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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MANAGUA 000350 
 
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E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/19/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON KDEM NU
SUBJECT: CITIZEN POWER COUNCILS - THE TIP OF THE SPEAR 
 
REF: MANAGUA 130 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Paul A. Trivelli for reasons 1.4(b,d) 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  President Ortega's Citizen Power Councils 
are the "tip of the spear," helping Ortega and First Lady 
Rosario Murillo to further centralize and consolidate their 
personal power.  CPCs have been most "successful" in 
municipalities with town halls controlled by the Sandinista 
National Liberation Front (FSLN), where they act as an 
extension of the local and central governments, but have made 
headway in Liberal cities as well.  Taking the 
institutionalization of the CPCs at the municipal level one 
step further, at Murillo's insistance, all FSLN candidates 
for the November municipal elections were required to sign an 
agreement to subordinate their authority to the CPCs.  In 
Managua, the CPCs have been placed in charge of a USD 2.2 
million road improvement program, bypassing municipal 
authorities.  There is growing evidence that CPCs are acting 
as "gatekeepers," controlling access to public services and 
possibly public employment.  Further reaching into the 
private lives of Nicaraguan citizens, the CPCs have 
reportedly organized neighborhood watches and even interfered 
with an IRI polling effort in the city of Leon.  Sources 
insist that CPCs are also behind the growing number of land 
invasions. Without a strong sustained public campaign 
denouncing the government's abuses through the CPCs, 
opposition political leaders, hopeful of winning a large 
number of municipalities in November, may find their 
potential supporters cowering behind locked doors, fearful of 
CPC reprisal.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Further Centralization of Control 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶2.  (C) Elias Chevez, the general coordinator of the CPCs and 
the Embassy's primary formal CPC contact, is apparently no 
longer authorized to speak with us.  Chevez canceled three 
previously confirmed meetings with Embassy staff and 
commented after the final cancellation that we must address 
any questions or requests regarding the CPCs directly to 
First Lady Rosario Murillo.  While it was always difficult to 
contact Chevez, in previous meetings he acknowledged the 
importance of maintaining contact with the Embassy and had 
repeatedly offered to provide CPC contacts for our reporting 
trips outside of Managua.  (COMMENT: This abrupt change in 
course likely indicates that the Sandinista government -- as 
the CPCs have become more and more entrenched -- no longer 
sees any value in pretending to accommodate the U.S. Embassy 
on this issue. END COMMENT) 
 
CPC Power Linked to Municipal Control 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3.  (C) Despite their steady expansion, the CPCs appear to 
thrive mostly in "friendly" environments and shy away from 
direct confrontation with non-Sandinista authorities at the 
municipal level.  Based on meetings with numerous mayors from 
various political parties over the past couple of months, it 
is clear that CPCs have taken hold and exercise power most 
visibly in municipalities with FSLN mayors.  One FSLN mayor 
referred to the CPCs as his "right arm."  This CPC ascendency 
also appears to be the case in municipalities with weak 
Liberal mayors, those unwilling to push back.  In contrast, 
the CPCs are kept in check and enjoy little public presence 
in cities with strong Liberal mayors. This low profile, 
however, does not imply that CPCs are not active in those 
towns; they remain engaged with local branches of central 
government institution, especially with the Ministries of 
Education, Health, and Family. 
 
"Gatekeeper" Role Increases 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶4.  (C) There is a growing body of evidence to indicate that 
CPCs are increasingly functioning as "gatekeepers," 
controlling access to public services and possibly public 
sector employment.  There are widespread complaints that CPCs 
are charging parents for public school registration forms. 
Contacts in Chinandega reported that public school teachers 
now require a CPC "aval" (guarantee) to keep their jobs; 
there have been sporadic reports of similar demands from 
teachers and other public servants over the past few months 
in other parts of the country.  Also in Chinandega, a student 
was reportedly denied a university scholarship because he did 
not have a CPC aval.  According to the out-going director of 
the National Grain Board (ENABAS), Roger Ali Romero, the CPCs 
maintain sole responsibility for selecting neighborhood 
vendors for the government's grain distribution program 
(reftel).  According to Romero, the CPC's "gatekeeper" role 
is about to increase as ENABAS moves forward with a pilot 
project in which the CPCs would also control local grain 
warehouses. 
 
Eyes and Ears 
- - - - - - - 
 
¶5.  (C) When the CPCs were first announced in early 2007, 
they were immediately compared with the dreaded Sandinista 
Defense Committees (CDS) of the first Ortega Administration. 
As the eyes and ears of the Sandinistas, they kept tabs on 
all neighborhood activities.  The second Ortega 
Administration has invented the mantra that the CPCs 
represent "Direct Democracy" and are only here to ensure the 
government -- at all levels -- is doing its job.  However, 
old habits die hard.  Country Director for the International 
Republican Institute (IRI), Sergio Garcia, recently reported 
that the CPCs interfered in an IRI polling exercise in the 
town of Leon.  As IRI pollsters were traveling house to 
house, CPC representatives were several homes ahead of the 
polling team, telling residents not to participate.  Contacts 
in Esteli and Matagalpa have reported that the CPCs "are 
watching people," but did not provide further detail. 
 
CPCs Leading Land Invasions 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶6.  (C) There is evidence that the CPCs are becoming more 
active in the confiscation of private property.  In 
mid-February, a U.S. citizen reported that local CPC leaders 
were organizing squatters to invade her land and take over 
the property.  According to Nicaraguan lawyers who work 
closely with the Embassy's property office, CPCs are mounting 
a concerted effort to seize land on the Pacific coastline in 
the department of Rivas where Ortega's agrarian reform 
efforts of the 1980s (expropriating beach front property to 
give to agrarian cooperatives) created a number of land 
ownership disputes.  These lawyers report that the CPCs are 
taking advantage of unclear land titles, launching a 
"well-orchestrated strategy to take control of the most 
valuable ocean front property."  The CPCs are organizing 
groups of landless peasants, identifying land with high 
investment potential and no clear title, and sending in the 
people, often, they insisted, using women and children as 
shields against police called in by the owners to stop the 
invaders.  Afterward, the CPCs push for land titles and then 
pressure the new "landowners" to sell to Sandinista-linked 
individuals or companies. 
 
CPCs Used to Mount Proxy War on Managua Mayor 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶7.  (C) In early March, "residents" of Managua's largest 
garbage dump, who make a living extracting recyclable 
materials from Managua's garbage, went on "strike," 
preventing garbage trucks from entering the site.  These 
residents claimed that city garbage collectors were 
extracting the valuable materials before entering the dump, 
impacting their livelihood.  Mayor Dionisio "Nicho" Marenco 
told us that he believed local CPC members instigated the 
strike.  Despite the city's having reached an agreement with 
garbage collectors to limit such activity, the strike 
continues.  Garbage dump residents have complained that they 
are no longer involved in the tiff and that they are being 
used as a political tool.  They insist that people are being 
bused in to continue the struggle. 
 
Institutionalizing CPC Power 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶8.  (C) Coinciding with candidate inscription for November's 
municipal elections, the central government launched a new 
program called "Calles para el Pueblo" (Streets for the 
People), a national street paving campaign supposedly 
financed through the "Bolivarian Alliance for Latin America" 
(ALBA) using Venezuelan oil revenues.  Set to begin in 
Managua, the 44 million cordoba (USD 2.2 million) first phase 
investment will reportedly be managed by the CPCs in 
coordination with the Emergency Social Investment Fund (FISE) 
without the involvement of the mayor or the municipal 
government.  CPC-instigated protests were also instrumental 
in blocking a municipal plan to build an overpass to relieve 
traffic congestion. (COMMENT: The CPCs are now running 
television spots praising their direct involvement in the 
street paving campaign.  END COMMENT) 
 
¶9.  (C) At the FSLN's party conference in early March, 
national CPC head Rosario Murillo delivered what amounted to 
a policy speech regarding the CPCs.  She announced that after 
November's elections, all mayors and city councils would be 
subordinated to the CPCs.  The first phase of her new policy 
was carried out last week during the inscription process for 
November's municipal election candidates, when all FSLN 
candidates were required to sign an agreement to work with 
the CPCs.  We understand the agreement requires the FSLN 
candidates, if elected, to be "subordinate" to the will of 
the CPCs and that the CPCs have the right to remove 
uncooperative mayors.  (COMMENT:  It is doubtful that there 
is any legal basis for this agreement, but if the CPCs 
continue to gain control over government programs and 
services, FSLN mayors could be held captive by the CPCs, 
reducing them to little more than figureheads.  END COMMENT) 
 
Comment - "Tip of the Spear" 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶10.  (C) Ortega and Murillo continue to spin the CPCs as the 
voice and will of the people, a mechanism designed to check 
the performance of the government.  In reality, as numerous 
examples continue to show, the CPCs perform the opposite 
role.  They are the "tip of the spear," an army of 
Ortega/Murillo loyalists who use intimidation, 
government-facilitated control over services, and any other 
form of leverage they can to help Ortega and Murillo 
centralize and consolidate power.  As we saw late last year 
when CPC members attacked an office of the Spanish 
electricity distributor Union Fenosa -- and recently repeated 
in the case of the garbage dump and the protests over 
street-paving in Managua -- Ortega is able to effectively use 
the CPCs to attack enemies in the guise of "citizen power." 
Such attacks send a clear message that "resistance is 
futile," sparking greater fear and capitulation towards other 
CPC demands.  This intimidation enables the CPCs to then 
muscle their way into -- and gain greater control of -- more 
aspects of people's private lives such as employment and 
enrolling children in school. 
 
¶11.  (C) Faced with this growing menace, political opposition 
parties and civil society organizations have remained largely 
silent.  Granted, opposition parties have been concentrating 
on building alliances to defeat the FSLN in as many 
municipalities as possible in November.  However, the CPCs 
continue to lock down control neighborhood by neighborhood by 
promising jobs and access to services or through fear and 
intimidation.  Without a strong sustained public campaign 
denouncing the government's abuses through the CPCs, 
opposition hopefuls may find their potential supporters 
cowering behind locked doors come November. 
TRIVELLI