Joe Biden signed an executive order that includes the authority to ban US companies from doing business in Nicaragua's gold industry.

The government of US President Joe Biden on Monday intensified economic pressure on the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega through a series of measures targeting mining, gold and other sectors in the country.

Biden signed an executive order that includes the authority to ban US companies from doing business in Nicaragua's gold industry, while the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the head of Nicaragua's mining authority, along with another high government official, the department said in a statement.

The order's expanded sanctions powers could also be used to block new US investment in certain other sectors in Nicaragua, the import of certain Nicaraguan products or the export of certain items to Nicaragua, he added.

“The Ortega-Murillo regime's continued attacks on democratic actors and members of civil society and the unjust detention of political prisoners demonstrate that the regime feels it is not bound by the rule of law,” said the Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson. He said the United States' actions were aimed at denying them "the resources they need to continue undermining democratic institutions in Nicaragua."

The two sanctions announced Monday target Nicaragua's General Directorate of Mines, a unit of Nicaragua's Ministry of Energy and Mines that manages most mining operations in the country, and Reinaldo Gregorio Lenin Cerna Juárez, a close confidant of Ortega. said the Treasury.

Under the measure, any property they have in the United States would be frozen and any U.S. citizen would be prohibited from doing business with them.