CANADA SEEKS ORTEGA MEETING TO DELIVER STRONG

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 001595 SIPDIS WHA/CEN FOR A.KRAAIMOORE E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID NU CA SUBJECT: CANADA SEEKS ORTEGA MEETING TO DELIVER STRONG MESSAGE REF: A. OTTAWA 1590 ¶B. STATE 132044 Classified By: PolMinCouns Scott Bellard, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Canada shares U.S. concerns over the flawed November municipal elections (reftels),but will not contemplate cutting its annual aid worth about C$11 million or canceling official visits, according to Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) Nicaragua desk officer Sande Ewart. He added that, with "Ortega thumbing his nose at the United States's $64 million in aid money," Canada found it unlikely that suspending its aid disbursements would achieve anything positive. ¶2. (C) Ewart explained that Canada instead seeks to use the January 13 visit to Nicaragua by Minister of State for the Americas Peter Kent to highlight Canadian concerns over the flawed November municipal elections. Canada's Embassy in Costa Rica, which also covers Nicaragua, has been seeking a meeting for Kent with President Ortega, so far without success. Ortega's staff appears to wish to block the meeting on principle, Ewart noted, because they want him to meet only with other heads of government. If Kent does meet with Ortega, Ewart said that he would stick closely to the language in Canada's recent OAS "strong" statement on the elections, which underscored Canada's emphasis on good governance (one of the three pillars of Prime Minister Harper's Americas strategy). Ewart emphasized that Canada was keen to get its message across directly to Ortega, but admitted that DFAIT also wants Kent out of Nicaragua before the January 15 inauguration of the supposed victors in the flawed municipal elections. Visit Canada?s Economy and Environment Forum at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada WILKINS