DEMARCHE RESPONSE: SPAIN HONORING EXISTING AID

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 001358

SIPDIS

WHA/CEN FOR ALBERT KRAAIMORE
USEU FOR BOB BLACKSTONE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/24/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV SP
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE RESPONSE: SPAIN HONORING EXISTING AID
COMMITMENTS TO NICARAGUA

REF: A. STATE 132044

B. MADRID 1225

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Arnold A. Chacon, for reasons 1.
4(B) and (d).


1. (C) Poloff discussed Nicaraguan municipal elections and
conveyed points (ref A) to Spanish MFA Sub-Director General
for Mexican, Caribbean, and Central American Affairs Jorge
Romeu Gonzalez-Barros on December 23. Though Spain had been
considering reducing its support to the Nicaraguan police,
Romeu said the GOS had decided to maintain said contributions
because the police project was well run and not overly
politicized. Spain had likewise decided to maintain its
support for the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health. Romeu said he
understood the Czech Republic was circulating a proposal to
catalog individual donors' bilateral support programs, to be
considered at a January 8 meeting in Brussels.


2. (C) Romeu reiterated the European Commission's December
decision to cease direct budgetary support to the GON. He
shared the text of a December 10 letter from European
Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner to
Nicaraguan FM Samuel Santos communicating the suspension of
disbursements and linking the measure directly to lingering
concerns about the conduct of November 9 municipal elections.
Ferrero-Waldner noted to Santos in writing the European
position that budgetary support to "the policies of (the
Nicaraguan) government" were "not the right form of
assistance" for Nicaragua. Payments already obligated in
2008 to support Nicaragua's National Development Plan and
food security assistance would be honored, Romeu said. Such
disbursements would nonetheless be discontinued as of January
1, 2009 barring what the letter termed "a positive evolution
in the situation in Nicaragua."


3. (C) Regarding Nicaragua's future, Romeu confessed it was
difficult to imagine such an evolution. During FM Santos's
November visit -- the real motive of which was to see a Real
Madrid soccer match, according to Romeu -- Santos had
registered a complaint at the Presidency of the Spanish
Government over Spain's silent treatment of Nicaraguan
President Ortega, the only Latin American president not to
have been invited to Madrid. Romeu insisted there would
certainly be no major visits now, and assured Poloff that
Nicaraguan Ambassador to Spain Zamora was well aware.


4. (C) Romeu allowed that he himself would consider an
official trip to Nicaragua in the February 2009 timeframe,
depending on the wishes of Spanish Secretary of State for
IberoAmerican Affairs Trinidad Jimenez. He said he would
have gone to Managua earlier, prior to the fraudulent
elections, in part to moderate the EU position toward
Nicaragua. At this point, he explained, there was no longer
much daylight between the Spanish and broader European
positions. The Spanish Ambassador to Managua has, however,
asked that Romeu travel to Nicaragua to tell the GON "the
truths."


5. (C) Finally, Romeu mentioned the EU might yet consider
moving its Central American headquarters, currently in
Managua, to some other capital. While the GOS would not
oppose such a move, he believed the idea had lost momentum.

AGUIRRE