VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMU #0519/01 0672046
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 082046Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5520
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0571
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAGUA 000519 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2016 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KDEM KCRM NU
SUBJECT: INVESTIGATION OF FSLN ABUSES HAS ORTEGA ON THE 
DEFENSIVE 
 
REF: A. 05 MANAGUA 1117 
 
     ¶B. 05 MANAGUA 2426 
     ¶C. 05 MANAGUA 2646 
     ¶D. 05 MANAGUA 2998 
     ¶E. MANAGUA 119 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR PAUL TRIVELLI. REASONS 1.4 (B,D). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY:   The CPDH human rights organization has 
completed its initial trip to the Atlantic coast to 
investigate and document 1980s Sandinista human rights abuses 
in the region.  The group's initial findings received 
widespread media attention immediately prior to the March 5 
Atlantic coast regional elections, and put Daniel Ortega on 
the defensive.  The FSLN is rightly worried by the 
investigation and is scrambling to deflect the damaging media 
coverage and pending international charges of human rights 
and genocide against Ortega and other prominent FSLN leaders. 
 The CPDH will carry out two more investigative trips in 
March and April prior to filing the abuse charges in domestic 
and international institutions in May and June.  This second 
phase of filing international charges will require additional 
USG financial support; a specific project proposal will be 
forthcoming in late March or early April.  It is possible 
that the media splash caused by the CPDH's work had an effect 
in discouraging Atlantic coast voters from casting their 
ballots for the FSLN, contributing to the party's relatively 
disappointing electoral results on March 5.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) During conversations on March 2 and 7, Marcos 
Carmona and Raymond Genie, the Executive Director and 
Secretary of the Nicaraguan Permanent Commission on Human 
 
SIPDIS 
Rights (CPDH) human rights organization, informed emboffs of 
the results of the group's first of three planned trips to 
the Atlantic Coast to document complaints of human rights 
abuses committed by the FSLN regime against the Miskito 
indigenous group during the 1980s.  Carmona and Genie 
reported that during the trip, the CPDH visited eight 
communities and documented in detail 22 specific, strong 
abuse cases, with a total of 36 witnesses.  On this first 
trip, the CPDH concentrated on the town of Puerto Cabezas and 
areas immediately around it.  During the group's second trip 
to the region, scheduled for 10-12 days starting March 13, 
the group will focus on areas around Waspam and Leimus on the 
Rio Coco.  The third and final planned trip will occur in 
early April and will concentrate on the area around 
Prinzapolka. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  According to witness accounts received by the CPDH, 
the FSLN used the same systematic modus operandi in almost 
every Atlantic coast community that it terrorized in the 
early 1980s.  With Nazi-like organization, the Sandinista 
army would surround a particular Atlantic coast community, 
round up all the men by force and put them in a central 
location, usually a Moravian church, and then separate the 
men into groups.  Those judged to be no danger to the FSLN 
would be freed.  Some of those viewed as hostile to the FSLN 
would be arrested and jailed without charges, while those 
seen as the most dangerous were put in trucks, driven outside 
of the community, and massacred en masse. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Carmona and Genie recounted to emboffs that the FSLN 
is already very worried about the CPDH,s investigative 
efforts and is taking a variety of steps in response.  First, 
several CPDH leaders have been told by various people that 
they need to act "cautiously" because they are treading in 
dangerous territory. Second, FSLN radio stations on the 
Atlantic Coast made broadcasts during the CPDH visit stating 
that the NGO,s actions were purely "political" and that 
locals should either avoid talking to the group or go to the 
group and denounce "Contra" human rights abuses. 
Interestingly, despite the FSLN appeal, not one person 
approached the CPDH with complaints about the Contras. 
Finally, locals told the CPDH representatives that in late 
2005, FSLN National Assembly deputy Walmaro Gutierrez made a 
trip to Puerto Cabezas and had a meeting with several 
ex-Contra leaders in which Gutierrez promised that if the 
FSLN came to power it would bring large amounts of 
development money to the communities of the ex-Contras. 
Gutierrez and the FSLN have also reportedly set up some sort 
of Atlantic coast development foundation in an effort to buy 
off ex-Contras and the Miskitos.  The CPDH regards such acts 
as part of a wider FSLN effort to persuade people on the 
Atlantic Coast not to cooperate with its investigation. 
 
¶5.  (U) On March 2-3, the Nicaraguan television and print 
media prominently featured interviews with Carmona on the 
 
CPDH's investigations on the Atlantic Coast, and the group's 
plans to bring charges of crimes against humanity against 
Sandinista leaders in domestic and international 
institutions.  Carmona emphasized to the media that the CPDH 
activities are intended to provide belated justice to victims 
of atrocities and are not political in nature, as the FSLN is 
alleging.  Carmona commented that the CPDH will require 
additional funds to cover expenses incurred in preparing for 
and arranging future media events and other public outreach 
efforts. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Nicaraguan media have also noted that in the 
March 5 regional elections on the Atlantic coast, Miskito 
communities in the Atlantic regions of the country punished 
the FSLN for the atrocities the Sandinistas committed against 
the Miskito in the 1980s.  This is the fifth consecutive 
election in which the Miskito vote has contributed to 
disappointing FSLN results on the Atlantic side of the 
country.  While some leaders of the Yatama indigenous group 
that seeks to represent the Miskito have cut deals with the 
FSLN for their own personal benefit, and while such deals are 
likely to give the FSLN a place in the regional government in 
the north, the latest election results make clear that the 
Miskito as a whole have not forgotten the massacres, 
bombings, disappearances and torture that characterized FSLN 
policy towards them in the 1980s.  Although the PLC is a much 
weaker organization than it was in past elections, observers 
attribute at least part of its relatively strong showing in 
the Northern and Southern Regional Autonomous Zones (RAAN and 
RAAS) to the continuing hostility of many people, 
particularly Miskitos, in both regions towards the FSLN for 
its 1980s atrocities committed on the Atlantic Coast. 
 
¶7. (C) COMMENT:  Post and the Department's support of the 
CPDH Miskito human rights project may have had a positive 
influence on voter behavior on March 5.  The CPDH statements 
issued to the media on their preliminary findings of the 
Sandinista era massacres and other abuses were widely 
reported and the media blitz created a visible stir, possibly 
dissuading some voters for supporting the FSLN's candidates. 
Daniel Ortega clearly realized the danger, as the March 3 
press prominently reported his claim that if the FSLN 
returned to power he would not repeat the "mistakes" of the 
1980s.  Post anticipates that public and media interest in 
the CPDH's work will only increase as the investigation moves 
forward and the November national elections approach.  Phase 
II of the CPDH projects entails submitting the cases to the 
Inter-American Human Rights Commission and exposing the 
process/issue to the public.  The CPDH will soon submit a 
proposal to the Embassy for Department funding for this 
second stage of the project.  The CPDH leaders also asked 
once again for USG support for the digitalization of their 
extensive archives of 1980s FSLN abuses throughout the 
country.  They noted that this project would provide a useful 
complement to the ongoing Atlantic coast investigation. 
TRIVELLI