The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on a state-owned gold mining operation in Nicaragua, saying it funds the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

The sanctions focused on Nicaraguan’s Directorate General of Mines and Lenin Cerna, a close adviser and former security chief of Ortega.

The US Treasury Department said the directorate manages most of the mining nationwide and that proceeds from gold mining directly benefit the Ortega regime.

“Ortega and his cronies continue to use proceeds from the production and sale of gold to line their own pockets and pay those who keep the regime in power,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

By blacklisting the directorate, “the United States aims to cut off the Ortega-Murillo regime from its ability to use gold proceeds to repress the Nicaraguan people.”

Nicaraguan Energy and Mines Minister Salvador Mansell Castrillo was placed on the sanctions list last year.

Lenin Cerna, who was head of state security under Ortega’s presidency in the 1970s and 1980s, “was reportedly implicated in numerous incidents of violence, murder and torture and admitted association with known terrorist groups,” the Treasury Department said.

“The Ortega-Murillo regime’s continued attacks on democratic actors and members of civil society, and the unjustified detention of political prisoners show that the regime does not believe in the rule of law,” Treasury Secretary Brian Nelson said.

The US sanctions aim to freeze any assets the Designated Persons have under US jurisdiction and prohibit US persons or companies – including international banks with US operations – from doing business with them, thereby restricting their access to global financial networks is effectively restricted.

The Treasury Department said the sanctions could also be used to block US investment in Nicaragua and block some imports from the country.