Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05BOGOTA1070
2005-02-01 22:46:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Bogota
Cable title:  

SCENESETTER FOR CARTAGENA DONORS CONFERENCE,

Tags:  PREL EAID PHUM CO 
pdf how-to read a cable
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 001070 

SIPDIS

USAID FOR ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS/AMB JORDAN
WHA FOR DAS SHAPIRO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2015
TAGS: PREL EAID PHUM CO
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR CARTAGENA DONORS CONFERENCE,
FEBRUARY 2-4


Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood, Reason 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 001070

SIPDIS

USAID FOR ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS/AMB JORDAN
WHA FOR DAS SHAPIRO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2015
TAGS: PREL EAID PHUM CO
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR CARTAGENA DONORS CONFERENCE,
FEBRUARY 2-4


Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood, Reason 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Embassy Bogota welcomes the U.S. Delegation, led by
USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, to Cartagena for the Feb.
2-4 follow-up conference to the London Declaration of July
2003 on international support for Colombia. This is a
GOC-hosted meeting for the 24 London Declaration signatories
plus several additional countries, and provides an
opportunity for the USG to reinforce its message of strong
support for Colombia and the Uribe Administration.

The U.S. delegation's goals should be:

-- Show support for the Uribe Administration by highlighting
improvements in security and human rights;
-- Adopt the G-24 declaration; and
-- Press the Europeans and others to commit to support the
GOC both politically and monetarily, especially with the
paramilitary peace process.


2. (U) Some 35 countries and multinational entities (e.g. EU,
IADB) will send high-level delegations to the February 2-4
Cartagena Donors' Conference, hosted by President Uribe. The
FMs of Argentina and Chile have confirmed attendance, and
other donors will be represented at the Cooperation Minister
or Vice Foreign Minister level. The first day of the
conference will be devoted to human rights issues as viewed
by national and international NGOs. Day two will include GOC
presentations on its activities and record, with
interventions by participating foreign delegations. Day
three will offer delegates the option of a daytrip visit to
one of two international projects in Colombia -- the
anti-narcotics forest rangers ("Guardabosques") program and
an EU-funded "Peace Laboratory." Both visits are targeted at
securing additional European financial support.

-------------- --
HIGHLIGHTING DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL SUCCESSES
-------------- --


3. (C) The GOC will greet arriving delegations with a recent
string of diplomatic and political achievements, including a
likely resolution of the crisis with Venezuela, forward
movement on the peace process with the ELN via Mexican
facilitation, productive negotiations between the GOC and
Senator Pardo's group on a draft law of truth, justice and

reparations to deal with those guilty of serious crimes (a
major stumbling block to increased EU support for
paramilitary demobilization),and a tough but successful
negotiation with the G-24 on a follow-up declaration to the
London conference in which the GOC secured all its goals.
Other issues and events likely to affect conference
discussions include: human rights improvements (and those who
disagree),counternarcotics efforts; and progress on
alternative development and humanitarian assistance.

--------------
CLASH WITH VENEZUELA
--------------


4. (C) After three weeks of tension between Colombia and
Venezuela over the capture of leading FARC "diplomat" Rodrigo
Granda in Venezuela, the GOC issued a communiqu announcing a
meeting between President Uribe and Chavez in Caracas and
saying that, based on that agreement, "the incident is over."
(Two days later, Chavez said a final resolution would depend
on the outcome of the February 3 meeting in Caracas). Uribe
is universally perceived as having won the diplomatic
standoff. The Chavez statement that Uribe gave "sort of an
apology" only reinforces that perception. The episode served
to demonstrate Venezuela's willingness to give safe haven to
narco-terrorists, and Colombia's determination to protect
itself.


5. (C) The bilaterally agreed communique contains no apology.
The only slightly ambiguous sentence in it, reportedly
drafted by Uribe personally, says that Colombia "will review
the events with which everyone is familiar with the goal of
ensuring that events which irritated the Venezuelan
Government do not occur again." President Uribe and Foreign
Minister Barco will leave Cartagena prior to the
intergovernmental segment of the conference on February 3 to
meet with Chavez in Caracas. One way to capitalize on this
GOC success at Cartagena is to encourage all delegations to
make statements for regional solidarity with international
commitments against terrorism.

--------------
BREAKTHROUGH WITH THE ELN
--------------


6. (C) On January 28, on the margins of a meeting at the
Ambassador's residence on demobilization issues with senior
GOC officials, Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told
the Ambassador that the GOC and ELN had agreed to conditions
allowing members of the COCE to travel to Mexico for face to
face meetings with GOM facilitator Andres Valencia.
According to Restrepo, the ELN has agreed to conduct no
"offensive operations" during the time its negotiators are in
Mexico (up to three weeks). The GOC will reciprocate by
taking no offensive actions against the ELN during this time.
Both sides retain the right to self-defense. The agenda in
Mexico would be limited to arriving at a formula for direct
GOC-ELN negotiations and an extension and formalization of
the unofficial cease-fire. Restrepo said that the GOC would
announce the breakthrough at the conference in Cartagena.
Movement in negotiations with the ELN could eventually take
combatants off the battlefield, isolate the FARC and, as a
process with a terrorist group of the left, validate the GOC
peace process with the so-called paramilitary self-defense
forces on the right. Details reported septel.

--------------
DEMOBILIZATION AND THE PEACE PROCESS
--------------


7. (SBU) In 2004 the GOC demobilized approximately 4,500
former paramilitaries in collective demobilizations and has
pledged to dismantle all paramilitary groups by the end of
President Uribe's term in August 2006. Demobilizing fighters
surrendered approximately 2,000 weapons and other supplies.
Lack of funding will contrain the peace process in 2005. Both
European Union nations and the NGO community have said the
Colombian Government must implement strict legal guarantees
against impunity before they offer their support.


8. (SBU) After months of deadlock and delay, the GOC has
drafted a new version of a legal framework to govern
demobilization and has begun negotiating seriously with a
coalition of Senators from different parties, led by Rafael
Pardo, which drafted its own legal framework that has won the
support of national and international NGOs, including Human
Rights Watch. Pardo told the Ambassador on January 28 that
negotiations are going well and should reach closure soon.
The GOC plans to report on the status of these negotiations
at Cartagena.

--------------
THE CARTAGENA DECLARATION
--------------


9. (C) The GOC and the G-24 Troika (Canada, Brazil and Spain)
have been negotiating the text of a declaration for over a
month. The GOC negotiating team (with quiet U.S. backing)
has been tougher than the G-24 expected, insisting that the
new document reflect progress since the London Declaration of
2003, describe the internal conflict as a war against
terrorism, and characterize the humanitarian situation more
accurately. The final text will be approved by delegations
on February 3.

--------------
HUMAN RIGHTS IMPROVEMENTS
--------------


10. (C) The Uribe Administration continues to make progress
on human rights and will release a report on its efforts at
Cartagena. Homicides fell by 16 percent, kidnappings by 42
percent, and forced displacements by 37 percent in 2004,
building on 2003's trends. The GOC increased its dialogue
with NGOs, the UN, and foreign governments, hosting meetings
with local and international human rights organizations that
included over 40 hours of discussions on the UNHCHR's 27
human rights recommendations. Human rights training is
mandatory for all members of the military and police. Less
than 2 percent of human rights violations are attributable to
government security forces, according to GOC statistics. But
recent violations by members of the armed forces, such as the
murders in August 2004 of three trade unionists in the highly
conflictive Arauca Department, demonstrate the need for
further improvement. Some prominent NGOs discount the
statistical improvements and emphasize incidents such as the
Arauca killings to claim the human rights situation has
actually worsened. The Colombia office of UNHCHR has hinted
that its next human rights report on Colombia will assert
that human rights violations by the security forces have
increased. Despite the ongoing dialogue, relations between
the Government and many prominent local NGOs are strained.
They can be expected to sharply criticize the GOC during
their forum on the first day of the conference. The GOC, UN
and G-24 delegations will attend the NGO forum as observers.

--------------
COUNTERNARCOTICS EFFORTS
--------------

11. (U) Despite impressive progress against narco-trafficking
in 2004 the year, Colombia remains a major producing country.
More than 325 tons of drugs were captured through the
efforts of Colombia's police and military forces. The
U.S.-supported Anti-Narcotics Police Directorate (DIRAN)
sprayed a record 136,555 hectares of coca and 3060 hectares
of opium poppy during the year. Manual eradication accounted
for the destruction of an additional 2,306 hectares of coca
and 795 hectares of opium poppy. The FARC and AUC use drugs
as a major fund source.

-------------- --------------
ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
-------------- --------------


12. (SBU) Alternative development, humanitarian aid, and
democracy programs are going well. We have leveraged
substantial private sector assistance to establish 270 square
miles of legal agriculture benefiting 40,000 families. U.S.
aid has helped nearly 2 million internally displaced persons.
Colombia has the largest displaced population outside
Africa.

--------------
CONFERENCE GOALS AND THEMES
--------------


13. (C) Continued U.S. support at the highest levels will be
critical to defeating narco-terrorism in Colombia. The U.S.
delegation should note the GOC's record on combating drug
trafficking; promoting human rights, sound economic policies,
justice reform, and transparency in government; and
aggressive action to demobilize paramilitary forces and
pursue an effective peace process. Second, we should
highlight significant human rights improvements under Uribe,
and notable progress on goals established in the 2003 London
Declaration. Finally, the U.S. delegation should press
European representatives to more actively support the GOC in
the peace process, human rights and rule of law, humanitarian
assistance, productive and alternative development, and
forestry development.


14. (U) The conference is an important opportunity for the
donor community, especially European donors, to recognize GOC
progress and pledge future support. The Uribe Administration
has focused on six thematic areas: (1) the demobilization of
illegal combatants and the establish of a legal framework to
address their situation; (2) human rights protections and
transition to an accusatorial justice system; (3)
humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced and
vulnerable populations; (4) productive alternative
development to establish sustainable crops and replace
illicit economic activities; (5) forestry projects to combat
narcotics cultivation; and (6) regional development programs
to tackle rural poverty and establish a government presence.
WOOD