OFAC: Nicaraguan A.G.Sanctioned

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina, Nicaragua’s Attorney General, for being complicit in the Ortega-Murillo regime’s oppression. 

“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 Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson. 

In 2018, anti-government protests erupted in Nicaragua, prompting ongoing violent repression by the Ortega-Murillo regime. President Ortega and the Vice President, Rosario Murillo, Ortega’s wife, have consolidated power, suppressed popular protests, incarcerated political opponents, and silenced critical voices in the media or forced them into exile.

On February 9, 2023, President Ortega expelled 222 political prisoners and put them on a flight to Washington, D.C. According to the Nicaraguan government, the deportation of the prisoners was intended to protect peace and national security and those freed have been declared traitors who can never serve in Nicaraguan public office. As a result, Nicaragua stripped the 222 former political prisoners of their Nicaraguan citizenship. 

WENDY CAROLINA MORALES URBINA

Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina (Morales Urbina) is a Nicaraguan national who was appointed to the role of Attorney General of the Republic of Nicaragua on May 10, 2019, by President Ortega.

In her capacity as Attorney General, Morales Urbina is responsible for enabling the Ortega-Murillo regime to confiscate real property formerly belonging to independent media outlets, international organizations, and political prisoners. 

In several instances Morales Urbina appeared in her official capacity in various private buildings, presented deeds to new owners and declared the properties were now being made for public use. Morales Urbina has also seized property from thousands of non-governmental organizations under law explicitly to suppress freedom of association.

Morales Urbina carried out the dispossession of all properties of the 222 political prisoners who were banished from Nicaragua. Morales Urbina was key to formulating the strategy to designate Nicaraguan opposition members as terrorists and block their financial resources using an existing anti-terrorism law.