the most unequivocal terms and hold President Ortega and those who carry out these authoritarian orders responsible for their safety and well-being."

Earlier on Wednesday, the US Treasury Department announced that the United States imposed sanctions on four Nicaraguan nationals, including the president's daughter.

Camila Antonia Ortega Murillo, born in 1987, was added to the Specially Designated Nationals list run by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The other three sanctioned individuals include Edwin Ramon Castro Rivera, Leonardo Ovidio Reyes Ramirez, Julio Modesto Rodriguez Balladares.

Earlier in the week, the Nicaraguan police detained another opposition politician who could have run for president in the upcoming November election.

The arrest comes less than a week after the police detained Chamorro and placed her under house arrest on suspicion of money laundering. Her mother, former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, was also placed under house arrest.