Nicaragua nationalizes fuel firm 2 days after US sanctions
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaragua nationalized the assets of a fuel distribution company Saturday, two days after U.S. authorities sanctioned the firm for allegedly being used by President Daniel Ortega’s family for personal enrichment through non-competitive contracts with government institutions.
The bill was approved by a parliament dominated by Ortega allies and took effect minutes later with its publication in the official Gazette. It declares the fuel and other assets of Empresa Distribuidora de Petroleo a matter of “citizen security and national interest” and allows the government to manage them confidentially.
The government said the measure seeks to “guarantee the reliable, continuous, efficient, secure, adequate and uninterrupted supply of fuel and petroleum derivative products.”
Opposition lawmaker Azucena Castillo called it a move “to continue laundering money.” She likened it to the dissolution of the bank Banco Corporativo in April after it was sanctioned by Washington for purported illicit transfers of funds to Venezuela.
“With this law, the Assembly is hurriedly trying to avoid that the Ortega family loses what has been invested in the inventories of fuels and petroleums,”said José Pallais, leader of the opposition group Civic Alliance.
Washington announced its most recent sanctions Thursday targeting Rafael Antonio Ortega Murillo, the president’s son, for his alleged role in money laundering and corruption. It also targeted Inversiones Zanzibar SA and Servicio De Proteccion y Vigilancia SA, which Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin called two companies the younger Ortega “owns and uses to launder money to prop up the Ortega regime at the expense of the Nicaraguan people.”
Nicaragua's president traveled Saturday to Havana for a summit of the leftist regional bloc known...