VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMD #0996 2611315
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 171315Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5335
INFO RUEHMU/AMEMBASSY MANAGUA PRIORITY 0269
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000996

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR ELAINE SAMSON AND STACIE ZERDECKI, EUR/WE
ALBERT KRAAIMOORE, WHA/CEN
USEU FOR BOB BLACKSTONE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/15/2018
TAGS: MOPS PREL NU SP
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE RESPONSE: SPAIN UNLIKELY TO GO AFTER
NICARAGUA ON RECOGNITIONS

REF: STATE 96677

Classified By: DCM Arnold Chacon, for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).

¶1. (C) Poloff conveyed concerns per reftel and asked that
Spain consider speaking out against Nicaraguan President
Ortega's September 2 decision to recognize the independence
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Spanish MFA Sub-Director
General for Mexico, Central America and The Caribbean Jorge
Romeu told poloff September 16 that although he and his
colleagues had discussed Ortega's announcement during
coordination meetings, his impression was that Spain would
not be proactive in addressing it. Overall, Romeu was
skeptical of the positive outcome of demarching the GON,
saying he knew the response would reference Kosovo. Reacting
subsequently to if raised points regarding Kosovo, he noted
Russia might say the same, that its recognition of the two
republics was a "special case" that should not be viewed as a
precedent, either. He added that the comparisons did not
affect Spain anyway, because the GOS has yet to recognize
Kosovo.

¶2. (C) Romeu deferred to the expertise of his colleagues who
cover Eastern Europe and suggested the Spanish were more
likely to act within the EU framework than bilaterally. He
described a Danish proposal to carry out a demarche
expressing the EU's "surprise" and "regret," and said he
sympathized with the reluctance on the part of EU partners to
speak out in those terms. Saying some within the EU had
suggested ending cooperation with Nicaragua altogether over
this and other of Ortega's actions, Romeu cautioned that
Spain -- at the level of the Director General for Foreign
Policy -- would only consider demarching Nicaragua in an
"appropriate context," reshaping terms and perhaps
considering an "explanatory demarche" rather than a
derogatory one. After all, Romeu said, Ortega is "a mad
man."
Aguirre