Nicaragua’s dictatorship grants huge gold mining concessions to China
https://havanatimes.org/features/china-seeks-gold-in-nicaragua-receives-13-new-concessions/
Excerpt:
China is gaining large areas for metal mining in Nicaragua at an accelerated pace, with the “blessing” of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. In six months, between October 2023 and April 2024, three Chinese companies have received thirteen mining concessions. The sum of these thirteen lots granted is equivalent to 11.66% of the total number of hectares granted for metallic mining in Nicaragua, according to official data from the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), analyzed by CONFIDENCIAL.
Concessions to Chinese mining companies have also been expeditious. All of them were approved between two to eight months after being requested.
The thirteen lots granted to Chinese companies are distributed in nine municipalities in Nicaragua. Eight are located in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (RACCN) and are part of a municipality in Jinotega. Another four lots are in the department of Chinandega, and one more is in the Autonomous Region of the South Caribbean Coast (RACCS). In addition, three other applications are pending: two in the North Caribbean, and a third in the department of Estelí.
The thirteen metallic mining lots in Nicaragua, granted to China, are in the hands of three companies: Zhong Fu Development S.A., Thomas Metal S.A., and Nicaragua XinXin Linze Minera Group S.A.
Each mining concession is valid for 25 years, and the three companies have exclusive rights to explore, exploit, and establish beneficiation plants to process mining materials.
Zhong Fu Development, S. A. is the Chinese company with the most metallic mining concessions in Nicaragua. On February 28, 2023, this company requested eight lots located in the North Caribbean and the departments of Chinandega and Jinotega from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
.....Zhong Fu Development, S.A. also stands out among the Chinese mining companies because it obtained the transfer of a concession from Compañía Minera Internacional, S.A. (Comintsa), less than a month before the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned it.
On April 17, 2024, the MEM authorized the transfer of the Tutuwaka lot in the El Rama municipality, in the South Caribbean of Nicaragua, granted in May 2022 to Comintsa. Less than a month after this transfer, on May 15, Comintsa was sanctioned by the United States.
According to the Treasury Department, Comintsa “is owned and operated” by Salvador Mansell Castrillo, holder of the Energy and Mines portfolio, sanctioned by the Treasury Department in November 2021.
“Gold is Nicaragua’s main commodity export, and this action (the sanction) is intended to degrade the Ortega-Murillo regime’s ability to manipulate the sector and benefit from Comintsa’s corrupt operations,” assured the Treasury Department, which also sanctioned the company Capital Mining, which it pointed out of being “an intermediary in the gold sector controlled by Laureano Ortega Murillo and Mansell Castrillo.”
Cuban prosecutor who sent July 11 peaceful protesters to prison wants to immigrate to the U.S.
Translated excerpt:
Rosabel Roca Sampedro, a prosecutor from Camagüey who sought prison sentences for young demonstrators from the July 11 protests and other dissidents, has requested an appointment through the CBPOne application to immigrate to the United States, according to Martí Noticias, which verified this information with immigration sources who asked to remain anonymous.
According to multiple reports on social media, Roca Sampedro left Cuba with her young daughter and currently resides in Mexico. She deleted a profile from her social media where she had shown her support for the Cuban regime and is now waiting for the U.S. to grant her an appointment through the CBPOne mobile application to present herself at the border and request political asylum.
“The case is number 26 of 2022, from the Preliminary Investigation File 31 of 2021, for Assault and Contempt, handled by prosecutor Rosabel Roca Sampedro. We have it in our records. Due to her work, four innocent people were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 years and 4 months to 3 years and 6 months,” said Javier Larrondo, director of the NGO Prisoners Defenders, which specializes in documenting human rights violations in Cuba.
After July 11, 2021, when the largest peaceful protests in Cuban history occurred, the island’s regime sentenced more than 1,000 people to prison. Since then, this has been a major obstacle in relations with the United States and a cause for condemnation by international organizations.
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A communist agent trying to enter the U.S. belongs in a prison not the U.S.