A new report from Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa claims that several Chinese mining companies sanctioned by the United States now control massive portions of Nicaragua’s territory thanks to sweetheart deals signed by the country’s communist regime.
According to the report, five U.S.-sanctioned Chinese gold mining companies currently control roughly six percent of Nicaragua’s entire land area through long-term mining agreements approved under dictator Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo, who now rule the country as so-called “co-presidents.” Because apparently one authoritarian ruler just wasn’t enough anymore.
The investigation found that the Ortega regime has signed decades-long mining lease contracts with at least 15 Chinese companies, effectively handing over enormous control of Nicaragua’s gold resources to Beijing-linked interests.
Altogether, the deals reportedly place more than 1.013 million hectares of land under Chinese mining control — equivalent to roughly 8.5 percent of Nicaragua’s total territory. Of that amount, percent is reportedly controlled by the five Chinese companies already sanctioned by the United States.
La Prensa reported that between 2023 and February 2026, Ortega’s government signed 52 separate mining lease contracts involving four sanctioned Chinese firms, while a fifth sanctioned company had already been operating in Nicaragua since 2019.
The mining expansion is part of a broader shift toward China that accelerated after Nicaragua severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in December 2021 and formally aligned itself with the Chinese Communist Party shortly afterward.