AMBASSODOR,S MEETING WITH FOREIGN MINISTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 000369

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/10/2013
TAGS: PREL CJAN EAGR KTIA PGOV PHUM SNAR CFED GT
SUBJECT: AMBASSODOR,S MEETING WITH FOREIGN MINISTER
GUTIERREZ


Classified By: AMB JOHN R. HAMILTON FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) Summary: Over lunch at the residence February 10, the
Ambassador gave FM Gutierrez a heads up that we are actively
working on specific benchmarks for re-certification; pressed
him on Article 98, extradition, Belize-Guatemala, election
observation, the proposal to investigate clandestine groups,
and delays in the Mediterranean fruit fly program (Moscamed).
Gutierrez was generally forthcoming in most areas; whether
he can bring his government along remains to be seen. End
summary.

Belize-Guatemala:
--------------


2. (C) DCM accompanied the Ambassador; Gutierrez came alone.
He had just returned from Washington, where he had signed a
protocol for continuing a regime of confidence building
measures with his Belizean counterpart, Assad Shoman, with
OAS Secretary General Gaviria and Deputy SecGen Einaudi
looking on. Einaudi had been critical in getting the
Belizeans to closure, Gutierrez said. He felt that he would
be able to develop a good relationship with Shoman, whom he
intended to visit in Belize after the March elections there.
He is also taking a proposal to Panama (for the Central
American summit with Colombia) to include Belize in certain
Central American integration activities. He was not (at all)
encouraging about post-November, Guatemalan election interest
in the facilitators, recommendations, voicing again what we
have heard here, that it would have been easier for Guatemala
to accept the results of international arbitration than the
facilitators, recommendations. He in effect shrugged when
the Ambassador pointed out that the &recommendations8 had
in fact been negotiated with the MFA (under his predecessor,
Gabriel Orellana) and that the Guatemalans discovered the
defects in process pretty late in the game. He suggested
that Orellana had failed to keep the government informed, had
not consulted the &Council of Belize8 (of notables, set up
under the Arzu government to advise on matters Belizean) and
that Vice President Reyes Lopez had been horrified when he
saw what Orellana had agreed to.

OAS Resolution on Colombia Bombing:
-------------- --------------

3. (C) Gutierrez said President Uribe had phoned President
Portillo over the weekend, seeking Guatemalan support for a
strong OAS resolution. Briefed by Portillo, who had
immediately sat down to draft a statement of support that the
Central American presidents might make when they meet
February 11 with Uribe in Panama, Gutierrez said he had
cautioned Portillo that Guatemala needed to consider any
resolution carefully, think it all the way through. He
clarified, when the Ambassador asked what there is to think
about when a bomb kills 32 civilians, that Guatemala will
support a forceful condemnation of terrorism, but that he
thinks Uribe may be after much more than that and his
instincts will be to be cautious.

Narcotics:
--------------

4. (C) Gutierrez was apologetic that President Portillo had
surfaced, in the press this morning and in a tendentious
manner, a proposal that he had intended to broach at the
lunch, namely that the U.S. engage Guatemala in a much more
robust program of port security. Portillo had said that the
GOG would be proposing, through the Ambassador, that the U.S.
take over and run the ports, "with Guatemalan authorities"
(the only caveat),and "we,ll see then if drug control is
any better." The Ambassador said we will be continuing our
technical assistance on port security but that running
foreign ports is not in our portfolio. If the GOG wants to
think in ambitious terms, however, it might consider putting
out for bid a long-term concession to run the ports, both in
the interest of overall efficiency and good management and in
the interest of narcotics control. Gutierrez returned to the
subject at the end of the lunch, saying he would raise it
with Portillo.


5. (C) The Ambassador advised that the Washington
inter-agency community is engaged in developing benchmarks
for re-certification and that he hoped to have them in hand
before the Embassy,s next ministerial level meeting with his
government, February 21.


6. (C) Guatemala has contracted the Greenberg-Taurig law
firm, of Washington, which has hired former WHA Assistant
Secretary Peter Romero, to assist it on re-certification.

SIPDIS
(The Ambassador met with Greenberg Taurig attorney Ruth
Espey-Romero and Romero on February 7, outlining what we see
as the problem areas; Romero out-briefed the Ambassador
February 10 on his meetings with the government, saying that
he had emphasized only a strong anti-drug performance would
sell in Washington.

Extradition:
--------------

7. (C) Gutierrez claimed that the presidential authorization
in the Castillo extradition is only one or two signatures
away from being complete. He reluctantly agreed to provide
us a copy of it when we questioned if the authorization would
come free and clear of conditions with which we could not
comply. (We suspect it does and will advise when we get it.)
He warned that the authorization goes as far as Guatemala
can go.
Elections:
--------------

8. (C) Gutierrez says that the Government will be issuing
invitations to the international community in general (he
mentioned EU, UN and OAS in particular) to observe
Guatemala,s November elections. He needs to coordinate
further with Guatemala,s elections tribunal before issuing
the invitations, but does not anticipate problems. He hopes
that elections missions could be on the ground, at least with
a minimum presence, by mid-year.

Clandestine Group Commission:
--------------

9. (C) Gutierrez gave the Ambassador a heads up that the
government of Guatemala would be asking for declassification
of USG classified holdings on this subject. The Ambassador
reviewed our support for the proposal but warned against a
strategy of transferring responsibility for the Commission,s
success to the U.S. Gutierrez protested that that was not
the idea; he recalled that the vast majority of information
received by the Historical Clarification Commission (Truth
Commission) had come from Guatemalans (victims and individual
military officers),but that the little that the U.S. had
provided had been valuable in cross-checking and verifying
Guatemalan sources. The Ambassador said we will see how we
can be helpful but left a marker that declassification was
not necessarily in the cards.


10. (C) Gutierrez said that Peace Secretary Catalina
Soberanis would be the GOG point person on the Clandestine
Commission proposal. She is currently ill, however, which
leaves him to work this week with Human Rights Watch
executive Jose Miguel Vivanco. The government has invited
Vivanco to act as &facilitator8 in reaching agreement on
the Commission,s mandate and structure. Noting that the
Guatemalan human rights community had complained that the
Government has not yet responded to the human rights
ombudsman directly, Gutierrez said the problem was that the
ombudsman launched the proposal publicly but never sent the
proposal to the government. A reply to the proposal was
already drafted for whenever this oversight was corrected.
Gutierrez also mentioned the government,s interest in not
limiting the commission,s mandate to the period since 1996
(note: putting some practical limits on the commission,s
mandate was a U.S. suggestion).

Article 98:
--------------

11. (C) We briefed Gutierrez extensively on the issue. He is
aware of it, had assumed that Guatemalan not being a
signatory to the Rome Treaty would deal with our concern and
was disappointed to learn it will not. He also had not
understood that the ICC can exercise jurisdiction over
citizens whose state is not a treaty signatory. Upshot was
that he promised to give the issue more attention.

Moscamed program:
--------------

12. (C) We briefed Gutierrez on problems we are having with
the Ministries of Agriculture and Environment in moving ahead
with this year,s spraying program (whose season is
determined by the biological cycle of the Med fruit fly). We
also alerted him that USDA/APHIS might raise the issue with
Ambassador Arenales in Washington. He offered to speak to
both ministers.

Comment:
--------------

13. (C) This meeting covered a lot of ground. Gutierrez is
an easy and responsive interlocutor who conveys a
well-meaning persona. Not an FRG member, we'll see how much
influence he has within this FRG government.




Hamilton