Today, the Department of the 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. Today’s action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13851, as amended, targets a key actor in the Nicaraguan regime’s unjust persecution of political prisoners and civil society within the country. 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 steal real property formerly belonging to independent media outlets, international organizations, and political prisoners. In her role as Attorney General, Morales Urbina proves to be loyal to the Ortega-Murillo regime. She holds great power under their protection to determine who receives properties.
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.
Morales Urbina is designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13851, as amended, for being an official of the Government of Nicaragua or for having served as an official of the Government of Nicaragua at any time on or after January 10, 2007; and for being responsible for or complicit in, or for having directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, any transaction or series of transactions involving deceptive practices or corruption by, on behalf of, or otherwise related to the Government of Nicaragua or a current or former official of the Government of Nicaragua, such as the misappropriation of public assets or expropriation of private assets for personal gain or political purposes, corruption related to government contracts, or bribery.
Morales Urbina is one of the voices of the Ortega-Murillo regime at international forums where debates on the crisis in Nicaragua and violations of human rights take place. Morales Urbina frames her statements under the Nicaraguan government’s rhetoric of being a victim of human rights defense groups that allegedly want to destabilize Nicaragua. Morales Urbina was appointed Attorney General in 2019 in violation of Nicaraguan law, as she had not practiced law for the requisite 10 years prior to her appointment.
On November 27, 2018, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701–1706) (IEEPA), issued Executive Order 13851 (83 FR 61505, November 29, 2018) (E.O. 13851). In E.O. 13851, the President determined that the situation in Nicaragua, including the violent response by the Government of Nicaragua to the protests that began on April 18, 2018, and the Ortega regime's systematic dismantling and undermining of democratic institutions and the rule of law, its use of indiscriminate violence and repressive tactics against civilians, and its corruption leading to the destabilization of Nicaragua's economy, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
