PARAGUAY: ATTORNEY GENERAL ON PUBLIC SECURITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASUNCION 000650

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/BSC
NSC FOR KIM BREIER
TREASURY FOR OSIA MAUREEN WAFER
TREASURY FOR OTA WARFIELD, VAN KOCH, MILLAR
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD DAN JOHNSON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL KCRM PTER PINR PA
SUBJECT: PARAGUAY: ATTORNEY GENERAL ON PUBLIC SECURITY
CHALLENGES


Classified By: Polcoun James P. Merz for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary. The Ambassador met with Attorney General
Oscar Latorre to discuss U.S. assistance to Paraguay to
address its security concerns. Latorre lamented the scope of
the problems Paraguay faces, particularly in terms of
corruption within the police. He was keen to win our backing
for his plan to create a corps of 100 police working directly
for his office in support of criminal investigations, but
lukewarm about the conduct of a workshop sponsored by the
U.S. Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS),perhaps
out of concern it would auger ill for plans to augment his
own office. End Summary.

U.S. Assistance Efforts
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2. (U) On 5/9, the Ambassador briefed Latorre on U.S. plans
to conduct an assessment 6/13-6/17 to lay the groundwork for
follow-on anti-terrorist assistance (ATA) training in
handling kidnapping cases as well as host a workshop for key
GOP leaders to develop a plan to confront Paraguay's public
security challenges. Vice-President Castiglioni supports
these initiatives and will be traveling to the U.S. to
discuss the workshop CHDS will sponsor aiming to produce a
more comprehensive, coordinated GOP security plan. U.S.
follow on support efforts would be considered based on the
conclusions derived from the workshop.

Latorre Decries GOP's Inability to Confront Challenges
-------------- --------------


3. (C) Latorre lamented at length the multiplicity of
challenges Paraguay faces in terms of vision, organization,
and capacity in confronting its security problems.

-- No one in Paraguay was capable of diagnosing the facts of
Paraguay's security problem, much less the causes. The
police dishonestly argue that crime is on the decline though
this flies directly in the face of his office's experience in
prosecuting crimes. The police deny the existence of this
problem to avoid corrective measures.

-- Infighting amongst the Executive, Legislative, and
Judicial branches of government was the norm, making it
practically impossible to produce consensus on a plan of
action.

-- Widespread, endemic corruption within police ranks
undermined prospects for implementing any coherent plan. To
illustrate, he maintained that police district chiefs are
required to raise 500 million guarani/month (over USD 80,000)
-- no questions asked -- for delivery to police headquarters
lest they be reassigned to inhospitable areas. Separately,
he remarked that a hard-drive containing the building plans
for the Public Ministry had disappeared calling into question
the reliability of the police who are directly responsible
for protecting such items.


4. (C) Latorre linked Paraguay's kidnapping problem
directly to Patria Libre, the leftist political party behind
the kidnapping and murder of Cecilia Cubas. In response to
the Ambassador's query, he qualified that only a "few"
members of the party, and not its entire structure, were
committed to kidnapping as a way to raise funds and send a
political message. Nonetheless, the links these members had
with the FARC as evidenced by email traffic and personal
meetings abroad was very worrying. Paraguay had evidence of
party members' involvement in a recent failed kidnapping
attempt and plans for future kidnappings.


5. (C) For lack of trust in the integrity and capacity of
the police to investigate crimes, prosecutors essentially
investigate their own cases rather than rely on the police.
Latorre conjectured that Paraguay could well be better off
destroying its entire police structure and starting from
scratch but lacked the resources and the political will to
take such a drastic course. Instead, he advocated the
creation of a special unit of police working within the
Attorney General's office at the behest of prosecutors to
investigate crimes. Paraguay would solicit U.S. assistance
in terms of vetting, internal controls, and better salaries.

Latorre Cool on CHDS Workshop
--------------


6. (C) Ambassador stressed the value the GOP could derive
from a CHDS workshop aiming to produce a coordinated action
plan based on a realistic assessment of the challenges
Paraguay faces as well as its access to finite resources. A
comparable exercise in Panama and Peru had proven
constructive and useful. Latorre was not enthusiastic. He
worried that the exercise would produce a plan that was
beyond Paraguay's ability to implement on a political and
financial level. He repeatedly returned to the need to
create a special unit within his office to investigate
crimes. He only desisted in his negative take on the
workshop once the Ambassador signaled support, in principle,
for the utility of creating a corps of vetted investigators.


7. (C) Comment: Latorre is pessimistic about the GOP's
ability to meet its security challenges. He considers
creation of a corps of vetted police investigators working at
the bidding of prosecutors as key to addressing serious
concerns about police corruption. His reluctance to a CHDS
workshop appeared inspired by concern it would undermine
prospects for creation of this corps.


8. (C) It is worth recalling that Latorre's term expires in
August. Agreement to replacing him figured large in a recent
pact between the ruling Colorado Party and several other
political parties to gain a majority in the Senate. We do
not rule out that Paraguayan political machinations could
rejuvenate Latorre's prospects for another five year term.
Regardless of who the Attorney General is, however,
overcoming the institutional distrust of the Attorney
General's Office for the police and other law enforcement and
investigative entities will prove essential for the effective
implementation of any security plan . End Comment.
KEANE