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