The Biden administration plans to announce new U.S. sanctions and other punitive actions “very soon” in response to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s re-election in a vote that Washington has denounced as a sham, a senior State Department official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The official said the measures would be the first in a series of steps that the U.S. government will continue to “ramp up over time.”
Washington expects a “strong resolution” against Ortega when the Organization of American States meets this week in Guatemala but is not likely to use the event to seek Nicaragua’s suspension from the bloc, the official said. President Joe Biden is expected in “the coming days or hours” to sign legislation aimed at ratcheting up pressure on Nicaragua, the official said.
