Caribbean & Central America - May 2026
NICARAGUA: New US sanctions test gold mining strategy
On 16 April the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) sanctioned seven individuals and seven companies in a marked expansion of its sanctions regime against Nicaragua's gold mining sector.
Among those targeted are Daniel Edmundo Ortega Murillo and Maurice Facundo Ortega Murillo, two sons of co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Other targets include those involved in maintaining the legal framework for the mining sector, including Vice Minister of Energy and Mines Santiago Hernán Bermúdez Tapia and lawyer Lester Matus Tamariz, and mining firms including Thomas Metal, Brother Metal, and Zhong Fu Development.
- Individuals and firms sanctioned
The mining firms sanctioned by the US include Exportadora de Metales, Sociedad Anónima (Emsa), which sells gold in bulk in the US, and Grupo Minero Xiloa, a Nicaraguan firm that became more prominent after Ofac sanctioned gold mining company Compañía Minera Internacional, Sociedad Anónima (Comintsa) in 2024, along with Capital Mining Investment Nicaragua. The other five Nicaraguan firms are: Thomas Metal; Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Minería Group; Brother Metal; Santa Rita Mining Company; and Zhong Fu Development. Along with the two sons of Ortega and Murillo, the other five individuals sanctioned are: deputy mining minister Santiago Hernán Bermúdez Tapia; Comintsa’s legal representative Nelson Francisco Sobalvarro; lawyer Lester Matus Tamariz; and two legal representatives of Zhong Fu, Aníbal Vladimir Matus Buitrago and Feiwu Bian, a Chinese national who is its president.
US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent explicitly linked the sanctions to the seizure of assets owned by BHMB Mining Nicaragua SA (BHMB), a Nicaraguan firm founded in 2019 with foreign investment from a US company, last year. “The Murillo-Ortega dictatorship has sought to fill its own coffers through the use of these gold companies and co-conspirators by confiscating American investments in Nicaragua and using it to generate funds to maintain its political power,” said Bessent in a statement published 16 April. “The United States will not allow the illicit confiscation of American-owned assets and will continue to target revenue streams that empower the corrupt Murillo-Ortega regime,” he added.
However, this latest round of sanctions doesn’t appear to have persuaded Nicaraguan officials to change course. Within two weeks, the government announced that it had granted seven new mining concessions to Chinese firms that do not appear on the sanctions list: Nicaragua Xiajing Minería Group, Minesight Minería, and Zhongwei Mining Group.
This mirrors a similar sanctions avoidance strategy from 2024, when a concession owned by sanctioned government-affiliated gold mining firm Compañia Minera Internacional SA (Comintsa) was simply transferred to Zhong Fu Development, one of the firms sanctioned on 16 April.
It appears that the Nicaraguan government has successfully insulated its mining sector from US sanctions, as the Ortega-Murillo regime continues to decouple from Washington and throw in its lot with Beijing. Chinese firms in Nicaragua are keen to buy as much gold as they can, with growing evidence that they will even buy illicit gold smuggled across the border from northern Costa Rica [SSR-26-04].
However, there are some remaining pressure points that the US could use. According to a 7 April report by Central American regional outlet Divergentes, a bill is being drawn up in US congress to penalise Nicaraguan gold in international markets. Other forms of pressure from Washington could include wider sanctions on the Nicaraguan economy or suspending Managua from the Dominican Republic-Central America-US Free Trade Agreement (Cafta-DR) trade deal. The US remains Nicaragua's largest export destination, handing Washington the opportunity to inflict significant economic pain if it decides to do so, but so far officials haven’t taken any drastic measures.
Looking ahead, Nicaragua’s gold miners have a willing buyer in China and support from the Ortega-Murillo regime, which appears to have figured out how to stay one step ahead of US sanctions. This likely means that mining activity will continue to expand, with Washington seemingly reticent to target the Nicaraguan economy more widely, perhaps as this would risk setting off a wave of migration from the country.