November 09, 2018 - 7:14 AM
MADRID - Spain's foreign minister is calling for international sanctions on Nicaragua's government.
Josep Borrell told an Iberian-Latin American forum in Madrid on Friday that diplomatic pressure must be exerted on President Daniel Ortega's Sandinista government amid a deadly political crisis there.
More than 300 people have been killed in Nicaragua since protests erupted in April calling for Ortega's resignation.
Spanish private news agency Europa Press reports Borrell saying that, "regrettably," international sanctions are "not currently on the radar screen" because Nicaragua's problems are overshadowed by those of Venezuela.
He rejected the use of force, both from outside Nicaragua and within, to resolve the standoff.
The U.S. administration has imposed sanctions on three Nicaraguans, including the national police commissioner, for human rights abuses and corruption and has threatened further punitive measures.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018