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### Viewing cable 06MANAGUA1003, NICARAGUA'S MOST WANTED PART II: THE CRIMES OF THE

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
06MANAGUA1003 | 2006-05-05 17:05 | 2010-12-06 21:09 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Managua

`

    VZCZCXYZ0011
    PP RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHMU #1003/01 1251717
    ZNR UUUUU ZZH
    P 051717Z MAY 06
    FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6199
    INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
    RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0658
    RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
    RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
    RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC

` `

    UNCLAS MANAGUA 001003

    SIPDIS

    SENSITIVE
    SIPDIS

    DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN
    PASS TO USAID FOR AA/LAC

    E.O. 12958: N/A
    TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM KCRM SOCI ECON EAID NU
    SUBJECT: NICARAGUA'S MOST WANTED PART II: THE CRIMES OF THE
    SANDINISTAS (FSLN)

    REF: MANAGUA 1002

    (SBU) This is the second in a series of three cables
    summarizing the crimes and abuses of power committed by
    Nicaragua's corrupt party bosses and their associates. The
    first cable focused on Daniel Ortega and his family, while
    this one centers on the abuses of the Sandinistas more
    broadly, both when they were in power during the 1980s and
    subsequently. The third and final cable will focus on
    Arnoldo Aleman and his family. As noted in reftel, post
    intends to use the information from these "rap sheets" in
    discussions with domestic and international interlocutors as
    a means of reminding Nicaraguan voters and others of the true
    character of Aleman, Ortega, and the Sandinistas. While the
    summaries themselves are unclassified, some of the sources of
    information are SBU. Post will distribute the summaries to
    appropriate contacts, but not the sources. Post is sending
    both the summaries and the sources to the Department and
    other Washington agencies for similar uses.

    THE RECORD OF THE 1980S FLSN REGIME AND SUBSEQUENT SANDINISTA
    ABUSES OF POWER
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Rampant FSLN Human Rights Abuses, including Torture,
    Disappearances, and Murder
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶2. (U) The FSLN regime declared a permanent "state of
    emergency" and interned and tortured thousands of people at
    prisons and camps scattered all over Nicaragua. The
    Sandinista State Security Directorate operated a network of
    special prisons where those held had no legal rights or
    protections whatsoever. In the mid-1980s, the regime had
    over 6500 political prisoners, the largest number in the
    entire hemisphere.

    ¶3. (U) Many prisoners were held for up to two years without
    ever being charged or facing a judge. The largest torture
    camp for political prisoners was in what is now the free
    trade zone near Managua's airport. The regime also ordered
    numerous murders and disappearances, including the killings
    of hundreds of Miskitos on the Atlantic coast and the
    internment of thousands more in concentration camps in 1981
    and 1982. These crimes against humanity were ordered by
    Daniel Ortega, Humberto Ortega, Tomas Borge, Lenin Cerna, and
    Omar Cabezas, among others.

    ¶4. (SBU) Sources: Sandinista declarations on the "state of
    emergency" and their incarcerations of political prisoners
    are a matter of public record; the CPDH human rights
    organization also has tens of thousands of complaints of
    1980s rights abuses and on the imprisonment of political
    prisoners. This information was published in regular reports
    by the CPDH throughout the 1980s and remains documented in
    the organization's archives. The State Department's annual
    Human Rights Reports also documented many of the worst
    abuses. Many victims remain alive to this day and continue to
    testify regarding the abuses they suffered.

    FSLN Wrecks Economy and Sets it back 50 years
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶5. (U) By the 1970s, Nicaragua had developed one of the most
    advanced economies in Central America, with so many jobs
    being created that workers from other Central American
    countries came to Nicaragua seeking employment. Nicaragua
    was known as the bread basket of the region. When the FSLN
    came to power in 1979 and began confiscating property (over
    170,000 total properties), driving out investors, and setting
    up a state-run soviet-style economy, it destroyed all the
    progress that had been made, setting the national economy
    back at least fifty years. GDP per person declined an
    average of 5.7 percent per year, exports declined 3 percent
    per year, and the Sandinistas ran up Nicaragua's external
    debt to over 10 billion dollars (more than seven times GDP).
    For comparison's sake, external debt in 1979, when the
    Sandinistas took power, was only 1.5 billion dollars (97
    percent of GDP).

    ¶6. (U) Under the Sandinistas, the currency was constantly
    devalued, hyperinflation reached 33,500 percent in 1988, and
    production plummeted, forcing Nicaraguans to suffer shortages
    and rationing of even the most basic goods. Although

    progress has been made since 1990, the economy has still not
    fully recovered from FSLN mismanagement. Because of the
    FSLN, instead of other Central Americans coming to Nicaragua
    to seek jobs, the country now faces a situation in which
    hundreds of thousands of its people have had to leave their
    country to seek jobs elsewhere.

    ¶7. (SBU) Sources: Detailed documentation on the decline of
    the Nicaraguan economy is a matter of public record; all of
    the information is available in the records of the Nicaraguan
    Central Bank. Nicaraguans old enough to remember both the
    pre-Sandinista and the Sandinista economies can also bear
    witness to the economic devastation caused by the FSLN. Based
    on analysis of records from numerous government ministries,
    President Bolanos and his government estimated that the FSLN
    regime set the Nicaraguan economy back at least 50 years.

    Censorship and Harassment of the Media
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶8. (U) The FSLN regime eliminated nearly all independent
    media in Nicaragua, censored all sensitive information, and
    constantly harassed La Prensa and the two main independent
    radio stations that survived. Journalists were regularly
    arrested and held without charge, La Prensa was shut down on
    numerous occasions, and many journalists and editors were
    forced into exile.

    ¶9. (U) On one occasion, Interior Minister Tomas Borge
    summoned journalist Jose Castillo Osejo to his home and then
    personally physically assaulted him. Castillo, currently a
    National Assembly deputy, was one of the owners of the
    independent Radio Corporacion, and had often used the station
    to criticize the FSLN. At the same time, the regime
    monitored phone calls, opened private mail, and used its
    control of the media, and its famous literacy campaign, to
    bombard the Nicaraguan people with communist propaganda.

    ¶10. (U) FSLN efforts to harass the media have continued even
    since the party left power in 1990. In 2006 the Sandinista
    caucus in the National Assembly rammed through the new Arce
    Law, named for FSLN National Assembly member Bayardo Arce,
    its chief advocate. The law significantly reduced the tax
    exonerations that media outlets may obtain for imported
    materials and equipment. These tax exonerations helped the
    print and other media to keep prices low to enable wide
    access to information. Media outlets reported that the law
    resulted in significant bureaucratic delays that slowed the
    importation of needed printing supplies and equipment.

    ¶11. (SBU) Sources: Any journalist who lived through this
    period in Nicaragua or was forced into exile can testify to
    the effect of FSLN media policies, as Jose Castillo Osejo has
    done. Police records also document the arrest of journalists,
    and La Prensa has reported widely on the constant harassment
    it suffered. The State Department's annual Human Rights
    Report and complaints filed with the CPDH human rights
    organization also document FSLN abuses of the media.

    Promotion of Terrorism and Efforts to Destabilize Neighboring
    Countries
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶12. (U) The FSLN regime was not content to run Nicaragua
    into the ground, and sought to export its failed communist
    revolution to all of Nicaragua's neighbors and countries as
    far away as Argentina. The regime smuggled weapons to
    leftist guerrillas in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and
    elsewhere. At the same time, terrorists from all over the
    world found a safe haven in Nicaragua, and many obtaind
    Ncragancitizenship.

    ¶13. (U) FSLN leaders, including Humberto Ortega, have
    admitted publicly that leaders of the Argentine leftist
    terrorist group "Los Montoneros" resided in Nicaragua and
    engaged in military activities with the FSLN for an extended
    period in 1979-1981. Humberto Ortega admitted that Fernando
    Vaca Narvaja, the leader of the group, resided in his house
    in Managua.

    ¶14. (SBU) Sources: Daniel Ortega has publicly admitted many
    of his terrorist connections, including the fact that he has
    received elections money from the government of Libya. Many
    1980s terrorists still live in Nicaragua and have acquired

    Nicaraguan citizenship (including at least one prominent
    member of the Italian Red Brigades). Daniel Ortega publicly
    associated with many of these individuals in Nicaragua
    throughout the 1980s.

    Harassment of the Roman Catholic Church and Civil Society
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶15. (U) The FSLN regularly harassed, arrested, and abused
    the Catholic Church and civil society. In August 1982 the
    FSLN set a trap for Monsignor Bismarck Carballo, who ran the
    Church's independent Radio Corporation by luring him to the
    home of a woman who claimed to be having domestic problems
    and needed his help. FSLN thugs assaulted Caballo, stripped
    him naked and then trotted him in front of the national media
    waiting outside in a disgusting effort to discredit the
    priest. In 1983 the FSLN even went so far as to harass Pope
    John Paul II when he visited Nicaragua. The regime tried to
    prevent people from coming to Managua to hear the Pope speak,
    shut off the lights and sound during his public address, and
    placed FSLN agitators at the front of the crowd to shout at
    the Pope throughout his speech.

    ¶16. (SBU) Sources: The harassment and abuse of Monsignor
    Carballo was filmed by the Sandinista media and broadcast
    countrywide. The harassment of Pope John Paul II was also
    filmed and videotapes showing the harassment are now widely
    available. Among other locations, they are sold in stands at
    Managua's airport.

    Rampant Sandinista Anti-Semitism and Anti-Semitic Violence
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶17. (U) The Nicaraguan Jewish community, which numbered 200
    in the early 1970s, was reduced to approximately 50
    individuals after the Sandinista takeover in July 1979. With
    the support of the Palestine Liberation Organization, an
    anti-Semitic campaign began in 1977 when Sandinistas defaced
    Managua's synagogue with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel slogans.
    In 1978, the same synagogue was firebombed during Saturday
    religious services. Younger members of the congregation were
    forced to evacuate elderly Holocaust survivors while the
    synagogue burned and the Sandinista bombers tried to force
    them all to remain inside the burning building. Many of the
    elderly Holocaust survivors had also lived through the
    November 1938 "Night of Broken Glass" (Kristallnacht), during
    which the Nazi regime orchestrated attacks on Jews,
    Jewish-owned businesses, and Synagogues all across Germany
    and Austria.

    ¶18. (U) After the triumph of the Sandinista revolution in
    1979, Jews who had been residing temporarily outside
    Nicaragua were not permitted to return. When 70-year-old
    Abraham Gorn was identified as the president of the
    Nicaraguan Jewish community, he was jailed for two weeks and
    forced to sweep streets. His factory was expropriated, his
    bank account seized and he was evicted from his home.
    Numerous other members of the Jewish community suffered
    similar forms of harassment. The July 15 and 17, 1982
    editions of the government-controlled newspaper El Nuevo
    Diario denounced Jews. The Sandinista regime labeled Jewish
    houses of worship "Synagogues of Satan." The Sandinistas
    converted Managua's synagogue (the same one they firebombed
    in 1978) into an elite social club for the children of
    high-ranking Sandinista officials.

    ¶19. (SBU) Sources: Testimony of leaders of the Jewish
    community who experienced the Sandinista firebombing of the
    Managua synagogue and other anti-Semitic FSLN acts, State
    Department Human Rights Reports, 1986 Special State
    Department Report: "Human Rights in Nicaragua under the
    Sandinistas", 1986 State Department Publication: "In Their
    Own Words: Testimony of Nicaraguan Exiles."

    Rigging of Elections
    - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶20. (U) In 1984 the FSLN held rigged national elections in
    which all other parties withdrew because of blatant
    Sandinista efforts to manipulate and control the outcome.
    Because of the FSLN's "state of emergency" no other party
    was allowed to organize or campaign. Opposition parties were
    censored and subjected to constant harassment, while the FSLN
    subjected the Nicaraguan people to a constant barrage of

    pro-Sandinista propaganda using all of the state-controlled
    media. FSLN comandante Bayardo Arce, who oversaw the
    fraudulent elections, admitted that they were only held in
    the first place because of pressure from the United States.

    ¶21. (SBU) Sources: The content of the Sandinista "emergency
    decrees" is a matter of public record and was widely reported
    in the media even at the time. Specific abuses and efforts to
    manipulate the outcome of the elections were reported by the
    CPDH human rights organization and the State Department's
    annual Human Rights Report for 1984.

    Murder of Contras After they Disarm
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶22. (U) After the signing of the 1988-1989 peace accords and
    the holding of free elections in 1990, the fighters of the
    armed resistance ("Contras") to the FSLN regime disarmed as
    the peace accords required. However, the FSLN leadership saw
    this as an opportunity for revenge, and had its assassins
    kill hundreds of Contras, including ordering the murder of
    ex-Contra commander Enrique Bermudez in the parking lot of
    the intercontinental hotel (today's Hotel Crowne Plaza) in
    ¶1990.

    ¶23. (SBU) Sources: Such killings are widely documented in
    Nicaraguan police and court records. No one was ever brought
    to justice in the crimes. Right down to the present day,
    friends and family members of Bermudez continue to call for a
    full investigation of his murder.

    Banning of Independent Unions and Violations of Right to
    Organize and Strike
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶24. (U) Although they proclaimed themselves to be the
    champions of working people, the Sandinistas banned any form
    of union organization or exercise of labor rights that they
    could not control. Those who tried to organize independent
    unions were regularly arrested and beaten, such as Carlos
    Huembes who was severely beaten by FSLN thugs at the Managua
    airport in February 1981, at the same time the FSLN
    vandalized his residence. In September 1981, the FSLN banned
    all strikes.

    ¶25. (SBU) Sources: Many of the FSLN's "emergency decrees"
    specifically restricted the right of people to organize and
    freely express their views, on labor matters or anything
    else. The FSLN's banning of all strikes is thus a matter of
    public record. Carlos Huembes has regularly and personally
    testified as to the abuses he suffered, as have many other
    independent labor leaders.

    Sandinistas Look out for Themselves and the Wealthy, While
    the Poor Suffer
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶26. (U) Throughout the 1980s Sandinista military
    "recruiters" traveled throughout Nicaragua forcing boys and
    girls as young as twelve years of age to join the Sandinista
    military, often effectively kidnapping them from their
    families and then sending them into combat with minimal
    training. However, only the poor were the victims of such
    FSLN press gangs, as the children of the Sandinista elite and
    the wealthy were largely exempt.

    ¶27. (U) While Sandinista economic mismanagement and
    draconian state controls wrecked the economy and forced most
    Nicaraguans to live in abject poverty and survive on
    extremely limited food rations, the Sandinista elite lived in
    luxury, enjoying the fruits of the property, businesses and
    other economic resources that they had seized when they took
    power. Today, while Ortega and the rest of the Sandinista
    elite reside in mansions and are chauffeured around in
    Mercedes Benzes and other luxury vehicle, this same
    Sandinista leadership promotes strikes that prevent the poor
    from receiving medical care and from having access to public
    transportation.

    ¶28. (U) In October 2005 Sandinista members of the Managua
    city council cut a deal with their PLC colleagues to build
    two expensive monuments to their respective historical
    "heroes" (Jose Santos Zelaya for the PLC and Rigoberto Lopez
    Perez--the assassin who killed the first Somoza in 1956--for

    the FSLN) at a total cost of 3 million cordobas (USD 175,000)
    in taxpayer money from the city budget, more than the PLC and
    FSLN councilors assigned to all city social programs combined.

    ¶29. (SBU) Sources: Any Nicaraguan old enough to remember the
    1980s can testify about the FSLN "press gangs" that tore
    minors away from their families and forced them to serve in
    the Sandinista army. Thousands of young people fled Nicaragua
    and went into exile to avoid such forced military service. To
    see the current lifestyle of the FSLN elite, one need only
    look at the homes they live in, the cars they drive, and the
    opulence of their lifestyle and travels. It is also widely
    known and reported in the media that Ortega and the FSLN
    control all of the unions and the politically-motivated
    strikes that often make life miserable for ordinary
    Nicaraguans, preventing them from getting to work or
    receiving medical care.

    Involvement with Drug Traffickers and use of Drug Money for
    Campaign Finance
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶30. (U) Daniel Ortega and the Sandinista have regularly
    received money to finance FSLN electoral campaigns from
    international drug traffickers, usually in return for
    ordering Sandinista judges to allow traffickers caught by the
    police and military to go free. Most of these schemes are
    orchestrated by Lenin Cerna, the former Director of State
    Security, and are supervised by Sandinista Supreme Court
    judges such as Rafael Solis and Roger Camillo Arguello.
    Non-drug traffickers, including corrupt associates of Arnoldo
    Aleman such as Byron Jerez, have also paid bribes to the FSLN
    judicial "campaign finance" machine in return for not guilty
    verdicts.

    ¶31. (U) In one notorious case in 2005 widely reported in the
    media, Supreme Court magistrate Arguello coordinated a
    complicated scheme to make 609,000 dollars in drug money
    seized from two Colombians "disappear" from a Supreme Court
    account. There are credible reports that some of the money
    went to fund upcoming FSLN electoral campaigns, while the
    rest went to individual Sandinista judges, including Solis
    and Arguello.

    ¶32. (U) In another one of many examples, prosecutors have
    accused Rigoberto Gonzalez Garbach, a Sandinista candidate
    for elected office in Puerto Cabezas in the March 2006
    Atlantic Coast regional elections, of attempting to bribe a
    judge with 108,500 dollars in return for freeing convicted
    drug trafficker Marvin Funez. According to prosecutors, this
    was not the first time that Rigoberto Gonzalez Garbach had
    tried to bribe judges to free drug traffickers.

    ¶33. (U) In 1984 Daniel Ortega negotiated a deal with
    Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar whereby Escobar received
    refuge for several months in Nicaragua after he had ordered
    the killing of the Colombian Minister of Justice. At the
    same time, Escobar's drug trafficking operation received
    Ortega's approval to land and load airplanes in Nicaragua as
    they sought to ship cocaine to the United States. In return,
    Ortega and the FSLN received large cash payments from
    Escobar. Interior Minister Tomas Borge and his subordinates
    went so far as to assist Escobar with the loading and
    unloading of drugs onto his airplanes in Nicaragua. The Drug
    Enforcement Agency (DEA) managed to place a hidden camera on
    one of Escobar's airplanes and obtained film of Escobar and
    Ministry of the Interior officials loading cocaine onto one
    of Escobar's planes at Managua's international airport. CBS
    news later broadcast the film and the entire story of
    Escobar-Ortega-FSLN collaboration is related in detail in a
    2005 book by Astrid Legarda Martinez: El Verdadero Pablo:
    Sangre, Traicion y Muerte (Colombia, Ediciones Dipon).

    ¶34. (SBU) Sources: Everyone in Nicaragua knows that Ortega
    and the FSLN control the judiciary, with at least 75 percent
    of all judges being self-described Sandinista militants. The
    specific cases described above have all been widely reported
    by media all across the political spectrum. Although his name
    does not often appear in the media, everyone in Nicaragua's
    political circles knows that Lenin Cerna remains Daniel
    Ortega's chief political "fixer." The Pablo Escobar footage
    was filmed June 24, 1984. The media have widely reported on
    the FSLN's use of the judiciary for campaign finance purposes
    and credible confidential sources have confirmed the practice

    on numerous occasions.

    FSLN Condones and Supports Domestic and Sexual Violence
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    ¶35. (U) In 1998 Zoilamerica Narvaez, the daughter of Rosario
    Murillo and the step-daughter of Daniel Ortega, made
    allegations that Ortega had raped and sexually abused her
    over a period of many years. However, Ortega used his
    immunity as a National Assembly deputy and his control of the
    courts to ensure that the case never went to trial. Having
    ensured he would never face trial, Ortega then actively
    sabotaged all efforts by the Nicaraguan government to provide
    justice to Narvaez and used his mother and Rosario Murillo in
    a public relations campaign intended to bury the allegations.

    ¶36. (U) In September 2004, boxer Ricardo Mayorga allegedly
    raped a young woman in a Managua hotel. Sensing an
    opportunity to blackmail Mayorga, Ortega and the FSLN agreed
    to protect the boxer in the courts if he would give the party
    a large portion of his international boxing winnings and
    "advertise" for Daniel in public. Mayorga agreed, and an
    FSLN judge found him not guilty in December. Much of
    Mayorga's winnings now reportedly go to Ortega, and when
    Mayorga fought in Chicago in August 2005, he dedicated the
    fight to Daniel, wore the FSLN colors, and flashed the number
    of the FSLN slot on the electoral ballot ("casilla") to the
    international media.

    ¶37. (U) Such misogynistic attitudes are common in the FSLN,
    as is the tolerance of domestic and sexual violence. When
    FSLN National Assembly deputies voted to lower the criminal
    penalties for statutory rape in March 2006, FSLN deputy
    Nathan Sevilla justified the vote by stating that sex with
    minors was "normal" in rural Nicaragua and thus should not be
    considered a serious crime.

    ¶38. (SBU) Sources: personal testimony of Zoilamerica, legal
    documents filed by Zoilamerica in Nicaraguan institutions
    (including the courts, the police and the office of the Human
    Rights Ombudsman) and the IACHR, media records of Ortega's
    "public relations" campaign using Rosario Murillo and his own
    mother. Sources for the Mayorga case include media accounts
    of Mayorga's arrest, trial, his public "pro-Daniel" comments
    and his August 2005 fight, private testimony offered by
    lawyers involved in the case, and the testimony of the rape
    victim. Sevilla's comments were widely reported in the media.

    FSLN Continues to Use Land and Property "Pinatas" for
    Campaign Finance
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    ¶39. (U) As has been widely reported in the Nicaraguan media,
    in addition to using its control of the judiciary to campaign
    finance from drug traffickers, the FSLN is still involved in
    numerous land and property "pi$atas" that bring huge amounts
    of money into party coffers. Although the FSLN uses a
    variety of scams to rob both domestic and foreign property
    owners and investors, the most common technique seems to be
    to have FSLN lawyers bring spurious charges of violations of
    oral labor "contracts" against property owners and companies.
    FSLN judges then rule in favor of the lawyer making the
    complaint, and issue huge judgments for damages against the
    property owner, or simply seize the property in question and
    hand it to the Sandinista lawyer for use or sale. The
    resulting profits go straight to FSLN coffers. In other
    cases seized properties have been spuriously "auctioned" to
    the FSLN at no cost.

    ¶40. (U) Among those attacked by the FSLN money-making
    machine in this manner have been international investors from
    Spain and the United States, as well as government entities
    such as the Nicaraguan Basic Foodstuffs Company (Enabas). In
    some cases, such as that of the Spanish investors, the
    properties in question have been worth over one and a half
    million dollars. In another case involving Sandinista judges
    in Catarina, the FSLN acquired buildings and property worth
    700,000 dollars in the same manner.

    ¶41. (SBU) Sources: These cases have been widely reported in
    all of the Nicaraguan media since they became public
    knowledge in February 2006. The victims in the various cases
    have all publicly testified regarding the FSLN legal
    shenanigans to defraud them.

    TRIVELLI

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