Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MANAGUA1057
2006-05-12 21:44:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Managua
Cable title:  

NICARAGUAN ELECTIONS: FIVE ALLIANCES EMERGE, APRE

Tags:  PGOV KDEM SOCI NU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMU #1057/01 1322144
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 122144Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6277
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0674
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAGUA 001057 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR WHA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM SOCI NU
SUBJECT: NICARAGUAN ELECTIONS: FIVE ALLIANCES EMERGE, APRE
JOINS THE ALN

REF: A. MANAGUA 0738


B. MANAGUA 0711

Classified By: Ambassador Paul Trivelli for reasons 1.4 (b and d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAGUA 001057

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR WHA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM SOCI NU
SUBJECT: NICARAGUAN ELECTIONS: FIVE ALLIANCES EMERGE, APRE
JOINS THE ALN

REF: A. MANAGUA 0738


B. MANAGUA 0711

Classified By: Ambassador Paul Trivelli for reasons 1.4 (b and d)


1. (SBU) Summary: The deadline to register political
alliances for Nicaragua's national elections in November came
and went on May 11 without a deal to unite the Liberal
Constitutional Party (PLC) and the Nicaraguan Liberal
Alliance (ALN). The big surprise of the day was APRE's
decision to break negotiations with the PLC and join the
ALN's alliance, while APRE's presidential candidate, Jose
Antonio Alvarado, remained in the PLC fold. Previously, a
large segment of Yatama renounced Brooklyn Rivera's decision
to join with the FSLN and instead signed an alliance with the
ALN, and the Alternativa Cristiana (AC) deserted Sandinista
dissident Herty Lewites' group to register independently.
Ultimately, five groups registered with the Supreme Electoral
Council (CSE) to compete in the national elections: the PLC,
FSLN, ALN, MRS (Lewites' alliance),and the AC. End Summary.

APRE SPLITS WITH ALVARADO TO JOIN ALN
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


2. (SBU) The rifts between the "Amigos de Alvarado" and the
Alliance for the Republic (APRE),the party that had
nominated Jose Antonio Alvarado as its presidential
candidate, came to a head on May 11 when APRE split with
Alvarado to join an alliance with the ALN. APRE leaders, led
by party president Miguel Lopez Baldizon became increasingly
frustrated with Alvarado's flirtation with PLC leader Arnoldo
Aleman and lack of coordination in negotiations with the APRE
directorship. Alvarado was likewise angered when APRE
refused to include Ariel Granera and other close advisors in
its list of departmental deputies to negotiate with the
Liberal alliances. As a result, Alvarado signed on with the
PLC in his "personal capacity" and with expectations for the
PLC vice presidential nomination, and Lopez Baldizon signed a
last-minute alliance with the ALN at 7:00 p.m.


3. (C) Comment: The reasons for the APRE/Alvarado split are
legion. Lopez Baldizon feels, with some justification, that
Alvarado usurped APRE to further his personal ambitions. He

was also uncomfortable with the PLC's insistence that the
APRE National Assembly deputies (Lopez Baldizon and Assembly
president Eduardo Gomez) sign a letter supporting amnesty for
Aleman. Poloffs kept in frequent touch with Lopez Baldizon
on May 10 and 11 to remind him that Alvarado's stock has
fallen precipitously since his public rapprochement with
Aleman and that he would do better to negotiate a separate
deal with Montealegre. Polcouns especially worked the phones
on May 11 to "herd the cats" and encourage APRE to commit to
the ALN. End Comment.


4. (C) At around 4:00 p.m. on May 11, Eduardo Montealegre
registered his Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance with the Supreme
Electoral Council. During a May 8 meeting with poloffs,
Montealegre advisors Edmundo Leal and Pepe Matus explained
that the alliance would register as "ALN" and not "ALN-PC"
(Conservative Party) to avoid alienating Liberal and
Resistance voters. In addition to APRE, the parties with a
legal inscription (personeria jurdica) that registered with
the ALN are the Conservative Party (PC),Nicaraguan
Resistance Party (PRN),and the Liberal Independent Party
(PLI). Montealegre did not announce his vice presidential
running mate, but Leal and Matus reported to poloffs that
Conservative Cristiana Chamorro is the likely choice, if she
accepts.

YATAMA LEADERS BREAK WITH RIVERA TO JOIN MONTEALEGRE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


5. (C) A Yatama splinter group, led by Yatama Board of
Directors President Adolfo Smith and Yatama Resistance leader
Osorno Coleman ("Comandante Blas"),signed a political
alliance with the ALN on May 10. Also joining the accord was
PAMUC leader Mario Cordoba. Smith lambasted
rival/pro-Sandinista Yatama leader Brooklyn Rivera for having
made a "personal decision" to ally with Daniel Ortega, and
announced that Yatama will hold a special assembly on May
13-14 to condemn Rivera,s actions. Coleman stated that the
Miskitos will soon file a suit against Daniel Ortega and a
number of his inner circle for crimes against humanity
committed against the Miskitos during the Sandinista regime.
(Comment: Embassy has encouraged both Smith/Coleman and
Montealegre,s advisors to negotiate an alliance to break

Ortega,s influence over Yatama. Also, Coleman is one of the
Embassy's main contacts for CPDH,s project to reveal
Sandinista Era abuses against the Miskito population. End
Comment.)

PLC LEFT WITH CAMINO CRISTIANO AND MICROPARTIES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


6. (SBU) Despite the public displays of camaraderie between
PLC presidential candidate Jose Rizo and Jose Antonio
Alvarado, the defection of APRE to the ALN took the wind out
of the PLC's sails. Alvarado continued to repeat his mantra
of "Liberal unity," disregarding the evident failure of the
PLC and ALN to reach an accord, and commented that his
friends in APRE would follow him to the PLC. The
always-petulant Maria Dolores Aleman (Arnoldo's oldest
daughter and PLC Assembly deputy) complained that the Embassy
had pressured Alvarado to desert the PLC and pledged that the
party would work "tooth and nail" to win the elections. The
only legally inscribed parties left with the PLC are the
Camino Cristiano (those that did not leave with Delia
Arellano to join Montealegre -- see ref B) and the tiny
Multiethnic Indigenous Party (PIM).

FSLN REGISTERS EARLY
- - - - - - - - - - -


7. (U) The FSLN was the first party to inscribe its electoral
alliance with the CSE. On May 8, FSLN leader Daniel Ortega
formally registered the alliance under the name "Nicaragua
Triumphs" ("Nicaragua Triunfa"). Ortega announced that the
alliance would announce the nomination of its vice
presidential candidate on May 28. A number of small parties
registered under the alliance including, notably, Yatama, the
principal party representing the indigenous peoples of the
Atlantic Coast. Splinter groups of Liberals, Conservatives,
evangelicals, and Resistance (ex-contras) also joined the
alliance.

THE "TIGER" IS READY TO FIGHT
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


8. (SBU) Sandinista dissident Herty Lewites registered his
Movement to Rescue Sandinismo (MRS) alliance on May 10,
quipping that he, the "tiger" (he sometimes calls himself the
"Jewish Tiger," in memory of his Jewish father),is now ready
to "hunt ducks (Rizo),rats (Montealegre),and roosters
(Ortega)" -- referring to the animal caricatures popularly
associated with those candidates. Despite rumors that
Lewites, health has deteriorated, according to most reports,
he appeared to be his spry, energetic self during Costa Rican
President Arias, inauguration. According to Montealegre,
who was on the same turbulent return flight home, Lewites
half joked that they should not fly together, because if the
plane were to go down with the two of them aboard, Nicaragua
would loose its chance to reform.


9. (U) Lewites ran into trouble at the last minute when the
CSE insisted that the MRS had to formally dissolve its
previous alliance with Alternativa Cristiana (AC) in order to
inscribe its new alliance. Lewites frantically called MRS
president Dora Maria Tellez and AC leader Orlando Tardencilla
to sign the dissolution documents at the CSE on May 11.

ALTERNATIVA CRISTIANA ENTERS THE FRAY ALONE
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


10. (U) Orlando Tardencilla's Alternativa Cristiana (AC)
decided to register independently after a public break with
Lewites over campaign strategy following the March 5 regional
Atlantic Coast elections. AC chose flamboyant former
Sandinista and Contra commander Eden Pastora as its
candidate. (Note: Pastora was the Managua mayoral candidate
for the PLI in the 2004 municipal elections and won less than
five percent of the vote. The Nicaraguan public now seems to
view him more as a wacky celebrity than a leader. End Note.)

COMMENT: ALVARADO'S STAR HAS FALLEN
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


11. (C) After emerging a year ago as a prominent "Third Way"
Liberal candidate, Jose Antonio Alvarado has finally --
following innumerable meetings with all Liberal factions --
decided to return to the PLC fold. Montealegre, though
frustrated with Alvarado's incessant bed hopping, was open to
a deal until the end, but ultimately was unwilling to sweeten

the pot enough to entice Alvarado away from the PLC. The
loss to Montealegre may not be great, however, as Alvarado's
poll numbers have slipped from around five percent to less
than one percent following his rapprochement with the PLC.
At this point, many anti-pact voters appear to be fed up with
Alvarado, who would probably prove more a liability to
Montealegre's campaign than an asset.
TRIVELLI