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U.S. announces new sanctions against Nicaragua over migration, human rights abuses, ties to Russia
The Biden administration announced new sanctions and other restrictions on Nicaragua Wednesday, aiming to curb migration to the U.S. southern border and penalize the country for alleged human rights abuses and its close ties to Russia.
Some of the actions against the country are being taken to address “significant concern about the government of Nicaragua and its continued repression of the people of Nicaragua and their exploitation of migrants,” a senior administration official told reporters this morning.
U.S. officials accused the leaders of Nicaragua’s government — the husband-and-wife duo of President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo — of “profiting off of desperate and vulnerable migrants.”
“The [Nicaraguan] regime sells visas upon arrival at their airports for migrants that require them to leave the country in 96 hours,” a U.S. official explained. “So they are profiting quite substantially off facilitation of irregular migrants who ultimately, in many cases, make their way up towards our southwest border.”
Because this often involves air travel, the Biden administration also issued an aviation alert today for air carriers and charter flight companies, which is meant to notify the airlines that migrants are being exploited through the use of their planes. The U.S. is recommending that these businesses participate in travel document validation processes, work with the Biden administration to identify routes that are known for migrant smuggling and report concerns about Nicaraguan government actions at the airports.
Wednesday’s sanctions are both logistical and political: Russia is also implicated in the actions taken by the administration. The Training Center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Managua is one of the Nicaraguan-based organizations being sanctioned because according to U.S. officials, this Russian military training center trains the Nicaraguan National Police “to prosecute political opposition.”
“Daniel Ortega and Rosario — and those under their command — continue to unjustly detain their own countrymen for bravely advocating for free civil society, religious freedom and freedom of expression,” one U.S. official explained. “They’ve chosen to align themselves with Russian’s authoritarian government and follow its playbook of repression.”
Lastly, the U.S. is hoping to hit Nicaragua’s financial elites by sanctioning two government-run gold companies and slapping visa restrictions on 250 government members and society leaders who inhibit rights and freedoms for the Nicaraguan people, the U.S. officials said.
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
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