Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: Adopted by the Organization of American States (in this Act referred to as the OAS ) on October 21, 2020, the Resolution Restoring Democratic Institutions and Respect for Human Rights in Nicaragua Through Free and Fair Elections (in this section referred to as the OAS Resolution ) reiterated hemispheric concern that the government of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua has failed to release all political prisoners and implement agreed-upon measures to ensure freedom of expression.
The OAS Resolution called on the Ortega government to accept the deployment of domestic and international electoral observation missions and outlined a need for timely, inclusive negotiations to achieve meaningful electoral reforms, including the modernization of the Supreme Electoral Council, the revitalization of a pluralistic political process, and an independent audit of Nicaraguan voter rolls. A November 19, 2019, report from the OAS High Level Commission on Nicaragua noted the Ortega government had engaged in significant efforts since April 2018 to curtail the fundamental rights of the citizens of Nicaragua, including repeated acts of police intimidation and at least 325 murders, which were predominately committed by government security forces.
On April 21, 2018, Nicaraguan journalist Ángel Gahona was killed while broadcasting live on social protests in the country. Since April 2018, the Ortega government has increased its harassment of independent media, which includes December 2019 police raids of the digital newspaper Confidencial and the 100% Noticias news channel, and a September 2020 court-ordered seizure of assets belonging to independent broadcaster Nicavision Canal 12. Since 2007, family members of President Daniel Ortega and their political allies have purchased over a dozen TV channels, radio stations, and online news sites in Nicaragua, including Canal 4, 8, and 13, Radio Nicaragua, and El 19 Digital, to increase pro-government media coverage and silence media coverage critical of the government.
Sandinista National Liberation Front members of the National Assembly of Nicaragua, with support from the Ortega government, recently approved legislation to obstruct citizen mobilization and codify the persecution of political opponents, including— the Foreign Agents Regulation Law on October 15, 2020, which requires civil society, nongovernmental organizations, and citizens who receive funds originating from abroad to register as foreign agents , and bars them from engaging in domestic political activity; the Special Cybercrimes Law on October 27, 2020, which established prison sentences for individuals who spread information online that the Government of Nicaragua deems to be false or construes to cause alarm, terror, or unease in the public; the Self-Determination Law on December 21, 2020, which provides President Ortega with the authority to unilaterally declare citizens terrorists or traitors to the homeland for opposing his rule and ban them from running for public office, effectively preventing any individuals who supported the 2018 protests from being candidates; and the reform to the Consumer Protection Law on February 4, 2021, which provides the Government of Nicaragua the authority to mandate Nicaraguan commercial banks to overturn and ignore sanctions imposed by the United States with respect to persons on the list of specifically designated national and blocked persons maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.
According to preliminary reports of the Government of Nicaragua, Hurricanes Eta and Iota, which made landfall in Nicaragua on November 3 and November 16, 2020, respectively, affected more than 3,000,000 individuals and resulted in an economic loss in excess of $742,000,000. Indigenous Miskito and Mayangna communities situated in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region bore the brunt of the devastation, with at least 23 indigenous territories and upwards of 147,000 indigenous inhabitants directly impacted by the weather phenomena.