NICARAGUA: CI/KR RESPONSE FOR S/CT

UNCLAS MANAGUA 000284 SENSITIVE SIPDIS PASS TO S/CT, SRCLARK E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PGOV ASEC EFIN ENRG SUBJECT: NICARAGUA: CI/KR RESPONSE FOR S/CT REF: SECSTATE 15113 ¶1. (SBU) In response to reftel, Embassy Managua reports three international submarine fiber optic telecommunication cables, two in the Caribbean and one in the Pacific, parallel to Nicaragua's coasts and within the country's 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone. They are the Americas Region Caribbean Ring System (Arcos I),operated by a number of carriers including Columbus Networks (formerly New World Network) and Brightstar; the MAYA-1, operated by a consortium of operators including AT&T, MCI, and Sprint; and Pan-American Crossing (PAC-1),operated by Global Crossing. ¶2. (U) In March 2006, Nicaragua signed a contract to establish a connection to Arcos I, which connects Nicaragua with 14 countries, including the United States and Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Dominican Republic, Curacao, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico. The cable has two landing points in Nicaragua, at Puerto Cabezas and Bluefields. In June 2007, Arcos I suffered damage in the area along the coast of Nicaragua between Puerto Cabezas and Bluefields. More than half of the Internet users in Colombia had no service due to that problem, and Internet service and data transmission among Florida, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Aruba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas was significantly slowed. ¶3. (U) The MAYA-1 cable system links Colombia to Hollywood, Florida, with landing points in Mexico, the Cayman islands, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama, but none in Nicaragua. The Pacific-based 5,280 mile PAC-1 spans California to Panama, with no landing points in Nicaragua. ¶4. (SBU) Embassy Managua reports no other critical infrastructure or key resources (CI/KR) vital to the United States' security, health, or safety. This assessment was reached in consultation with relevant mission officers, including political, economic, security, defense, agriculture, facilities, and information resources. SANDERS