POST SUGGESTS POSTPONING PROPOSED VISIT ON PSI

C O N F I D E N T I A L GUATEMALA 001635 SIPDIS STATE PASS TO NP/RA, T, L, AND WHA E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2014 TAGS: KNNP MNUC PARM PREL GT SUBJECT: POST SUGGESTS POSTPONING PROPOSED VISIT ON PSI SHIP BOARDING AGREEMENT REF: A. A. GUATEMALA 985 ¶B. B. SECSTATE 141034 Classified By: POLOFF Nicole Otallah for reasons 1.4, a,b,d ¶1. (C) While Post fully supports the establishment of a Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) ship boarding agreement with Guatemala, we wish to avoid overloading the MFA and Congress while other sensitive bilateral issues are on the boiler. The MFA has recently indicated that pushing a PSI ship boarding agreement at this time could risk diverting attention from Article 98, still pending Congressional approval (Ref A),and generate a misperception in the GOG of overwhelming demands from the USG. Therefore, Post suggests postponing the proposed visit by interagency PSI negotiating team (Ref B) until October or November, following hopeful passage of Article 98. ¶2. (C) In the past year, Post has successfully lobbied for GOG and Congressional approval for the Maritime Agreement, Mayan Jaguar (giving permission to the US military to participate in joint anti-drug air interdiction operations), and Article 98 (supported by the Executive, but still pending Congressional approval). Additionally, while not a USG initiative, we have strongly supported Congressional passage of a UN Commission to Investigate Clandestine Groups (CICIACS),which is hugely controversial. Following these initiatives, Post believes that it would be prudent to wait until October/ November before presenting the MFA with another major agreement, on PSI, in order to avoid overloading the MFA. HAMILTON