Can anyone help us?

 It's a three-paragraph letter which was sup?posed to be no big deal as, once we got hold of the letter, the newsroom was buzzing with "I know someone who knows Spanish".

As it turned out, those "someones" met their matches and noone was certain what the letter was meant to communicate. After several phone calls and exchanges of emails, we were still unable to confirm if the letter was "confirming" or "denying" that Thaksin had got Nicaraguan honorary citizenship and passport.

News reports from Nicaragua yesterday seemed to have confirmed Thaksin was granted diplomatic passport. But what did the embassy's letter actually say

Problems lie with three words in the letter, apparently. The embassy said reports about alleged granting of Nicaraguan citizenship and a Nicaraguan passport to Thaksin "adolece de sustentacion".

A Spanish teacher who knows the sister of a Nation reporter insisted the embassy was saying the reports "lack basis". One of our multi-lingual sub-editors was less certain. He first said it was a denial, then called back to say he got it wrong as it should be a confirmation, only to call back again saying he had got it right the first time.

Other "someones" shrank into their shells on knowing that their translation would dictate how The Nation wrote its headline for Friday's paper.

So, this is rather lame, but can anyone help? Here's what the troublesome second paragraph reads as a whole (The first paragraph refers to the inquiry, and the third and last paragraph is just a our-best-regards diplomatic routine):

"La Embajada de la Republica de Nicaragua informa a la Honorable Embajada Real de Tailandia en Mexico, gue la noticia referida adolece de sustentacion."

And here is a government press statement coming out of Nicaragua as reported by AFP:

President Daniel Ortega had "asked the foreign ministry to accredit him (Thaksin) as an ambassador of Nicaragua on a special mission, in order to facilitate his efforts to bring investments to our country."

And this is what Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua's first lady and government spokeswoman, had to say:

"Thaksin Shinawatra was democratically elected by the majority of Thai people, and was then forced to abandon his duty by a coup in 2006"

Thank you in advance and enjoy translating!! And here's hoping that Thai-style flipflopping has not infected the Nicaraguan leaders.

Tulsat@hotmail.com