INVESTIGATION OF FSLN ABUSES HAS ORTEGA ON THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAGUA 000519 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN AND DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/08/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KDEM KCRM NU SUBJECT: INVESTIGATION OF FSLN ABUSES HAS ORTEGA ON THE DEFENSIVE REF: A. 05 MANAGUA 1117 ¶B. 05 MANAGUA 2426 ¶C. 05 MANAGUA 2646 ¶D. 05 MANAGUA 2998 ¶E. MANAGUA 119 Classified By: AMBASSADOR PAUL TRIVELLI. REASONS 1.4 (B,D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The CPDH human rights organization has completed its initial trip to the Atlantic coast to investigate and document 1980s Sandinista human rights abuses in the region. The group's initial findings received widespread media attention immediately prior to the March 5 Atlantic coast regional elections, and put Daniel Ortega on the defensive. The FSLN is rightly worried by the investigation and is scrambling to deflect the damaging media coverage and pending international charges of human rights and genocide against Ortega and other prominent FSLN leaders. The CPDH will carry out two more investigative trips in March and April prior to filing the abuse charges in domestic and international institutions in May and June. This second phase of filing international charges will require additional USG financial support; a specific project proposal will be forthcoming in late March or early April. It is possible that the media splash caused by the CPDH's work had an effect in discouraging Atlantic coast voters from casting their ballots for the FSLN, contributing to the party's relatively disappointing electoral results on March 5. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) During conversations on March 2 and 7, Marcos Carmona and Raymond Genie, the Executive Director and Secretary of the Nicaraguan Permanent Commission on Human SIPDIS Rights (CPDH) human rights organization, informed emboffs of the results of the group's first of three planned trips to the Atlantic Coast to document complaints of human rights abuses committed by the FSLN regime against the Miskito indigenous group during the 1980s. Carmona and Genie reported that during the trip, the CPDH visited eight communities and documented in detail 22 specific, strong abuse cases, with a total of 36 witnesses. On this first trip, the CPDH concentrated on the town of Puerto Cabezas and areas immediately around it. During the group's second trip to the region, scheduled for 10-12 days starting March 13, the group will focus on areas around Waspam and Leimus on the Rio Coco. The third and final planned trip will occur in early April and will concentrate on the area around Prinzapolka. ¶3. (SBU) According to witness accounts received by the CPDH, the FSLN used the same systematic modus operandi in almost every Atlantic coast community that it terrorized in the early 1980s. With Nazi-like organization, the Sandinista army would surround a particular Atlantic coast community, round up all the men by force and put them in a central location, usually a Moravian church, and then separate the men into groups. Those judged to be no danger to the FSLN would be freed. Some of those viewed as hostile to the FSLN would be arrested and jailed without charges, while those seen as the most dangerous were put in trucks, driven outside of the community, and massacred en masse. ¶4. (SBU) Carmona and Genie recounted to emboffs that the FSLN is already very worried about the CPDH,s investigative efforts and is taking a variety of steps in response. First, several CPDH leaders have been told by various people that they need to act "cautiously" because they are treading in dangerous territory. Second, FSLN radio stations on the Atlantic Coast made broadcasts during the CPDH visit stating that the NGO,s actions were purely "political" and that locals should either avoid talking to the group or go to the group and denounce "Contra" human rights abuses. Interestingly, despite the FSLN appeal, not one person approached the CPDH with complaints about the Contras. Finally, locals told the CPDH representatives that in late 2005, FSLN National Assembly deputy Walmaro Gutierrez made a trip to Puerto Cabezas and had a meeting with several ex-Contra leaders in which Gutierrez promised that if the FSLN came to power it would bring large amounts of development money to the communities of the ex-Contras. Gutierrez and the FSLN have also reportedly set up some sort of Atlantic coast development foundation in an effort to buy off ex-Contras and the Miskitos. The CPDH regards such acts as part of a wider FSLN effort to persuade people on the Atlantic Coast not to cooperate with its investigation. ¶5. (U) On March 2-3, the Nicaraguan television and print media prominently featured interviews with Carmona on the CPDH's investigations on the Atlantic Coast, and the group's plans to bring charges of crimes against humanity against Sandinista leaders in domestic and international institutions. Carmona emphasized to the media that the CPDH activities are intended to provide belated justice to victims of atrocities and are not political in nature, as the FSLN is alleging. Carmona commented that the CPDH will require additional funds to cover expenses incurred in preparing for and arranging future media events and other public outreach efforts. ¶6. (SBU) The Nicaraguan media have also noted that in the March 5 regional elections on the Atlantic coast, Miskito communities in the Atlantic regions of the country punished the FSLN for the atrocities the Sandinistas committed against the Miskito in the 1980s. This is the fifth consecutive election in which the Miskito vote has contributed to disappointing FSLN results on the Atlantic side of the country. While some leaders of the Yatama indigenous group that seeks to represent the Miskito have cut deals with the FSLN for their own personal benefit, and while such deals are likely to give the FSLN a place in the regional government in the north, the latest election results make clear that the Miskito as a whole have not forgotten the massacres, bombings, disappearances and torture that characterized FSLN policy towards them in the 1980s. Although the PLC is a much weaker organization than it was in past elections, observers attribute at least part of its relatively strong showing in the Northern and Southern Regional Autonomous Zones (RAAN and RAAS) to the continuing hostility of many people, particularly Miskitos, in both regions towards the FSLN for its 1980s atrocities committed on the Atlantic Coast. ¶7. (C) COMMENT: Post and the Department's support of the CPDH Miskito human rights project may have had a positive influence on voter behavior on March 5. The CPDH statements issued to the media on their preliminary findings of the Sandinista era massacres and other abuses were widely reported and the media blitz created a visible stir, possibly dissuading some voters for supporting the FSLN's candidates. Daniel Ortega clearly realized the danger, as the March 3 press prominently reported his claim that if the FSLN returned to power he would not repeat the "mistakes" of the 1980s. Post anticipates that public and media interest in the CPDH's work will only increase as the investigation moves forward and the November national elections approach. Phase II of the CPDH projects entails submitting the cases to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission and exposing the process/issue to the public. The CPDH will soon submit a proposal to the Embassy for Department funding for this second stage of the project. The CPDH leaders also asked once again for USG support for the digitalization of their extensive archives of 1980s FSLN abuses throughout the country. They noted that this project would provide a useful complement to the ongoing Atlantic coast investigation. TRIVELLI