MANAGUA – The United States cut a portion of the aid it sends to Nicaragua through the Millennium Challenge Account due to irregularities in recent municipal elections, Washington’s ambassador to Managua said Thursday.

Robert Callahan told a press conference at the embassy that the United States was cutting $62 million out of a total of $175 million in MCA aid.

He said the decision to partially cancel the assistance was made Thursday in Washington by the board of directors of the Millennium Challenge Corp, chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The ambassador said the range of irregularities that occurred before, during and after the Nov. 9 balloting “has been well documented by a varied group of respected national and international organizations.”

The Nicaraguan government did not admit any independent observers in those elections and there were “serious irregularities” with respect to citizen identity cards, Callahan said.

The ambassador said that many polling places closed early on the day of the elections and there were documented cases of “arbitrary invalidation of ballots.”

He also noted that after election day the Supreme Electoral Council, or CSE, did not publish the tally sheets from individual precincts, as required by law, while violence targeting the opposition prevented Nicaraguans from meeting and peacefully protesting the election results.


Callahan said it was “unfortunate” that the Nicaraguan government did not respond to citizens’ complaints concerning the electoral irregularities.

He noted that although a portion of the MCC program has been canceled, funds from Washington will still be used for the construction of three highways in the northwestern regions of Leon and Chinandega.

The official election results released by the CSE last November gave President Daniel Ortega’s Sandinistas wins in 105 of the 146 municipalities in contention.

An alliance headed by the main opposition Liberal Party won 37 mayoral races.

The Liberals rejected the official results, complaining of “massive fraud” in the tabulation and of irregularities, violations and anomalies before, during and after the balloting.

Dozens of Nicaraguan civic organizations lost no time Thursday in blaming Ortega for the cancelation of a portion of the MCC aid.

Spokespeople for the UCD coalition, made up of 16 groups, said at a press conference that the loss of the $62 million in U.S. aid “is a direct consequence of the shameful fraud” in the municipal elections.

Present at the press conference were representatives of the MRS party, which comprises dissident Sandinistas, and the Liberal-based coalition led by former presidential candidate Eduardo Montealegre.

Nicaragua is the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. EFE