Cablegate: Nicaragua's 2007 Trafficking in Persons Submission

VZCZCXRO8050
PP RUEHWEB
ZNR UUUUU ZOC STATE ZZH
WSC4192
PP RUEHC
DE RUEHMU #0796/01 0862151
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 272151Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
TO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9612
INFO RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS MANAGUA 000796

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT PASS G/TIP: BFLECK, WHA/PPC:MPUCCETTI, G, INL, DRL,
PRM, IWI, AID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN ELAB SMIG KFRD PREF NU
SUBJECT: NICARAGUA'S 2007 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS SUBMISSION

REF: A. 06 STATE 202745
B. 06 MANAGUA 02717
C. 07 MANAGUA 00542
D. 06 MANAGUA 02716
E. 06 MANAGUA 01898
F. 06 MANAGUA 02715
G. 07 MANAGUA 00357
H. 07 MANAGUA 00583

1. (SBU) Summary: During the April 2006 to March 2007
reporting period, the Nicaraguan government continued its
efforts to combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) mainly in the
areas of prevention and detection, while progress in victim
assistance and prosecution of traffickers was limited and
overall results were mixed. While the National Assembly
approved legislation criminalizing trafficking in persons and
other forms of sexual exploitation, the law is not in force
yet, in large part because Nicaragua's November 2006
elections diverted the Assembly's attention elsewhere for
months, delaying the legislature's passage of the penal code.
An overall lack of awareness and understanding of the
trafficking in persons phenomenon continues, as well as a
serious deficit of data collection and registration of
trafficking cases by law enforcement authorities. Resource
constraints, slow pace of judicial reform, the ongoing debate
over the penal code, lack of border security, weak
immigration controls, insufficient coordination of efforts,
the focus on the 2006 presidential election, and changes on
the political front have kept the issue of trafficking on the
back burner. While it continued to make a good faith effort
to combat trafficking, the Government of Nicaragua (GON) has
not moved significantly beyond noting a policy and plan on
paper, to improved, concrete results. Arrests and
prosecutions of trafficking cases were limited, marking
little progress from last year. However, the GON made
strides in terms of providing anti-trafficking training of
government officials and dissemination of public awareness
information through programs financed by outside donors,
non-governmental organizations (NGOS), and UN organizations.

2. (SBU) Summary Continued: As the second poorest country in
the Western Hemisphere, Nicaragua suffers from severe
resource shortages and weak institutions. Nevertheless there
were positive signs that the outgoing Bolanos government made
a concerted effort to comply with international
anti-trafficking standards. It is too soon to tell, however,
whether the Ortega government, which assumed office January
10, 2007, will uphold the previous government's commitment.
Traffickers, ability to operate with impunity and infiltrate
the country's incipient tourism industry has continued to
pose a challenge. Civil Society and international
organizations have played an instrumental role in increasing
government attention to the problem of trafficking. Despite
the existence of a National Coalition against Trafficking in
Persons, an apparent lack of coordination among separate
government ministries and law enforcement agencies continues
to limit the GON's ability to seriously address the issue of
trafficking on a national scale. End Summary

The information provided below is keyed to Reftel A
paragraphs 27-31.

Overview of Nicaragua,s anti-TIP Activities
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

3. (SBU) Paragraph 27 A. Nicaragua is a country of origin,
transit, and destination for trafficking in persons. While
there is little evidence that victims of other nationalities
are trafficked into Nicaragua, the country is a source of
both internal and external trafficking. According to
government and NGO sources, sexual exploitation is the
primary end use for trafficking in persons originating in
Nicaragua. Internal trafficking of Nicaraguans for sexual
exploitation is a growing concern. As reported in last
year,s report, during this reporting period, there was some
evidence that internal labor trafficking was taking place,
where children were lured to urban areas to work as domestic
household help or in restaurants but then exploited for
forced labor. The government, however, for the most part
does not recognize internal labor exploitation as a form of
trafficking, although there is evidence that internal
trafficking of children to work as unpaid domestics takes
place.

4. (SBU) Paragraph 27 A. Continued: The vast majority of
cases in Nicaragua involve women and girls trafficked for the
purpose of sexual exploitation. The main groups at risk are
young women and children from poor, rural areas, victims of
domestic abuse and sexual violence. Children and women from
the ages of 13 to 25 years of age are deemed the most
vulnerable, although there were cases of girls as young as 11
being trafficked during the reporting period. Poverty,
illiteracy, lack of economic opportunity, vast areas of
unpatrolled land along the Atlantic coast, porous borders,
and geographic location, contribute to making Nicaragua the
principal source of trafficking victims in Central America.

5. (SBU) Paragraph 27 A. Continued: El Salvador and Guatemala
are the main destination countries for Nicaraguan trafficking
victims, largely due to CA4 agreement between Nicaragua, El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Citizens and residents of
these countries are only required to show their cedulas
(national identification cards), to cross the borders between
these four countries. Passports are not required. Foreigners
are subject to passport checks at the borders, but only
receive a single entrance stamp at the initial Point of
Entry. In addition, the C-4 members share watchlist
information on a weekly basis. Victims were also trafficked
to Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States, and were
trafficked internally. There was also a media report of a
28-year-old female who allegedly was trafficked to Spain.

6. (SBU) Paragraph 27 A. Continued: The sources of
information include the National Coalition for Trafficking in
Persons (NCATIP), Ministry of Government, Immigration
Service, the Public Ministry, Ministry of Family, National
Police Special Crimes Unit, media, and non-governmental
organizations. There were gaps in the information provided,
and some of the reporting was inconsistent. Attempts to
contact the government's National Council for the Integral
Attention and Protection of Children and Adolescents
(CONAPINA) for information in time to complete the report
were unsuccessful, as the agency is undergoing an
organizational change and will possibly be folded into the
Ministry of Family. Credible data on the number of
trafficking cases was difficult to confirm.

7. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. As reported in last year,s
submission, traffickers primarily used fraud, coercion, or
deception to recruit victims, offering false promise of more
lucrative employment outside the country as domestics,
nannies, waitresses, models, and appear to be infiltrating
the country,s incipient tourism industry. Some traffickers
lure children with offers of gifts, new cell phones, or food.
As part of their modus operandi, traffickers used travel,
model, and employment agencies as front companies to recruit
victims. Some of the classified ads in newspapers seeking
workers of a certain age &with no experience,8 casting
calls, or offers for special excursion tours are, according
to the Public Ministry, another recruitment technique. Most
internal TIP cases involved poor rural women and girls being
drawn to major urban centers to work as prostitutes, although
the adult prostitutes found working in nightclubs and massage
parlors are from both urban and rural areas. According to
the police, the types of businesses where prostitution is
most common are casinos, night clubs, discos, beauty salons,
and massage parlors.

8. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. Continued: The connection between
trafficking and tourism appears to be on the rise, according
to media and government reports. Increased interest in
Nicaragua as a tourist destination, combined with the
availability of out of school children and unemployed
adolescents from poor and rural communities, and lack of
impunity in the justice system, create conditions conducive
to trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation.
Traffickers are able to take advantage of the increase in
tourist excursions and travel packages, for example, as a
means to transport victims in the open by bus. They also
used networks of unregulated taxi drivers to assist with the
transportation. According to Casa Alianza, traffickers do
not need to use clandestine methods to smuggle victims; they
are able to operate freely using regular public and private
transportation services.

9. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. Continued: In addition to the
prevalence of children and adolescents along the Panamerican
Highway who are being recruited by traffickers and taken
across the border to work as prostitutes in bars and night
clubs in other Central American countries, they are also
visibly present in parks in tourist towns like Granada, in
ports along the Atlantic and Pacific, and in the principal
streets of Managua.

10. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. Continued: Quantifying the exact
number of girls, boys, and adolescents who are victims of
commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking continued to
be difficult. The National Coalition Against Trafficking in
Persons, the Special Investigations Unit of the National
Police, and the Public Ministry all reported 21 cases of
trafficking during 2006, 95 percent of the victims were
female, 62 percent ages 13 to 17, and 38 percent over the age
of 18. While there is little information available on male
victims, there was anecdotal evidence of boys being
trafficked to Costa Rica, probably for labor exploitation.

11. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. Continued: Another development that
both NGO and government officials reported was that
traffickers were preying upon and encouraging individuals
traveling alone seeking employment outside the country, and
often approached potential victims at public bus stations.
To encourage adolescent girls to travel alone, traffickers
offer assistance with preparation of documents with false
identities. Another trend that stood out is that traffickers
may be targeting victims over the age of 18 because they are
seen as less likely to draw the attention of the authorities.

12. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. Continued: According to the
National Police, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, and
other NGOs, trafficking in persons is associated with
organized crime rings that are allowed to operate with
impunity. Some government sources were more inclined to
suggest that the traffickers are individuals working alone
and did not demonstrate a clear understanding or awareness of
who was behind trafficking. The National Coalition indicated
that the government policy is to combat organized crime &in
all of its manifestations.8

13. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. Continued: The Special Prosecutor
for Children and Adolescents reported that women prostitutes
and brothel owners are involved in the recruitment of
potential trafficking victims. According to government
sources, female prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics
help traffickers with the recruitment of young women and
girls. (Comment: Since women do not fit the cultural
stereotype of a trafficker, they are more likely to evade
standard detection methods and practices, particularly with
the transport of children and adolescents. End Comment.)

14. (SBU) Paragraph 27 B. Continued: The National Police
reported that the increase in sexual exploitation of children
is happening in the open in border towns and tourist
destinations, yet they have no reported cases of sex tourism
during the 2006 reporting period, probably because the people
involved are afraid to denounce. Under the law, anyone can
denounce crimes of trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Paragraph 27 B. Continued: Reports of a possible connection
between trafficking and illegal adoptions also came to the
attention of the Embassy, and will be discussed in the
section on corruption below.

15. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Although the GON has demonstrated
political will to address the problem, and has launched a
number of effective communications campaigns, it is severely
limited in its ability to address the issue in practice given
serious resources constraints, insufficient training, overall
corruption, and much looser immigration controls between the
borders of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala as
a result of the CA-4 agreement. The GON,s anti-TIP program
is particularly weak in terms of victim's assistance and
protection, investigation of trafficking instances, and in
the prosecution of trafficking offenders.

16. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued: According to the
Nicaraguan National Police Special Crimes Unit, the main
impediment to its anti-TIP efforts was the lack of financial
resources. There is also a lack of reliable statistical data
on the number of victims and the true magnitude of the
problem. The National Police do not have the necessary means
to identify traffickers or organized criminal entities who
police suspect are using more sophisticated technology
increasing difficult to detect. According to an NNP report
issued in late 2006, traffickers are rarely arrested and
almost never prosecuted, since the penalties imposed for
trafficking in persons are lenient when compared the
penalties imposed for drug or arms trafficking.

17. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued: The GON, through the
inter-agency National Coalition Against Trafficking in
Persons (NCATIP), developed a plan of action which was
reported in last year,s submission and made an effort during
2006 to outline specific steps to improve the response to
this social scourge, with an emphasis on capacity building
and strengthening human resources; investigating cases;
transforming the judiciary and psychosocial spheres;
facilitating the process of repatriation; improve
surveillance mechanisms; establishing a database, creating a
communications strategy for dealing with human trafficking;
and, developing "Inter-institutional Conventions of
Cooperation." Another goal was to establish a system for
registering trafficking incidents, and to promote social
research. In reality, while the plan denotes a commitment to
the issue, the GON has not set aside budget for
anti-trafficking activities, nor does it possess the
necessary funds for adequate victims assistance and shelters,
technology upgrades; and, capacity building for law
enforcement personnel and judges. The Managua shelter
established by the Ministry of Family is the only
government-run shelter to provide for at risk children and
youth, and is not properly staffed or equipped to deal with
trafficking victims, nor is it available to assist victims
over the ages of 18.

18. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued: By the NCATIP,s own
admission, the leading organizations responsible for
anti-trafficking actions--the National Police, Department of
Immigration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of
Family are extremely limited in their ability to provide
adequate assistance for victims, and rely on the help of NGOs
with expertise in the trafficking in persons phenomenon, as
well as foreign assistance programs such as USAID, UNICEF,
and others. The NCATIP and Ministry of Government expressed
regret that despite attempts to streamline lines of
communication, efforts were stymied by a lack of coordination
and integration. The Nicaraguan government relies on the
efforts and resources of the NGO community to compensate for
the state,s inability to provide services, especially those
involving victim,s assistance and protection.

19. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued. The Vice Minister of
Government under the Bolanos Administration, Deyanira
Arguello, pledged the government,s commitment to fighting
trafficking (Ref. B), but was skeptical of the new Ortega
government,s ability to tackle the problem. The current
Minister of Government Ana Isabel Morales, also promised to
intensify the government,s efforts to combat the problem of
TIP, but reiterated serious resource limitations prevented
the government from taking all necessary actions to defeat
this "social scourge." She informed Embassy officers of her
intention to submit a proposal for a state-run shelter at the
PRM and DHS/CIS Regional Conference on Migration in New
Orleans in April 2007.

20. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued: Despite sincere
expressions of political will, much of the government,s
commitment to eliminate trafficking remains on paper. In
addition, as the law is written, individuals involved in
transporting victims are difficult to prosecute.

21. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued: While the GON pledged
its commitment to increasing coordination among agencies, it
largely relies on international organizations, NGOs, and
outside funding to implement programs. The GON,s response
to trafficking was related to increased civil society
pressure against child pornography, sexual exploitation of
minors, and spread of transnational crime rings. Such
efforts to change the legislation, however, had more to do
with the outcry over child pornography and sexual
exploitation of children and minors, rather than to an
increased awareness or understanding about the magnitude of
the trafficking in persons phenomenon.

22. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued: Cultural and class
prejudices present another obstacle. NGOs, civil society,
and the Public Ministry all complained judges and police
investigators lack proper training and an understanding of
TIP as a human rights concern. There is a cultural bias
against trafficking victims who are often perceived as the
guilty parties and treated as ignorant "vagabonds." This
cultural insensitivity has permeated the psyche of the
trafficking victims themselves who refuse to cooperate with
the police when they return because either they do not
understand that their rights were violated, or because they
believe that they were at fault and are ashamed of the stigma
after being repatriated and returned to their communities.
According to the International Organization of Migration
(IOM), many of the victims who are repatriated and returned
to abusive situations without receiving any therapy or
intervention are vulnerable to being retrafficked. The
victims, unwillingness to denounce their captors combined
with the lack of training for judges and local prosecutors
are factors that could explain the dearth of actual
trafficking prosecutions.

23. (SBU) Paragraph 27 C. Continued: Overall corruption in
the Nicaraguan political and judicial system is another
obstacle that undermines the GON,s ability to deal
effectively with the problem, and will be discussed in
greater detail below.

24. (SBU) Paragraph 27 D. The National Coalition Against
Trafficking in Persons has made efforts to coordinate actions
by distinct agencies. However there is no systematic review
of anti-trafficking efforts. The Coalition does not
periodically provide assessments of anti-trafficking efforts
and much of the reporting on government activities is
provided through NGO channels. Although the NCATIP lists the
establishment of a monitoring capability and development of a
database as a priority goal, the government lacks a
capability to systematically monitor data, and does not have
the funds necessary to invest in adequate surveillance
technology.

PREVENTION
- - - - - -

25. (SBU) Paragraph 28 A. The government of Nicaragua has
acknowledged that trafficking is a problem in the country.
Vice President Jaime Morales, former Contra leader who ran on
the ticket with Daniel Ortega in the November 2006 national
election, noted the importance of working with the United
States government to combat trafficking during a meeting with
a visiting Codel and Embassy officials in February 2007 (Ref.
C). According to officials at the Public Ministry and the
Federation of NGOs working for minors (FECODENI), VP Morales
was instrumental in introducing reforms on anti-trafficking
legislation that was approved by the National Assembly in
April 2006.

26. (SBU) Paragraph 28 B. The Ministry of Government, which
oversees the National Coalition Against Trafficking in
Persons established in 2004 and controls the National Police
and the Immigration Department, is the lead government agency
responsible for trafficking in persons issues. The NCATIP is
an inter-agency liaison office which coordinates efforts with
16 other ministries and government agencies. In addition, the
Ministry of Family is responsible for assisting victims and
their reintegration with families. The Foreign Ministry,
National Police, and Immigration Services also provide
limited assistance to Nicaraguan victims found in other
countries. The Ministry of Education plays a role in
increasing awareness among children, adolescents, and
teachers.

27. (SBU) Paragraph 28 B. Continued: Within the Ministry of
Labor, the National Commission for the Progressive
Eradication of Child Labor and Protection of the Young Worker
(CNEPTI) is the designated authority for developing and
coordinating Nicaragua's national strategy for the prevention
and eradication of child labor (Ref. D). CNEPTI works with
other government ministries, international organizations and
NGOs to coordinate programs. However, CNEPTI's effectiveness
is limited by a chronic lack of support and resources from
the Ministry. The Commission is often excluded from the
planning, monitoring and evaluation of projects funded by
international donors, preventing it from gauging the
effectiveness and sustainability of projects.

28. (SBU) Paragraph 28 B. Continued: The police increased its
network of women's police stations from 23 to 27, which
investigate cases of abuse against women and children,
including allegations of trafficking. The Office of the
Human Rights Prosecutor has separate Special Prosecutors for
Women and Children and trafficking is included in their
portfolios. The Office of the National Prosecutor prosecutes
trafficking cases when sufficient evidence exists, and has a
specialized Women's and Children's unit dedicated to handling
such cases.

29. (SBU) Paragraph 28 B. Continued: The GON,s National
Council for the Integral Attention and Protection of Children
and Adolescents (CONAPINA) directs a 10-year National Action
Plan for Children and Adolescents and a five-year National
Plan to combat the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children. (Comment: Efforts to contact CONAPINA for its
input for this year,s TIP report were unsuccessful. Embassy
officers learned from several sources that the government may
be terminating CONAPINA. It is not clear whether CONAPINA
will be abolished or incorporated into another ministry, most
likely the Ministry of Family. End Comment.)

30. (SBU) Paragraph 28 B. Continued: The director of
FECODENI, one of the key NGO players involved in pressuring
the National Assembly to enact anti-trafficking legislation
expressed frustration with the lack of government resources
obligated to the fight against trafficking. Several sources
indicated that because of the inability of the GON to
adequately control the trafficking situation, NGOs such as
Casa Alianza, Save the Children, IOM, UNICEF, and are
&filling the void.8 The NCATIP concurred with this
assessment.

31. (SBU) Paragraph 28 C. The GON, in particular the NCATIP,
deserves credit for its efforts to expand anti-trafficking
information and education campaigns. In November, the GON
represented by the Ministry of Government and Ministry of
Family implemented its first pilot "Call and Live" campaign
which is being funded by the Inter American Development Bank,
IOM, and the Ricky Martin Foundation. The campaign includes a
youth-oriented media communications strategy to raise
awareness and promote the use of a free 24-hour emergency
hotline, provided by the Ministry of Family. The awareness
campaign targets the Department of Chinandega considered one
of the most vulnerable areas for TIP and important gateway
for trafficking outside the country. Government ownership of
the hotline is intended to guarantee sustainability after the
international funding runs out in June. At the time the
program was publicly launched in December, some government
sources expressed skepticism about Ministry of Family,s
ability to run the hotline and provide the necessary services
to support it (Ref. B). However, according to IOM, in the
first two months of being operational, there have been 690
calls related to child trafficking, and 13 reports or
"denunciations." No reported cases have been solved as a
result of this initiative.

32. (SBU) Paragraph 28 C. Continued: The Ministry of
Government continued its awareness and capacity building
activities throughout the country and sponsored an education
program in Granad with the Tourism Ministry to train taxi
drivers and hotel owners to agree or encourage zero tolerance
of commercial exploitation of children.

33. (SBU) Paragraph 28 C. Continued: The successful public
information campaign sponsored by Save the Children Canada
and IOM, reported in last year,s TIP report, continued
throughout the reporting period, and is a useful tool for
educating children and youth about the threat of trafficking
and information on how to prevention techniques and how to
report instances of suspected trafficking. The NCATIP also
reported producing spot TV ads to promote prevention and
denunciation of TIP crimes with funds from the Department of
State, the implementation of a notebook "Learning to Prevent
Trafficking in Persons" with MECD, a communications strategy
financed through a USAID regional project based in Guatemala,
and the distribution of leaflets, brochures, and other public
information materials, primarily aimed at boys, girls, and
adolescents. NCATIP also increased efforts to promote the
need to denounce or report trafficking in persons through a
publicity campaign targeting highways, public spaces,
schools, etc. but acknowledged that to date, it had not
obtained the desired results.

34. (SBU) Paragraph 28 C. Continued: The current Minister of
Government, along with the Director of Immigration, informed
Embassy officers that the government stepped up prevention
and detection activities by installing closed circuit
television monitors at immigration centers to run
anti-trafficking videos. The videos are intended to help on
the prevention side by increasing awareness and warning about
the dangers of human trafficking to people seeking to travel
outside the country. Due to resource constraints, these
televisions are available only in the Managua offices and are
not set up at immigration centers along the border areas. It
is estimated that during the peak travel and holiday seasons
(Christmas, Easter, patriotic celebrations, etc.), the
messages reached an average of a thousand travelers per day.

35. (SBU) Paragraph 28 D. The Ministries of Family, Labor,
Health, and Education support a variety of programs that have
some impact on alleviating poverty, hunger, and poor
education-underlying factors associated with trafficking, but
these are not programs specifically earmarked to deal
directly with trafficking in persons. Virtually all
anti-trafficking programs in Nicaragua are funded by NGOs and
the international donor community. While the Ministry of
Labor offers programs to prevent women from resorting to
prostitution, there is no government program in place
specifically to prevent trafficking other than in terms of
raising awareness of the phenomenon. There are no government
initiatives in place to promote women,s participation in
economic decisionmaking, and efforts to keep children in
school are not effectively enforced. The Ministry of
Education under the Bolanos government implemented a program
in high schools throughout Nicaragua to warn at-risk
teenagers about trafficking and to encourage denunciations.
It also was a factor in helping raise awareness about the
incidence of trafficking and educating parents about the
importance of prevention among people who had no previous
knowledge of the existence of the problem. The Ministry of
Education also conducted another program aimed at training
and sensitizing teachers to recognize and properly handle
cases of child sexual exploitation of any type.

36. (SBU) Paragraph 28 D. Continued: Although the Ortega
government has made pledges to strengthen education and
access to healthcare, and now provides free public education
for primary and secondary grades, education is not compulsory
in Nicaragua. Given the rate of poverty in Nicaragua, many
families are so poor they cannot afford basic school
supplies, and some rely on the income the children earn to
survive. There were reports that some families who cannot
afford shoes for their children will not send them to school.
If the state cannot adequately provide supplies, facilities,
and trained educators, one public official asserted, it would
be "perverse" to obligate parents to send their children to
school.

37. (SBU) Paragraph 28 E. Government officials dedicated to
the TIP cause, NGOS, civil society, churches, and ot

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