EMBASSY CALLS ON RULING PARTY TO URGE PORTILLO TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 000955

SIPDIS

HARARE FOR BRUCE WHARTON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/10/2013
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SNAR CU GT UNCHR
SUBJECT: EMBASSY CALLS ON RULING PARTY TO URGE PORTILLO TO
SUPPORT CUBA CHR RESOLUTION


Classified By: PolCouns David Lindwall for reason 1.5 (b) and (d).


1. (U) On April 9, the Guatemalan Congress passed an
unscheduled resolution calling on President Portillo to
abstain in the upcoming UNCHR resolution on Cuba. Only one
independent congressman, Emilio Saca, voted against the
measure, saying that the Government of Cuba should be
censured for its deplorable human rights situation.


2. (SBU) On instruction from the Ambassador, PolCouns met on
April 10 with the Congressional leadership of the ruling
party (the FRG - Frente Republicano Guatemalteco) to express
our disappointment with the Congressional resolution and to
urge them to take a principled position in support of the
jailed human rights activists, journalists, labor leaders and
other dissidents in Cuba. Present for the FRG were First
Vice President of Congress Carlos Hernandez, Third Vice
President Jorge Arevalo and Majority Leader Aristides Crespo.
PolCouns relayed the details of the recent arrest and
summary trial of the dissidents, noted by name many of the
dissidents who are personally known to Ambassador Hamilton,
and argued that these individuals deserved the support of all
freedom-loving Latin Americans. They had been arrested and
summarily tried in kangaroo courts for exercising the most
basic human rights that all Guatemalans enjoy and that are
strongly defended in Guatemala by the FRG. It was
unconscionable that only Guatemalan labor leaders had spoken
out in the defense of the dissidents, and an abstention on
the UNCHR resolution on Cuba would only convince the GOC that
it had friends that were prepared to support it irrespective
of its deplorable behavior. PolCouns asked them how the FRG
viewed the arrest of the dissidents.


3. (SBU) Aristides Crespo responded that the arrest appeared
to be an injustice, but said that counter-narcotics
decertification of Guatemala by the USG was also viewed as an
injustice by them. He said that many believed that it had
been done expressly to hurt the FRG in the upcoming
elections, and that the FRG believed that decertification was
unmerited. He argued that if the USG wanted greater
cooperation on drugs from a poor country like Guatemala, it
needed to provide greater financial support to the effort.
PolCouns noted that since decertification the GOG had
accomplished several significant successes in the war on
drugs, in cooperation with us, but without new resources. We
are pleased with the increase in counter-narcotics
cooperation and are prepared to continue providing all the
support possible. However, the issue of supporting the Cuban
dissidents should be an issue of principle, not of bilateral
differences with us. The FRG is known as a party of strong
principles, and we know that they support the principles of
free speech and free association for which the Cuban
dissidents were arrested and sentenced to long terms. Surely
the FRG would find these principles much closer to their own
than the principles employed by the Cuban Government in
arresting these people.


4. (SBU) PolCouns asked if they had seen the draft Cuba
resolution tabled in Geneva by Costa Rica, Uruguay and Peru.
When they acknowledged they had not, PolCouns gave them a
copy and noted that it simply called for Cuba to allow the
visit of the UNCHR's Special Representative. The UNCHR has
sent Special Representatives to Guatemala many times, and the
GOG has always welcomed them. It is difficult for us to
understand why an FRG government would not vote in favor of
this resolution, as Guatemala certainly believes that all
governments should meet the same human rights standards that
have been applied here.


5. (SBU) Crespo noted that, despite the Congressional
resolution, the decision on the Cuba vote is entirely the
Executive's. When pressed, he acknowledged that they did
have some influence on the vote, and said they would relay
our request to the senior party leadership (i.e. President of
Congress Rios Montt).


6. (C) Comment: The Congressional vote of April 9 may well
have been a face-saving move by the FRG to give Portillo
cover with the Cubans to abstain on the vote, vice the "no"
vote the Cubans had hoped for. The linkage between not
supporting us on Cuba and the recent decertification of
Guatemala for counter-narcotics cooperation, naked as it is,
has been made to us repeatedly by MFA interlocutors. The
Ambassador's continuing efforts to portray support for the
Cuban dissidents as an issue of principle is a hard one for
the Guatemalans to argue against, and is beginning to crack
Guatemalan determination to "pass us the bill" for
decertifying Guatemala. We will continue to press this issue
publicly and privately on all fronts in the lead-up to the
vote.
HAMILTON