Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega resurfaced this week after nearly two months out of public view and used the moment to launch a fresh verbal attack on U.S. President Donald Trump calling him mentally unfit after Washington imposed new sanctions on two of Ortega's sons and other figures tied to the country's gold industry.
Ortega's return ended weeks of speculation about his absence and signaled that the Ortega-Murillo government is once again willing to confront the White House publicly as U.S. pressure intensifies.
Ortega reappeared on April 20, the anniversary of the 2018 protests that triggered one of the deepest political crises of his rule. In remarks reported by El País, he described Trump as a man who had "lost his mind" and as "mentally deranged," reviving the anti-Washington rhetoric that had been notably muted in recent months. His speech came after a roughly 55-day absence from public events, a silence that had fed questions about his health and about the stability of the ruling circle in Managua.
This happened after, on April 16, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against five individuals and seven companies operating in Nicaragua's gold sector, including Maurice Ortega and Daniel Edmundo Ortega, two sons of Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo.
Treasury said the measures targeted officials and firms accused of helping the regime profit from gold exports, facilitating repression, and participating in the seizure of U.S.-linked property. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington would continue to go after the financial networks that sustain the government.
On April 18, Rubio designated Vice Minister of the Interior Luis Roberto Cañas Novoa under Section 7031(c), a State Department authority used against foreign officials accused of gross human rights violations. The sanction bars him from entering the United States and was timed to coincide with the anniversary of Nicaragua's April 2018 protests, one of the most violent chapters in the country's recent history.
The latest sanctions add to a long list of blows against Ortega's inner circle.
Since the 2018 crackdown on anti-government demonstrations, the United States has sanctioned Murillo, senior security figures, state-linked businesses, and other officials accused of undermining democracy and violating human rights.
The Trump administration has framed the new measures as part of a broader campaign against authoritarian governments in Latin America, while critics of Ortega argue that the gold sector has become one of the regime's most important lifelines.
Inside Nicaragua, Ortega's reappearance may reassure loyalists, but it also underscores how much the regime is now reacting to events beyond its borders. El País reported that many Nicaraguans, especially in exile and in the opposition, increasingly see pressure from Washington as one of the few forces capable of pushing the country toward a political transition. For now, Ortega's answer has been familiar, blame the United States, close ranks with his family, and turn sanctions into another ideological battlefield.
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