NICARAGUA: WOMEN'S PROTESTS AGAINST ORTEGA GAIN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 MANAGUA 001102 SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CEN SJUSTICE DEPT FOR INR/IAA AEMERSON DEPT FOR DRL GMAGGIO DEPT FOR G/IWI DEPT FOR USOAS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/26/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KWMN PINR NU SUBJECT: NICARAGUA: WOMEN'S PROTESTS AGAINST ORTEGA GAIN REGIONAL TRACTION REF: A. 2006 MANAGUA 2599 ¶B. 08 MANAGUA 349 ¶C. 08 MANAGUA 964 Classified By: DCM Richard M. Sanders for reasons 1.4 (b, d) SUMMARY - - - - - ¶1. (C) Women's rights leaders and activists in Paraguay and Honduras have staged back-to-back protests against having President Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) set foot on their soil and have reignited mainstream interest in the unresolved sexual abuse scandal involving Ortega and his step-daughter Zoilamerica Narvaez. The revival of interest in the case has galvanized local Nicaraguan women's rights networks and sharpened the divide within the Nicaraguan left. The FSLN's defensive reaction, and in particular the hostile campaign of Rosario Murillo, Ortega's wife and Zoilamerica's biological mother, to discredit female critics as "demons" and agents of the U.S. Government, indicates that the reemergence of solidarity for Zoilamerica has hit a nerve with Nicaragua's first couple. The fact that the repudiation is coming from feminist groups outside Nicaragua also reveals Ortega's past reputation as a child molester and rapist has been neither forgotten nor forgiven. END SUMMARY ZOILAMERICA CASE NEVER CLOSED - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶2. (C) In 1998, Zoilamerica Narvaez came forward with a formal complaint of sexual abuse--including rape, harassment, and psychological and physical trauma--against her step-father Daniel Ortega which, according to her testimony, began when she was 11 and continued for 20 years (ref. A). The case was never fully prosecuted locally, in part because Ortega enjoyed parliamentary immunity and was further protected by "el pacto," the power-sharing deal he cut with ex-president and convicted felon Arnoldo Aleman of the Constitutional Liberal Party (PLC). The female judge who ruled in Ortega's favor, Juana Mendez, is a fervent FSLN militant and widely despised by Nicaraguan women who abandoned the Frente for the dissident Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS). When Zoilamerica's case was dismissed in the Nicaraguan courts, she took it to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2001, where it has languished ever since. Although she has sent repeated letters to the IACHR requesting a hearing, she has yet to receive a formal response. Since Ortega's election victory in November 2006, she told us she has preferred to stay out of the public spotlight, not out of fear for herself, but rather in the interest of protecting her friends and allies. Now at the age of 40, she continues to feel threatened by and exposed to the abuse of power. PARAGUAYAN AND HONDURAN WOMEN TO ORTEGA: STAY OUT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶3. (SBU) Spain's leading center-left daily "El Pais" and well-known Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa have put the Zoilamerica story back in the media spotlight with recent articles. Now the Paraguayan and Honduran women protests have produced a "snowball effect" which their Nicaraguan counterparts hope will have international reach. According to local media, on August 14, Paraguay's newly-appointed Minister for Women's Affairs, Gloria Rubin, voiced her objections to having President Ortega attend the August 15 inauguration of President-elect Fernando Lugo, underscoring Ortega's history of abuse and "sexual slavery" of his own step-daughter. Rubin was clear that she was speaking out of personal conviction and not in any official capacity. Her defiant act inspired other women and human rights activists to come forward in solidarity with Zoilamerica and sparked international condemnation of Ortega. The Ortega team abruptly canceled the trip to Asuncion, officially citing mechanical problems with the presidential airplane. ¶4. (SBU) On August 18, Honduran women's activists, led by the feminist Gladys Lanzas of the Movement of Women for Peace, picked up the baton, repudiating Ortega who is expected to travel to Tegucigalpa for the August 25 induction of Honduras into the Bolivian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) agreement. "If he has any shame left," Lanzas reportedly chided, "he should not come." Echoing the outrage voiced by the left-leaning Nicaraguan women's movement, the Honduran feminists insisted Ortega did not deserve to be "received and applauded" in their country. They have asked President Zelaya not to allow Ortega at the ALBA ceremony, warning there will be more protests if he attends. The resignation of the Honduran Minister of Women's Affairs, Selma Estrada de Ucles, as a further gesture in repudiation of the Ortega visit, combined with the wave of protests has sent an even stronger signal that women throughout the region stand united in solidarity on this issue. (NOTE: Coincidentally, Ortega cancelled a trip to the Dominican Republic scheduled over the weekend. END NOTE.) NICARAGUAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT COMMITTED TO PURSUING JUSTICE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶5. (SBU) Declaring him a "coward" with no moral authority to govern, the Nicaraguan Autonomous Women's Movement (MAM) (refs B.C.),praised Rubin for speaking out against Ortega and proclaimed that women around the world were coming together in this fight for justice and solidarity. This network of women has led the charge denouncing Ortega domestically and internationally and vowed never to abandon Zoilamerica or ignore the consequences of Ortega's impunity. They have often accused the Ortega government of installing an "anti-gender policy" which includes the political persecution of women. They find First Lady Rosario Murillo equally guilty of what they have termed a "patriarchal and anti-democratic" style of governance. Leading MAM activists Sofia Montenegro, Patricia Orozco, and Juana Jimenez are calling for a global protest, stating they are certain that where there are women fighting for the rights of women, "the indignation will grow." The reaction in Paraguay and Honduras also indicated that Ortega's image as a revolutionary was losing credibility even among the left, they observed. MRS deputy and former FSLN militant Monica Baltodano deemed both the Paraguayan and Honduran protests legitimate and vindication for what Nicaraguan women had long been fighting. The renewed international attention has also raised hope among the Nicaraguan women's movement that the pressure will move the IACHR to take action on the controversial issue. ¶6. (C) Ortega's political rivals may be assessing whether they can exploit the international shaming of Ortega to their advantage. On August 20, Enrique Quinonez, PLC deputy and Managua vice mayoral running on the PLC-Vamos Con Eduardo ticket, reportedly invited Zoilamerica to the National Assembly to present her case to the Commission for Peace, Defense, Governance, and Human Rights over which he presides. Quinonez suggested that after listening to her, the commission might be willing to write a letter to the IACHR on her behalf, given that "Nicaragua had denied justice to Zoilamerica Narvaez." MRS alternate deputy Hugo Torres and PLC deputy Jose Pallais worried that the rejection of Ortega taking place in other Latin American countries was embarrassing for the image of Nicaragua. MURILLO SPEAKS FOR ORTEGA, DISMISSES CRITICISM AS CIA PLOT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶7. (C) In the immediate aftermath of the Paraguayan protests, Rosario Murillo and the FSLN machinery went on the offensive in an attempt to discredit the international women's activists as paid agents of the U.S. Embassy and the CIA, and part of an elaborate media campaign of slander and insults against her and the president. She chastised the international media for its complicity in joining the campaign of disparagement. In a press monologue she delivered on official Channel 4 TV, Murillo dismissed Minister Rubin as a low-ranking secretary of "third or fourth" degree. She further explained that Rubin had ties with the "right wing remnants" of the Stroessner dictatorship, who never got over the fact that Nicaraguan homologue Anastasio Somoza had been assassinated on their turf. Therefore, the attacks against Ortega were also a form of payback against the Sandinista Revolution. (NOTE: When the scandal first broke back in 1998, Murillo also accused Zoilamerica of being part of a plot against Daniel Ortega END NOTE.) Murillo also gave a lengthy and convoluted explanation that Ortega's presidential plane could not fly due to mechanical problems involving a leak in the gas tank and was unable to make the trip to Asuncion and return in time for an event planned the following day in Jinotega, underscoring how he needed to keep his commitment to the people. She suggested those trying to bring down Ortega were sowing hatred instead of respecting the Government of Peace and Reconciliation. ¶8. (SBU) FSLN International Relations director Jacinto Suarez responded to the Honduran episode with a similar tactic to disparage and discredit the female protesters, calling them "devils" being paid by the "empire." These women were "renegades of the left" with ties to the Communist Party. Asserting that Lanzas had been expelled from all parties and unions in Honduras, he observed that she was just like all feminists "cut from the same cloth" and on "the same payroll." Downplaying the hype, meanwhile, FSLN Deputy Edwin Castro insisted that as far as the Nicaraguan justice system was concerned, the Zoilamerica case is closed. He speculated these feminists were just "rehashing" it like they always do close to an election. ZOILAMERICA EXPRESSES GRATITUDE FOR SHOW OF SOLIDARITY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶9. (C) Just as she thanked the editors of Spain's "EL Pais" for their moral support, in a letter posted on the Nicaraguan daily left-of-center "El Nuevo Diario" webblog, Zoilamerica thanked those like Gloria Rubin who were willing to speak out on behalf of her cause despite "political inconveniences." She expressed heartfelt gratitude for the outpouring of warmth and solidarity, underscoring that she had no economic nor political arrangement "of any kind" with her mother nor with Daniel Ortega. (NOTE: Zoilamerica had recently told us privately that the rumors earlier in the year that she had reunited with her family were patently false, and probably an attempt by FSLN insiders to discredit her among her MRS supporters. END NOTE.) She reiterated that her pursuit of justice was no longer about punishing her abuser but rather it was against the government of Nicaragua for having remained complicit in the denial of justice. In her letter, she lamented that because of the IACHR process, her case continued to stagnate. She has vowed to continue helping other victims of sexual violence and discrimination through her non-profit foundation "Sobrevivientes" (Survivors). Zoilamerica, now 40, is the daughter of Rosario Murillo and the late Jorge Narvaez Parajon, Murillo's first husband. Adopted legally by Daniel Ortega in 1986, her surname is officially Ortega Murillo a name she has since rejected in favor of her original family name of Narvaez. COMMENT - - - - ¶10. (C) The emblematic and controversial Zoilamerica case has never vanished from the country's collective memory, but its resurfacing just ahead of the November municipal elections--expected to be a referendum on the president and the FSLN--is particularly inconvenient for Ortega. Although the electorate was also reminded of Ortega's alleged sexual misconduct ahead of the 2006 national elections, it did not prevent him from winning. The revived interest in the case may have some impact in this year's municipal elections. We shall see whether it is true, that as one contact recently told us, the people now would rather vote for a "tamal" (crook) than a "violador" (rapist). CALLAHAN