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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MANAGUA 001514 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR KRAAIMORE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM NU
SUBJECT: NICARAGUA: NEW RAAS LEADERS FOCUS ON COAST NOT 
MANAGUA 
 
REF: A. MANAGUA 1383 
     ¶B. MANAGUA 1149 
 
Classified By: Amb. Robert J. Callahan for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: On December 9 through 12, EmbOff traveled to 
the South Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) municipalities of 
El Rama, Bluefields, Pearl Lagoon, and Corn Island as well as 
the coastal communities of Rama Cay and Monkey Point to meet 
with outgoing mayors, mayor-elects, and community leaders. 
Interviews revealed that even Frente Sandinista National 
Liberation (FSLN) mayors were more interested in developing 
their coastal communities and cooperating with the 
international community than in focusing on the national 
political battles underway in Managua over election fraud. 
END SUMMARY 
 
 
El RAMA - BETWEEN REGIONAL INDEPEDENCE OR INTEGRATION 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶2. (C) On December 9, EmbOff met with current Constitutional 
Liberal Party (PLC) Mayor Roger Araica, and PLC mayor-elect 
Walda Obando, before continuing by panga boat down the 
Escondido River to RAAS capital Bluefields.  El Rama 
municipality has 47 communities with a population that is 70 
percent rural / 30 percent urban.  The municipal capital, El 
Rama, is a crossroads community situated on the north side of 
the junction between the Escondido River and El Rama River 
and also at the far eastern terminus of a paved highway 
linked to the rest of Nicaragua.  The paved highway has 
transformed El Rama into the primary port city of the 
Atlantic coast for container traffic, even though the 
Escondido River depth and width limits the size of vessels 
that can use this port facility. 
 
¶3. (C)  Mayor Araica explained that since the FSLN 
presidential victory in 2006, there has been increasing 
pressure from the national government to use Citizen Power 
Councils (CPCs) for social programs.  The recent November 9 
municipal elections preserved the traditional PLC control of 
the municipality despite FSLN fraud tactics (see RefTel A). 
Mayor Araica noted that the day after the election, 40 CPC 
members gathered outside his home, threatening him and his 
family, until he called for 80 PLC supporters to scare them 
off.  Both Mayor Araica and Mayor-elect Obando explained that 
while El Rama is historically part of the RAAS, it does not 
enjoy any of the rights and benefits of being part of the 
autonomous region.  According to Araica and Obando, the 
people in El Rama want to be independent from the RAAS 
because they currently have no representation on the regional 
council which sets a budget for development projects within 
the region.  Unless there is reform to Law 28, the law that 
created the autonomous regions, followed by reform to 
election laws and regional council rules, there will be 
increased tension.  Either way, leaders in the area will face 
difficult choices between remaining an integrated part of the 
RAAS without full representation or supporting unpopular 
legislation by National Assembly Deputies Brooklyn Rivera and 
Francisco Sacasa to create a new department within the RAAS 
(see RefTel B). 
 
 
RAMA CAY & MONKEY POINT - ISOLATED, THUS NEGLECTED, 
COMMUNITIES 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
- 
 
¶4. (C) On December 10, EmbOff traveled by panga boat with 
Rama Terrority President Santiago Thomas to the Atlantic 
coastal communities of Monkey Point (see RefTel B), Willing 
Cay and Rama Cay island in the Bluefields lagoon.  Monkey 
Point has been the potential location for a deep water 
Atlantic coast port project since 1913, when Germany made the 
first investments by laying railroad tracks for a 
transnational railroad (the remains of which are still 
visible).  The community today represents approximately 200 
indigenous Kriol people in 50 or more family groups 
concentrated near the coast.  People subsist on fishing and 
small gardens in a community without a store for supplies, or 
even a dock to moor small canoes and panga boats.  In 
addition to the wooden homes with corrugated steel roofs, 
there is a cement school building, and a cement community 
health center that has been vacant for several years.  (NOTE: 
 
MANAGUA 00001514  002 OF 003 
 
 
Community leaders blame the central government for not 
posting a permanent nurse and supplies to the clinic, after 
building the center and promising to staff and supply it). 
Monkey Point has four Nicaraguan military guards stationed in 
the community and their presence has reduced drug trafficking 
in the area; however, the community lacks basic health 
services, a potable water and sewer system, and the only 
source of electricity comes from a recent French NGO 
Blue-Energy windmill project that brings power primarily to 
the school and a few homes. 
 
¶5. (C)  The village of Rama Cay is located on two joining 
islands within the Bluefields lagoon, and is home to 
approximately 500 Rama Indians.  The adjoining islands are 
overcrowded with wooden homes; there is almost no room for 
small gardens, nor is there a potable water source, 
electricity or sewage system for the community.  Unlike 
Monkey Point, there is a school/community center and a 
Moravian church on the island, as well as wooden docks for 
the panga boats and canoes that residents use to fish for 
shrimps or travel between the mainland.  Rama territorial 
leaders continue to fight for demarcation of their 
traditional lands by the central government and are seeking 
international support to develop their lands for agriculture 
and potential tourism.  On December 7, they filed a public 
lawsuit against the Ortega government for not completing the 
demarcation process one year after the original survey was 
completed (see RefTel B). 
 
 
BLUEFIELDS - REGIONAL CAPITAL IN SEARCH OF ECONOMIC GROWTH 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶6. (C) On December 9 and 10, EmbOff held meetings with RAAS 
Regional Council President Lourdes Aguilar Gibbs, Governor 
Yadira Flores, Catholic Church Bishop Pablo Schmidt, and PLC 
mayor-elect Dr. Harold Bacon.  Bishop Schmidt, a US citizen 
who has been serving in the Catholic Church in Nicaragua 
since 1972, framed the basic issues of the Atlantic Coast as 
the result of a huge wave of emigration from the Pacific side 
of Nicaragua - in 1970 the Atlantic Coast population was 
approximately 350,000, today it is approximately 900,000. 
The emigration wave has changed the politics and demographics 
of the region dramatically - mestizos now outnumber black 
Kriols and indigenous groups (i.e., Miskito, Mayagna, Suma 
and Rama) almost two to one.  The coast has been essentially 
economically isolated from the rest of Nicaragua and is now 
suffering from the fact that remittances from the coastal 
people working in the U.S. are substantially lower since the 
worldwide economic downturn, as are employment opportunities 
for English-speaking costenos on Caribbean cruise ships. 
Moreover, the paved highway to El Rama and its port 
facilities have also severely damaged Bluefield's economy. 
Both of these economic factors could lead to a further 
deterioration of the Bluefields economy.  (COMMENT: Perhaps 
that is why all of the political and community leaders we 
spoke with stressed the need for Bluefields to get connected 
to by road to the rest of Nicaragua to improve its economic 
circumstances.  If Bluefields remains isolated, it will lose 
its role as the regional political and economic capital of 
the RAAS. END COMMENT)  Mayor-elect Bacon and President 
Aguilar both agree that the road to Bluefields from Nueva 
Guinea or to El Rama is the best long-term solution for 
helping their community.  Mayor-elect Bacon explained that he 
is committed to having a transparent administration that will 
continue investment into basic services (roads, electricity, 
water, and health) for his community. 
 
 
PEARL LAGOON - A GREAT NAME, BUT NO PARADISE 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶7. (C) On December 11, EmbOff traveled by panga boat to Pearl 
Lagoon to meet with the FSLN mayor-elect Robert Cutberg, 
representatives from the Moravian Church, and the PLC mayoral 
candidate Jacqueline Taylor.  Mayor-elect Cutberg calls 
himself a political outsider, as a non-Kriol, Miskito Indian 
from a rural community outside of the city of Pearl Lagoon. 
His election, while contested, would be the first time that 
Pearl Lagoon is led by a non-Kriol mayor.  Cutberg is 
committed to making more roads to connect the 17 communities 
within the Pearl Lagoon municipality - so far 12 communities 
have access to roads.  The second priority for his 
administration is increasing tourism; however, Pearl Lagoon 
 
MANAGUA 00001514  003 OF 003 
 
 
lacks the infrastructure needed to attract international 
tourists - paved streets, 24-hour uninterrupted power and 
potable water.  Cutberg said that CPCs will not be a part of 
his administration because there is a functioning communal 
authority that already fills this role. 
 
 
CORN ISLAND - COULD BE A CARRIBEAN PARADISE 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶8. (C)  On December 11 and 12, EmbOff held meetings with Corn 
Island municipal council member Richard Downs, PLC mayoral 
candidate and regional council member Ena Moses, outgoing PLC 
mayor Alex Dixon, and FSLN mayor-elect Cleveland Webster. 
Corn Island, with its turquoise waters and white-sand 
beaches, is a microcosm of the emigration wave that has 
changed the Atlantic Coast during the past forty years.  Corn 
Island and Little Corn Island have approximately 10,000 
inhabitants currently, up from the 3,000 in the 1970s.  Most 
of the emigrants to the island are Mestizo or Miskito Indian. 
 The local economy is heavily reliant on lobster fishing; 
tourism only accounts for five to ten percent of the economy. 
 Unfortunately, the island suffers from lack of basic 
services, namely: potable water, garbage collection and 
reliable electricity.  The current mayor has made significant 
steps to improve the island,s security and electrical power 
situation, growing the police force from four to 20 and 
adding two additional diesel-run generators to the island's 
power grid.  The lack of regular garbage collection and of a 
large landfill on the island keeps the beaches littered with 
flotsam and jetsam washed up from the Caribbean tides. 
Downs, who is also the Corn Island PLC party leader, 
explained that the FSLN won the election by convincing the 
people that an FSLN mayor would receive greater national 
support to address the island,s problems.  Mayor-elect 
Webster said that he is an "islander" first and a Sandinista 
second, and will work to improve the lot of his fellow 
citizens during his four year term.  His 75 percent victory 
in the polls gives him a mandate to govern and try new 
programs; however, his primary focus will be improving the 
infrastructure to attract more tourists to the island. 
 
 
COMMENT 
- - - - 
 
¶9. (C) Throughout the meetings with mayors, mayors-elect, and 
community leaders, the biggest issues facing the RAAS were 
the impact of Pacific-side emigration on the traditional 
communities and their lack of infrastructure, both community 
and economic to effectively absorb new migrants.  The 
worldwide economic downturn, and with it falling remittances 
and lobster prices will put enormous pressures against the 
economy of the RAAS.  In the past, the isolation and lack of 
roads helped preserve the traditional cultures, but now these 
represent barriers to its development.  New mayors hope to 
improve roads and services for their communities to increase 
agriculture and attract tourist to this resource-rich region. 
CALLAHAN