MONTEALEGRE,S ALN-PC CAUCUS PICKS UP A NEW MEMBER

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAGUA 000642 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/22/2016 TAGS: KDEM NU PGOV PINR PREL SUBJECT: MONTEALEGRE,S ALN-PC CAUCUS PICKS UP A NEW MEMBER REF: A. MANAGUA 0556 ¶B. MANAGUA 0511 ¶C. 2005 MANAGUA 3213 ¶D. 2005 MANAGUA 3167 ¶E. 2005 MANAGUA 2991 ¶F. 2005 MANAGUA 2179 Classified By: Ambassador Paul A. Trivelli. Reasons 1.4 (B,D). ¶1. (C) National Assembly lawmaker Delia Arellano has left the Camino Cristiano party to join Eduardo Montealegre's National Liberal Alliance-Conservative (ALN-PC) caucus, making the formal announcement to the press on March 20. With Arellano, the ALN-PC (Ref. D) now encompasses eight deputies. Arellano, who chairs the Assembly's Defense and Governance Committee, related to us on March 21 that she is pleased with her decision. She also opined that Montealegre is the only candidate capable of breaking the Ortega-Aleman caudillo pact. ¶2. (U) Biodata: Delia Arellano Sandoval is a lawyer with a master's degree in private sector law from the University of Barcelona, Spain and an education degree from the Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) in Leon, Nicaragua. After she left her teaching career, Arellano was director of electoral affairs and adviser to the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) from 1989-1997. She has also represented the Camino Cristiano party (CCN) on the National Council of Economic and Social Planning (CONPES) and has headed the CCN's female secretariat. She was elected Assembly Deputy in 2001 on a SIPDIS PLC-CCN-National Resistance Party (PRN) ticket. ¶3. (C) Comment: In addition to Arellano, Embassy has encouraged three other Assembly deputies to "make the leap" to the ALN-PC: Augustin Valle, Bladimir Pineda, and Alfonso Ortega Urbina (Refs. C, E, F). In light of the Liberal Constitutional Party's (PLC) relative success in the March 5 Atlantic Coast elections (Refs. A, B),we do not expect more deputies to join Montealegre's party until after the PLC's April 2 convention to select its presidential candidate. Depending on the convention outcome, additional PLC deputies -- and possibly one or two from minor blocs -- could also join Montealegre's caucus. End Comment. TRIVELLI