The United States on Friday ordered all of its non-emergency personnel to leave crisis-stricken Nicaragua amid a wave of anti-government protests and violence that has left 230 dead, the embassy in the capital Managua said.
The US "ordered the departure of non-emergency US government personnel" and urged citizens to reconsider traveling to Nicaragua due to "crime, civil unrest, and limited healthcare availability," according to a statement.
"Heavily armed, government-controlled parapolice forces in civilian clothing, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, operate in large parts of the country, including Managua," it warned, also advising citizens to avoid demonstrations, which began in April.
Protesters are demanding elections be brought forward, or the resignation of President Daniel Ortega, whom they accuse of establishing a dictatorship with his wife and vice president Rosario Murillo.
The Nicaraguan government is planning a march for Saturday afternoon, while the opposition Civic Alliance called for a demonstration next Thursday followed by a 24-hour national strike on Friday.
After demonstrations first began, the US ordered relatives of diplomatic staff to leave.
It has also cranked up its own pressure on Ortega to make progress in struggling peace negotiations.
The US Treasury put National Police Commissioner Francisco Javier Diaz Madriz and Fidel Antonio Moreno Briones, secretary of the Managua mayor's office, on its financial blacklist, citing their roles in killings and beatings of anti-government protesters.
Also sanctioned was Jose Francisco Lopez Centeno, an oil executive the US Treasury alleged had siphoned off millions of dollars from two government-linked companies for his own benefit and that of Nicaragua's leaders.
The Kremlin has called on the US Treasury to come up with proof after it told a BBC investigation it considered President Vladimir Putin to be corrupt.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the allegation was an "official accusation" and a "total fabrication".
Adam Szubin, who oversees US Treasury sanctions, told BBC Panorama that the US government had known Mr Putin was corrupt for "many, many years".
It is thought to be the first time the US has made such a direct accusation.
Washington has already imposed sanctions on Mr Putin's aides, but has stopped short of levelling corruption allegations at the president himself.
US restrictions were placed on a number of Kremlin insiders in 2014, after President Putin ordered the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine. The EU imposed similar measures against Russian companies and individuals, focusing on sectors of the Russian economy that were close to the elite.
Media captionAdam Szubin: "He has long time training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth"The US government stated at the time that President Putin had secret investments in the energy sector.
Mr Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the Panorama allegations would have looked like "another classic case of irresponsible journalism, if not for an official comment from a representative of the US finance ministry".
As such it was an official accusation. "It clearly shows who is directing this," said Mr Peskov, who added that such an allegation required proof, to show that the statements were not unfounded slander.
In the programme, Mr Szubin spoke of how "we've seen [Mr Putin] enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn't view as friends using state assets", whether it concerned Russia's energy wealth or state contracts. "To me, that is a picture of corruption," he said.
'Simply rubbish'
Image copyrightAFPImage caption Mr Peskov (L) pointed out that the programme coincided with the UK's Litvinenko inquiry report, without naming it US government officials have been reluctant to be interviewed about President Putin's wealth, and Mr Szubin would not comment on a secret CIA report from 2007 that estimated it at around $40bn (£28bn).
But he said the Russian president had been amassing secret wealth. "He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year. That is not an accurate statement of the man's wealth, and he has long time training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth."
President Putin declined to be interviewed for Panorama but the Kremlin denies such allegations.
In 2008, President Putin personally addressed claims that he was the richest man in Europe, saying: "It's simply rubbish. They just picked all of it out of someone's nose and smeared it across their little papers."
The Panorama programme came days after a UK public inquiry said Mr Putin had "probably" approved the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Mr Peskov pointed out that the programme had coincided with "quasi-court proceedings" and said that the Kremlin was used to such "false-reporting", whether it was the result of incompetence or an orchestrated campaign.
Litvinenko, a former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent and fierce critic of Mr Putin, was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium in 2006.
Sir Robert Owen's report found that Mr Putin was likely to have signed off the attack in part due to personal "antagonism" between the president and Litvinenko. The Russian foreign ministry rejected the report as neither transparent nor unbiased.
'Doing the dirty' - By Stephen Ennis, BBC Monitoring
The recent tensions between Moscow and London have seen pro-Kremlin media invoke a colourful phrase that harks back to the 19th-Century rivalry known as the Great Game.
"Anglichanka gadit" or "The Englishwoman does the dirty" is the Russian equivalent of the French term "perfidious Albion ".
The female gender possibly refers to Queen Victoria or Britannia.
Media captionWhy would Vladimir Putin want Alexander Litvinenko dead?TV presenter Dmitriy Kiselev used the phrase no fewer than nine times in his commentary on the Litvinenko inquiry on Sunday.
He suggested the affair was the latest in a long line of British double-crossings, including the murder of Tsar Paul I in 1801 and Winston Churchill's call for a nuclear attack on the USSR after World War Two. Russian derision at 'joke' inquiry report Key findings of Owen inquiry Alexander Litvinenko: Murdered Russian agent
Panorama: Putin's Secret Riches is available to watch via BBC iPlayer.
The US Treasury has told a BBC investigation that it considers Russian President Vladimir Putin to be corrupt.
The US government has already imposed sanctions on Mr Putin's aides, but it is thought to be the first time it has directly accused him of corruption.
His spokesman told the BBC that "none of these questions or issues needs to be answered, as they are pure fiction".
Last week a UK public inquiry said Mr Putin had "probably" approved the murder of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Secret wealth
Litvinenko, a former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agent and fierce critic of Mr Putin, was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium in 2006.
Adam Szubin, who oversees US Treasury sanctions, has told BBC Panorama that the Russian president is corrupt and that the US government has known this for "many, many years".
He said: "We've seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn't view as friends using state assets. Whether that's Russia's energy wealth, whether it's other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don't. To me, that is a picture of corruption."
The US government imposed sanctions against a number of Kremlin insiders in 2014 and stated that Vladimir Putin had secret investments in the energy sector. However, the Americans did not directly accuse him of corruption at the time.
The sanctions - later expanded to include more individuals and organisations - coincided with similar EU measures against Russia. The trigger for them was Russia's annexation of Crimea, during political turmoil in Ukraine. Image caption The US Treasury's Adam Szubin speaks of a "picture of corruption" US government officials have been reluctant to be interviewed about President Putin's wealth, but Mr Szubin agreed to take part in a BBC Panorama programme investigating the issue.
Mr Szubin would not comment on a secret CIA report from 2007 that put Mr Putin's wealth at around $40bn (£28bn). But he said the Russian president had been amassing secret wealth.
"He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year. That is not an accurate statement of the man's wealth, and he has long time training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth."
The Kremlin denies such allegations. In 2008, President Putin personally addressed claims that he was the richest man in Europe, saying: "It's simply rubbish. They just picked all of it out of someone's nose and smeared it across their little papers."
Offshore company
But Panorama has spoken to former Russian insiders who say they have first-hand knowledge of Vladimir Putin's secret riches.
Dmitry Skarga, who used to run the state shipping company Sovcomflot, says he oversaw the transfer of a $35m yacht to Mr Putin. Mr Skarga says the 57m-long Olympia was a gift from Britain's most famous Russian - the Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich. Image caption The Kremlin says the allegations against President Putin are "pure fiction" "It's a fact that Mr Abramovich, through his employee, transferred a yacht to Mr Putin," he said. "I was on board of this yacht at the end of March 2002, in Amsterdam. And there was a representative of Mr Abramovich… He said that Roman is the owner of this yacht."
Mr Skarga says the Olympia was then given to the Russian president via an offshore company. He then oversaw the management of the yacht for Vladimir Putin and prepared reports on the boat's running costs.
He said: "This yacht was maintained and paid for running costs from the state budget."
Mr Skarga says the yacht was kept secret because it belonged personally to Vladimir Putin, rather than the state.
Panorama asked Mr Abramovich about the yacht. His lawyers dismissed claims about him as speculation and rumour.
President Putin declined to be interviewed for Panorama.
Panorama: Putin's Secret Riches is on BBC One at 20:30 GMT on Monday 25 January and will be available to watch later via BBC iPlayer.
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