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Chinese mining company Xinxin Linze Minería Group exported $25.6 million worth of Nicaraguan gold to Miami between January and August, according to a report published by La Prensa on Tuesday. La Prensa, a Nicaraguan newspaper operating in exile, described Xinxin Linze Minería Group as one of the companies “pampered” by communist dictator Daniel Ortega and Energy and Mining Minister Salvador Mansell in Ortega’s extensive efforts to give away Nicaragua’s gold and other resources to communist China. The newspaper, in an investigation citing statistical information from the global trade data platform ImportGenius, found that the Chinese mining company made 11 shipments of raw gold to the United States this year totaling roughly $25.6 million. The shipments reportedly started in late January and ramped up from April onwards. “The commercial transactions were cleared through Nicaragua’s Central Air Cargo Customs Office under code HSN71081200, which corresponds to gold in the international goods classification system,” the report read. “Xinxin in Nicaragua is represented by Lijun Dong, general administrative representative and identified with residence card number 000117170, a stranger in business circles.” La Prensa stated that Xinxin Linze Minería Group has so far received ten lease concessions from the Nicaraguan Mining Ministry to search 155,055 hectares of Nicaraguan territory for gold. Unnamed experts consulted by La Prensa said that they believe that, as long as it manages to exploit one of the full-fledged concessions, the Chinese company “would be making profits by exporting gold to the United States.” Dictator Daniel Ortega unilaterally broke Nicaragua’s ties with Taiwan in December 2021 and embraced communist China weeks later, adopting its “One-China Principle,” which falsely claims the sovereign nation of Taiwan is a province of China. Since then, and most notably from 2024 onwards, the communist dictator has signed off on a growing number of decades-long gold mining concessions to China under extremely favorable terms for the Chinese regime — including an open pit mining lease in August 2024. Ortega has also taken loans from China and approved several construction contracts under the framework of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) predatory debt trap program. The mining leases, loans, and other contracts have allowed the Chinese regime to easily expand its influence in Nicaragua. According to the Nicaraguan newspaper Confidencial, the Ortega regime signed ten different loan contracts with five Chinese companies between 2023 and 2025, which collectively amount to a debt of over $1.2 billion. Dissidents of the Ortega regime have denounced the Chinese loans as “leonine for public finances, and harmful to national sovereignty.” La Prensa warned in its Tuesday report that the Nicaraguan Energy and Mining Ministry issued 11 new leases to Chinese companies between October 10-20. In total, the Ortega regime has leased 6.38 percent of Nicaragua’s entire territory to China, going from 5 to 6.38 percent in a single week. “Since the reestablishment of relations, the Sandinista Front leadership has been docile toward China. This stance contrasts with Ortega’s frequent criticism of Europe and the United States. The regime has moved closer to the Asian power to avoid accountability for human rights abuses committed since 2018, following repeated allegations by officials from the Organization of American States and investigators from the United Nations, the United States, and Europe,” La Prensa wrote. The newspaper also pointed out that, while the Ortega regime issues preferential treatment to Chinese gold mining companies, it has tightened gold export controls on other gold exporters since April, who now need a state authorization to export the resource, which the Energy and Mining ministry “grants sparingly and selectively.” The Ortega regime strictly controls the Nicaraguan mining industry through the state-owned company Eniminas. In 2022, the United States sanctioned Eninimas for funneling profits to private sector partners and kickbacks to regime insiders. Other Nicaraguan mining companies linked to the Ortega regime, such as Comintsa, have also been sanctioned in recent years. Comintsa is linked to Energy and Mining Minister Salvador Mansell, who was sanctioned by the United States in November 2021 for his role in Ortega’s sham presidential elections that year. Most of the Ortega regime’s international negotiations with China and Russia are led by Daniel Ortega’s son, Laureano Ortega Murillo, who officially serves as his father’s “Presidential Adviser for the Promotion of Investment, Trade, and International Cooperation in Nicaragua.” On Monday, Laureano Ortega offered total tax exemptions, preferential energy rates, and state-owned land benefits to Chinese companies wishing to set up operations in Nicaragua under the regime’s BRI-related Special Economic Zones initiative. He issued the offer during the opening of the 18th China-Latin American and the Caribbean Business Summit in Zhengzhou, China. “Through this initiative, all companies, especially Chinese companies that establish themselves under this regime in Nicaragua, will be exempt from all taxes for as long as they operate in our country, and will have mechanisms in place to facilitate the establishment and operation of their companies in Nicaragua,” he said. Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
