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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 MANAGUA 000776 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN 
DEPT ALSO FOR USOAS 
DEPT FOR INR/IAA - EMERSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2018 
TAGS: PINR PREL UNGA NU
SUBJECT: BIO REPORT: UNGA PRESIDENT-ELECT, MIGUEL D'ESCOTO 
BROCKMANN 
 
REF: A. MANAGUA 500 AND PREVIOUS (NOTAL) 
     ¶B. USUN 134 AND PREVIOUS (NOTAL) 
     ¶C. 2007 MANAGUA 2008 (NOTAL) 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Paul A. Trivelli for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY. On June 4 Miguel Jeronimo d'Escoto Brockmann 
of Nicaragua, a seventy-five-year-old U.S.-born and 
-educated, Maryknoll Catholic priest, was elected by 
acclamation to be President of the 63rd UN General Assembly 
(UNGA).  His election, as the sole candidate from the Latin 
America Group (GRULAC), was the culmination of a carefully 
planned, year-long campaign by the Government of Nicaragua 
(GON) to install the former Sandinista Foreign Minister. 
However, despite the GON's careful election campaign, 
d'Escoto's aloof personal manner, his repeated and gratuitous 
anti-U.S. outbursts, as well as his serious health problems, 
may cloud his tenure as UNGA President. 
 
¶2.  (C) Miguel Jeronimo d'Escoto Brockmann was born in 
Hollywood, California on February 5, 1933.  His father, 
Miguel d'Escoto Munoz, was a Nicaraguan diplomat who later 
served as Nicaragua's ambassador to Rome (1955), Tokyo 
(1972), Paris and the United Nations.  The elder d'Escoto was 
nicknamed "The Count" and universally considered a flamboyant 
larger-than-life figure with a taste for the finer things in 
life.  (At the time of Miguel's Jr.'s birth, his father was 
in Hollywood aspiring to be a film mogul.)  He made a 
considerable fortune in Nicaragua selling rather questionable 
oil concessions with the connivance of President Somoza and 
his family.  In fact, Somoza was d'Escoto Brockmann's 
godfather.  Although Miguel's family returned to Nicaragua 
shortly after his birth, between 1947 and 1961, he went back 
to the United States to study, mainly at schools connected to 
the Catholic Maryknoll Order.  In early 1951, during a return 
trip to Nicaragua he gave up his U.S. Citizenship.  D'Escoto 
earned a B.A. (1956) from St. Mary's College (Glen Ellen, 
Illinois) and an M.A. (1961) from the Maryknoll Seminary 
(Ossening, New York) and was ordained into the Order the same 
year.  In 1962, he completed an M.A. in journalism from 
Columbia University.  D'Escoto describes his family as 
privileged, with a history of rebellion.  Miguel's brother, 
Francisco, also a diplomat, served with his father in Tokyo 
and later returned as Ambassador himself.  Francisco also 
served in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington and was the 
Sandinista Ambassador to London (1984-87) and Lisbon (in 
1987). 
 
¶3.  (S/NF) Some interlocutors have described him as 
sophisticated and well-educated, and in the past, Embassy 
officials have found him capable of arguing adroitly while 
avoiding being pinned down by specifics.  He has also been 
described as arrogant, condescending and patronizing. 
D'Escoto prefers to conduct meetings in Spanish, although he 
speaks fluent English and understands some Italian and French. 
 
¶4.  (C) D'Escoto has a long history of social and political 
activism, spending much of the 1960s working on housing and 
 
MANAGUA 00000776  002 OF 004 
 
 
social issues in Chile's poorest barrios.  During 
self-imposed exile to New York in the 1970s, d'Escoto served 
as Director of Communications for the Maryknoll Order, where 
he established ORBIS Publications, and was a founder of "Los 
Doce (The Twelve)" -- a group of prominent, mostly-exiled, 
Nicaraguan progressives, intellectuals and democratic 
activists who openly supported the Sandinista National 
Liberation Front (FSLN) against the Somoza regime.  In 1979 
d'Escoto returned permanently to Nicaragua and was named 
Foreign Minister, a position he held until Ortega's electoral 
defeat in 1990.  Despite the title, during the 1980s d'Escoto 
functioned more as a roving ambassador than foreign minister. 
 Policy was actually set by Vice Foreign Minister, Victor 
Hugo Tinoco during this period.  While Foreign Minister, 
D'Escoto received the Lenin Peace Prize for 1985-86 and the 
Thomas Merton Award for 1987. 
 
(U) Censured by the Catholic Church 
 
¶5.  (C) The appointment as Foreign Minister placed d'Escoto 
in conflict with the Vatican.  In 1981, Pope John Paul II 
ordered d'Escoto to resign his government position.  D'Escoto 
refused and, during a 1983 papal visit, the Pontiff publicly 
censured d'Escoto and prohibited him from performing priestly 
duties.  The ban is still in effect; however, unlike 
Nicaragua's Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, d'Escoto was 
never defrocked.  Foreign Ministry staff still -- and almost 
reverently -- refers to him as &Padre (Father) d'Escoto.8 
We have occasionally been corrected for failing to use the 
title. 
 
¶6. (C/NF) We also note that d'Escoto's personal life has long 
been rumored to be characterized by aberrant behavior -- 
including pedophilia and necrophilia.  We cannot judge the 
truth of these rumors, but they do abound among the 
chattering classes.  We can relate one story, which we do 
believe to be true.  A local businessman has told us that 
while inspecting his family homestead, then-recently 
recovered as a property that had been confiscated by the 
FSLN, he saw d'Escoto peering nervously over the wall from 
the adjoining home.  The next day, upon returning to his 
house, the businessman noticed new planting had been done in 
a small garden on his property.  After inspection, he 
discovered the garden hid a trapdoor entry to a series of 
extensive cement tunnels bored into the mountain and 
connected to several underground prison cells.  The guards at 
the house reported that the d'Escoto gardeners had come and 
planted the new greenery earlier that same day. 
 
(C) A Love-Hate Relationship with the United States 
 
¶7.  (S/NF)  D'Escoto's original appointment as Foreign 
Minister surprised many.  In 1979, he was viewed as moderate, 
even pro-U.S. in his views.  Early in his tenure he 
reportedly pressed for flexibility towards the United States; 
however, by 1983 he had become highly critical of "U.S. 
intransigence" and claimed the United States was the cause of 
all Central America's ills.  Knowledgeable Embassy contacts 
 
MANAGUA 00000776  003 OF 004 
 
 
have suggested that this behavior may indicate that d'Escoto 
felt personally and professionally rebuffed by U.S. 
"unwillingness" to engage with the Sandinista government 
during the 1980s. 
 
¶8.  (S/NF)  He has continued to speak against the United 
States alleging that Americans "are worse terrorists than any 
other."  In August of 2007, d'Escoto's anti-U.S. public 
statements reached new levels when he dismissed the gravity 
of the September 11th attacks.  During an August 13 speech 
President Ortega said that the 3,000 deaths in New York on 
September 11th were "insignificant" compared to the "acts of 
U.S. genocide" in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed 120,000. 
 The next morning, during a TV interview, d'Escoto opined 
that Ortega had been "very moderate" (muy suave) because he 
had only included the number of immediate deaths in Japan, 
not the total number of those who died as a result of 
"genocidal" atomic bombs, "which was five times that number." 
 We also note the title of d'Escoto's April 3, 2006 op-ed 
piece in Nuevo Diario -- "Trivelli:  Is he an idiot or does 
he just act that way?" 
 
¶9.  (C/NF)  Despite his anti-U.S. statements, d'Escoto still 
seems to hold a deep respect for American ideals of liberty 
and freedom.  He told Embassy officials that two of his four 
"life heroes" are Americans ) Martin Luther King, Jr. and 
Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, founder of the Maryknoll Sisters. 
(The other two are Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevksy and 
Mahatma Ghandi.  According to Embassy officials, he has large 
portraits of all four prominently displayed in the dining 
room of his home). 
 
(C) SERIOUS MEDICAL ISSUE 
 
¶10.  (S/NF) It has also been noted by Embassy officials that 
d'Escoto is prone to unpredictable behavior, at once being 
very calm and collected, and the next moment angrily 
denouncing the United States.  This is perhaps due to his 
medical condition. 
 
¶11.  (C/NF)  D'Escoto suffers from Meniere's disease 
(mun-YAIRZ), an inner ear disorder that affects balance and 
hearing.  The cause of the condition is unknown, but may be 
related to a fluid imbalance in the inner ear.  In a 
September 2007 meeting with Embassy officers, d'Escoto 
complained that his ear problems limited his ability to hear, 
walk, and maintain his balance.  He is constantly attended by 
aides, at least one of whom is also an ex-priest.  D'Escoto 
appears to have lost hearing in his left ear -- he positions 
interlocutors so that his right ear is nearest them -- and 
the condition now affects his right ear and could result in 
permanent hearing loss.  While there is no known cause or 
cure for the condition, some medications can alleviate the 
vertigo and nausea attacks.  D'Escoto is covered by Maryknoll 
Order medical insurance and periodically receives treatment 
for his condition in the United States. 
 
(U) The Road to UNGA: All for Naught? 
 
MANAGUA 00000776  004 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶12.  (C/NF)  Nicaragua nominated d'Escoto for the position of 
UNGA President in August 2007 and quickly moved to obtain NAM 
backing and ensure there would be no other candidates 
nominated.  However, as one senior Caribbean diplomat noted, 
many GRULAC nations "were not impressed by Mr. d'Escoto's 
curriculum vitae and there are serious questions in the group 
about his health."  As Foreign Minister in the 1980s, 
d'Escoto offended and annoyed other diplomats with his harsh 
rhetoric and vehement tirades -- often in public, 
international forums.  This quality has not diminished with 
age.  In April 2008, a GRULAC Ambassador in Managua recounted 
a session between d'Escoto and local GRULAC Chiefs of Mission 
that was described as "just plain frightening."  D'Escoto 
claimed that his mandate would be to remove the UN system 
from the grip of the imperialist U.S. and "completely 
re-order and reform" the UN and the way it treats the 
developing world. 
 
¶13.  (S/NF)  The unpredictable behavior and gratuitous 
anti-U.S. attacks may prove serious impediments to d'Escoto's 
leadership.  When calm, his statements can seem logical, but 
can turn unpredictable and full of ire in a matter of 
moments.  Though these erratic mood swings may be connected 
to his medical condition.  The combination of d'Escoto's deep 
loathing of the U.S., his unpredictable personal demeanor and 
possible lack of understanding of UN complexities may portend 
an administration full of conflict, ill will and squandered 
opportunities. 
TRIVELLI