Rubio Sanctions 100+ Nicaraguan Officials After Prisoner Death

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions package on Monday in direct response to Rivera’s death, according to Breitbart News. The 73-year-old indigenous leader and former lawmaker died under circumstances that remain unclear, nearly three years after his arrest by the Ortega regime.

Rivera had been held in conditions of forced disappearance since his capture in September 2023, with family members and human rights observers unable to contact him during his detention. Days before his death, the communist government released disturbing footage showing the political prisoner in dramatically deteriorated health, bedridden in a state hospital.

In his official statement, Rubio declared that the United States would not ignore the Nicaraguan regime’s responsibility for what he called the horrific death of Rivera. The Secretary of State singled out top regime official Lumberto Campbell Hooker, already under existing U.S. sanctions, for having direct involvement in denying medical care to the political prisoner and preventing his family from claiming his remains for burial.

The new restrictions bring the total number of Nicaraguan regime officials and family members facing U.S. visa sanctions to over 2,350 individuals complicit in the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, as Breitbart News reports.

Brooklyn Rivera was a prominent leader of Nicaragua’s Miskito indigenous community and founder of the indigenous YATAMA political party. For decades, he stood in opposition to dictator Daniel Ortega and advocated for indigenous rights both domestically and internationally.

The chain of events leading to Rivera’s death began in April 2023, when he traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to denounce the Ortega regime before a United Nations forum on indigenous people. In retaliation, Ortega banned Rivera from returning to Nicaragua. Despite the prohibition, Rivera managed to sneak back into his homeland and lived in hiding until law enforcement arrested him in September 2023 on charges that were never clearly specified.

American human rights activist Reed Brody confirmed that no one had heard from Rivera following his arrest, effectively subjecting him to forced disappearance. The regime banned the YATAMA party entirely just weeks after Rivera’s capture.

In late May of this year, more than three years after Rivera’s U.N. testimony, the Ortega regime published harrowing video footage of the activist in agonizing condition. The images showed Rivera severely deteriorated, bedridden and in critical health at a Nicaraguan hospital. The shocking footage sparked widespread international condemnation and demands for accountability.

Days later, on May 30, the regime announced Rivera’s death, claiming his physical and neurological deterioration resulted from a bacterial infection allegedly caused by the Wuhan coronavirus. According to the outlet Confidencial, this explanation was used as justification to retain custody of Rivera’s remains and prevent independent examination.

Rivera is reportedly the seventh political prisoner known to have died in the custody of the Nicaraguan communist regime. That grim tally includes dictator Daniel Ortega’s own brother, Humberto Ortega.

In a bizarre display, Ortega’s wife and co-dictator Rosario Murillo confirmed Rivera’s death through regime-affiliated media outlet El 19 Digital, referring to him as a brother who had gone through a difficult time health-wise and was now resting in peace.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau issued a statement last week holding the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship responsible for Rivera’s death after three years of inhumane treatment, unjust detention, and enforced disappearance.

Rivera’s daughter, Tininiska Rivera, who has lived in exile since 2023, denounced the regime’s refusal to hand over her father’s remains to the family. Instead, authorities conducted an arbitrary and expedited burial without family consent. Tininiska, who had not seen her father since fleeing Nicaragua days after his arrest, stated that the regime’s actions were designed to prevent an independent autopsy that would have revealed evidence of torture and degrading treatment her father endured during nearly three years of captivity.

Nicaraguan media outlets reported that six relatives of Rivera who traveled to Managua seeking to reclaim his remains were unjustly detained by the Ortega regime. The six family members, including Rivera’s 64-year-old sister Alda López Bryan, are now considered to be subjected to forced disappearance themselves.

With information from Breitbart News