VZCZCXRO0536
PP RUEHLMC
DE RUEHMU #0914/01 2641348
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 211348Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4567
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL//J2/J3/J5// PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAGUA 000914 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN KRAAIMOORE 
DEPT FOR DRL MAGGIO 
DEPT FOR INL/IIA ARCHULETA 
STATE FOR USOAS 
STATE FOR USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/20/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI NU
SUBJECT: NICARAUGA: PRISON PROTEST & POLICE ABUSE 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Robert J. Callahan for reasons 1.4 (b & d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: New cases of degrading and discriminatory 
treatment in Nicaragua,s prisons are back in the news. On 
September 8, a complaint was filed against an Atlantic Coast 
police chief for violating a juvenile prisoner's human rights 
by forbidding him to defecate. On September 9, five female 
spouses of inmates in the Modelo penitentiary in Tipitapa 
filed complaints against prison officials for "degrading and 
unsanitary treatment" during body cavity searches.  These are 
only the latest examples of police abuse, discrimination and 
prison mismanagement that highlight the miserable conditions 
that most of Nicaragua's prisoners face. END SUMMARY 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
Police Chief Forbids BM - Discrimination or Abuse? 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶2. (U) On September 8, an attorney representing a juvenile of 
Afro-Caribbean descent filed a complaint against Pearl Lagoon 
Nicaraguan National Police (NNP) Chief Carlos Machado for 
violating human rights.  Machado, who is mestizo and from the 
Pacific side of Nicaragua, allegedly forbade a juvenile 
offender from defecating in the South Atlantic Autonomous 
Region (RAAS) Pearl Lagoon Municipality holding cell. 
According to the attorney, Machado threatened the juvenile 
that if he defecated, "he would regret it."  When the 
juvenile could no longer hold his bowel movement, he 
defecated into a plastic bag and threw it out the holding 
cell window; whereupon Machado forced the juvenile to pick up 
the plastic bag of excrement with his teeth. 
 
¶3. (U) Afro-Caribbean leaders within the Pearl Lagoon 
community were outraged and described Machado's actions as 
"racist."  Pearl Lagoon Territorial Government Secretary 
Cristobal Garth told reporters that this was only the latest 
case of discrimination and police abuse in the region.  There 
was another unresolved case in which police used excessive 
force against another Afro-Caribbean juvenile.  Community 
leaders have called on the NNP to conduct investigations for 
both cases.  RAAS police Commissioner Ovidio Hernandez 
Salguera told reporters that the NNP was aware of the cases 
and has already ordered the Internal Affairs and Inspectorate 
to investigate them. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Prison Protest Over One Glove & No Food 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) On September 9, five female spouses of prisoners in 
the Modelo prison at Tipitapa filed complaints with the Human 
Rights Defense Commission (PDDH) against the National 
Penitentiary System (SPN).  The complaints alleged that they 
were subjected to humiliating and unsanitary treatment when 
their body cavities were searched by prison officials before 
having conjugal meetings with their imprisoned husbands. 
Moreover, the prison officials conducting the body cavity 
search used the same surgical glove for all five women.  In 
the complaint, the women asserted this practice had 
unnecessarily exposed them to communicable disease.  The 
complaints came at the same time that Modelo inmates had been 
protesting the prison,s poor living conditions and the lack 
of adequate food and medicine.  Approximately 2,000 inmates 
are housed in the Modelo facility, well in excess of its 
capacity. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶5. (C) Prison conditions are harsh at best for the thousands 
of inmates crowded into Nicaragua,s penitentiary system. 
Prison food is poor, medicine is scarce, and many prisoners 
live in squalid conditions in a system that has had little or 
no investment for years.  Moreover, the police and prison 
officials who work in the penal system are chronically 
underpaid and prone to abuse detainees and their family 
 
MANAGUA 00000914  002 OF 002 
 
 
members, in part to exhort bribes or favors.  While these two 
cases are dramatic, they are not isolated, but rather 
emblematic of the wider problems of Nicaragua's prison system. 
CALLAHAN