Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09MANAGUA425
2009-04-24 00:09:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Managua
Cable title:  

PRESIDENT ORTEGA: OBAMA IS A LIAR, THREATENS TO

Tags:  PGOV PINR PREL ASEC EAID PROP NU CU 
pdf how-to read a cable
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FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
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INFO RUEHMU/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHDC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RHBVJPX/COMPHIBRON SIX PRIORITY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAGUA 000425 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CEN AND INR/IAA
STATE FOR USOAS
DEPT FOR USAID
NSC FOR RESTREPO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2019
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL ASEC EAID PROP NU CU
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT ORTEGA: OBAMA IS A LIAR, THREATENS TO
EXPEL U.S. DIPLOMATS

Classified By: Ambassador Robert J. Callahan for reasons 1.4 (b & d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAGUA 000425

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/CEN AND INR/IAA
STATE FOR USOAS
DEPT FOR USAID
NSC FOR RESTREPO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2019
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL ASEC EAID PROP NU CU
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT ORTEGA: OBAMA IS A LIAR, THREATENS TO
EXPEL U.S. DIPLOMATS

Classified By: Ambassador Robert J. Callahan for reasons 1.4 (b & d).


1. (U) Summary: During an April 22 appearance on a Cuban
talk show, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega discredited the
Summit of the Americas (SOA) and stated that President Obama
lied because he talked about change, but had maintained the
Bush policies of freezing the Millennium Challenge Account
for Nicaragua and leaving US troops in Iraq. Moreover,
Ortega claimed that the US government was conspiring against
him, that he was collecting information of this conspiracy,
and threatened to expel US Embassy diplomats in the future.
Ortega's comments were not limited to foreign affairs,
stating his preference for a single party system. A
multiparty system, he argued, served to divide the populace.
End Summary.

--------------
Obama a Liar, Summit a Failure
--------------


2. (SBU) During his appearance on the Cuban talk show "Mesa
Redonda" on April 22, President Ortega spoke for
approximately two hours. He spoke at length on the Summit of
the Americas and countered the generally positive news
coverage of President Obama. Ortega described the President
as a carrier of the same "imperialistic" policies and
believed the President "went to the Summit to strengthen the
empire." Ortega argued that despite the President's
comments, the President was trapped in the past and said the
President demonstrated that he lies. While the President
spoke of change, Ortega commented, the Obama Administration
had continued Bush Administration decisions to keep
Nicaragua's Millennium Challenge Account compact frozen and
US troops in Iraq.


3. (U) Ortega also argued that the Summit was organized
around the U.S. President, who was treated as an "emperor."
Ortega noted his annoyance at having to wait three hours on
the tarmac at Port of Spain airport while President Obama and

his delegation arrived and debarked from their three planes.
Ortega said this "showed a lack of respect" for the other
regional leaders. Ortega then characterized the other
regional leaders' interaction with the President as the rats
that had followed Obama's "Pied Piper of Hamlin." In a
reference to local criticism of Ortega's domestic limits on
freedom of speech, Ortega criticized the Summit of the
Americas and said that the Summit had practiced censorship in
allowing only a handful of leaders to speak publicly during
the opening ceremony. As in past remarks, Ortega questioned
the utility of the OAS and suggested the creation of a new
organization for Latin America and the Caribbean.

--------------
The U.S. Conspiracy Against Ortega
--------------


4. (SBU) Following his criticisms of the President and the
Summit of the Americas, Ortega turned his sights on the U.S.
Embassy in Managua and his view of the USG policy toward
Nicaragua. "In my country," Ortega stated "officials from
the (U.S.) embassy are conspiring (against the Nicaraguan
government). We have not wanted to expel them, we have
sought to collect more information, and at the appropriate
moment we will make it public." Embassy officials, he
continued, were continually conspiring against his government
by meeting with the opposition, financing the opposition's
activities, and calling on the opposition to unite against
Ortega. "We have not yet asked any one to leave," he said,
alluding to the possibility of future action on the part of
his government.


5. (SBU) Ortega also spoke directly of the Ambassador. He
said that despite appearing to be diplomatic and respectful,
the American Ambassador had been an advisor to former Deputy
Secretary of State Negroponte when Negroponte had been U.S.
Ambassador in Honduras in the 1980s. Ortega said he hoped
that Ambassador Callahan was no longer "an agent of war and
destabilization."

--------------
A Single Party Works Best
--------------


6. (SBU) Ortega did not limit himself to foreign affairs.
Allegedly recalling the statements of Ecuadorian President
Rafael Correa, Ortega asserted that "elections weren't
necessarily a sign of democracy." Then, perhaps signaling
his own goal for Nicaragua, Ortega attacked multiparty
systems. He lauded Cuba's "democracy" because the people
were not divided by a multiparty system. "From the moment
you bring about political parties, you bring about division.
A multiparty system is just a way of disintegrating a nation,
of dividing our people." Ortega continued, "Cuba has a
system that does not cause division among the people. (In
Cuba) the focus is on the citizen without the party banners
or campaigns run by big business, nor opulent elections."

--------------
Ortega's Possible Motivation
--------------


7. (C) Ortega's speeches are always a treat, as he is likely
to say anything and everything. What is unclear, however, is
his motivation as he is not driven by a strict political
ideology. Rather, according to Victor Hugo Tinoco, a former
FSLN member who served as Nicaraguan permanent representative
to the UN and as Vice Foreign Minister during the first
Ortega Administration in the 1980s, Ortega always has had a
special interest in foreign affairs and a desire for a role
on the international stage. As to the widely held belief
that Ortega plays bad cop to Hugo Chavez' good cop on the
international stage, Tinoco commented that Ortega was not
stupid and likely accepted this role in exchange for promises
of Venezuelan assistance.

--------------
Comment
--------------


8. (C) It is never clear why Ortega says what he says. As
former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera noted
regarding Ortega's policies, "when you do not know where you
are going, any road will take you there." Nonetheless,
Ortega's remarks were a glimpse at his current thinking. His
rants against the US are not new and are likely to continue.
This has been especially true since his government has
received constant international and national criticism for
Nicaragua's fraudulent November 2008 municipal elections.
His pointed comments on a US plot against him and his threat
to expel US diplomats were the clearest to date. Since the
expulsion of the US ambassadors to Caracas and La Paz,
Nicaraguans often have wondered if Ortega would follow Evo
Morales and Hugo Chavez' lead and expel a US diplomat.
Ortega's remarks likely were motivated in part by his desire
(and need) to defend his government's increasingly
authoritarian tendencies. As Tinoco stated, Ortega's
interest in grandstanding on the international stage also
likely contributed to Ortega's comments. Ortega's bark is
usually followed at some point by some form of a bite. But
just where Ortega's rhetoric meets his actions is remains to
be seen.
CALLAHAN