Biden bans Ortega, other Nicaraguan officials from entering US

The United States has imposed an entry ban on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his government officials, following the Central American country's presidential election earlier this month, which Washington has denounced as "rigged" and "undemocratic."

In a broad proclamation issued on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden barred Nicaragua's "elected officials," including Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, as well as security forces, judges, mayors, and their family members from entering the United States.

"The repressive and abusive acts of the Ortega government and those who support it compel the United States to act," Biden said in a statement announcing the ban.

"The Ortega government's undemocratic, authoritarian actions have crippled the electoral process and stripped away the right of Nicaraguan citizens to choose their leaders in free and fair elections," he added.

Biden further noted that he had determined it was in the US's interests to ban the entry of all those "who formulate, implement or benefit from policies or actions that undermine or injure democratic institutions or impede the return to democracy in Nicaragua."

"The physical and psychological abuse of political prisoners at the hands of police and prison authorities is intolerable and cannot stand," he said, accusing the judiciary of "aiding and abetting" politically motivated arrests.

Biden's order came after Ortega overwhelmingly won the November 7 presidential election, getting a fourth consecutive term. It also came just a day after Britain and Canada imposed new sanctions against prominent Nicaraguan officials in response to the country's recent election.

The US president has already labeled the general elections in Nicaragua as a "pantomime" vote, claiming it was "neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic." The European Union has also rejected the results.

Last Monday, Ortega hit back at the US and Europe, labeling them "Yankee imperialists."

The re-election of Ortega, 75, who helped depose the right-wing Somoza family dictatorship in the late 1970s, is likely to escalate tensions between Washington and Managua.

ME