EMBASSY MANAGUA REQUEST FOR TDY FOR GREG MAGGIO

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAGUA 000599

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2016
TAGS: APER PHUM NU
SUBJECT: EMBASSY MANAGUA REQUEST FOR TDY FOR GREG MAGGIO
(DRL/CA)

REF: JANUARY-MARCH MAGGIO-GIAUQUE-ALVARADO EMAILS AND

TELCONS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR PAUL TRIVELLI. REASONS 1.4 (B,D).


1. (U) Embassy Managua strongly endorses a proposed
three-week TDY for Greg Maggio of DRL/CRA to Nicaragua in
June 2006. Post has established a close, effective working
relationship with Greg while collaborating on the 2005 Human
Rights Report and numerous cases of Nicaraguan asylum
applicants. Post would like Greg to spend three weeks in
Managua to work on several high-profile human rights issues
that have considerable election year significance. Post will
make every effort to provide housing for Greg in the Embassy
housing pool; it is possible that he will have to share a
house. Post requests that WHA/EX fund Greg's round trip
airfare to Managua in order to further assist DRL in
defraying the costs of the proposed TDY.


2. (SBU) With national elections in November, emboffs have
already launched a busy schedule of political and economic
reporting trips to all seventeen of Nicaragua's departments.
These trips will continue throughout the year, and reporting
on them reaches the highest levels of the Department. By
participating in several of these trips to select regions,
such as the Atlantic Coast, Greg could contribute to post's
elections reporting, as well as have the opportunity to
investigate, gain familiarity with, and report on human
rights issues in many parts of the country. Greg has
expressed a particular interest in investigating the subject
of gang violence and analyzing the much-debated subject of
why the problem, although growing, is not as severe in
Nicaragua as in most of its Central American neighbors.


3. (C) Additionally, Greg could contribute to ongoing human
rights projects supported by post and the Department that are
intended to highlight abuses by the 1980s Sandinista regime
and its leaders, including the pending complaint before the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) submitted
by Zoilamerica Narvaez against the Nicaraguan state for its
failure to provide justice in her credible allegations of
rape and sexual abuse against her step-father, Sandinista
leader Daniel Ortega.


4. (C) Post would also like Greg to work with several
sections of the Mission as they assist a local human rights
NGO, the Nicaraguan Permanent Commission on Human Rights
(CPDH),as it completes field work on complaints of crimes
against humanity and genocide committed against the Miskito
indigenous group by the FSLN regime in the early 1980s. By
June the CPDH will be completing phase one of this project,
compiling witness depositions in Nicaragua and submitting the
case to national institutions, and will be commencing phase
two, preparing to submit the case to the IACHR in Washington.
Because the second phase of the CPDH effort will require
considerable support and follow up by the Department, post
believes that Greg could contribute significantly to the
ultimate success of the project, both while he is in Managua
and when he returns to Washington to resume his duties
covering Nicaragua at DRL.


5. (SBU) Greg's June TDY would also help post to provide
continuity on these and other pressing human rights issues,
as the human rights officer who has worked on all of these
issues for the last two years will be departing post in May
and his successor will not arrive until late June. Greg's
proposed TDY would significantly shorten the time that a
crucial Embassy position is empty during a pivotal election
year. With the experience he would gain on the ground, Greg
would also subsequently be in a position to provide extra
assistance to the new human rights officer in July and
thereafter as the new officer works to master a large and
complex portfolio.
TRIVELLI