BRAZIL: Ambassador's Lunch with General Jorge

S E C R E T BRASILIA 001207

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2015
TAGS: PINR PREL BR US
SUBJECT: BRAZIL: Ambassador's Lunch with General Jorge
Armando Felix, Minister for Institutional Security

Classified by Ambassador John J. Danilovich for reasons 1.4
(B),(C) and(D).

1.(S) Ambassador hosted General Jorge Armando Felix,
Minister for Institutional Security, for lunch at the
residence on 4 May 2005. While General Felix has much less
influence than his predecessor from the previous
government, he is still the country's most senior
intelligence official and the rough equivalent of national
security advisor to the president. In addition to his own
staff at the Ministry for Institutional Security (GSI),
which contains representatives from the various Brazilian
Government security and foreign relations agencies, General
Felix is also responsible for overseeing the Brazilian
National Intelligence Agency (ABIN).

2.(S) The Tri-Border Region: The Ambassador asked General
Felix for an assessment of the transnational crime
situation in the tri-border region of Brazil, Argentina and
Paraguay. General Felix admitted that there were serious
problems in the region and that the illegal movement of
arms, money, drugs and the like through the region was of
concern to the Brazilian Government. Felix said that both
ABIN and the Brazilian Federal Police (DPF) were devoting
additional personnel and resources to the problem and noted
that ABIN even had some joint programs with RMAS that were
focused on these issues.

3.(S) Counterterrorism: This led to a discussion on
terrorism issues/operations in the tri-border region and
throughout Brazil. General Felix said that ABIN worked
closely with RMAS in jointly targeting individuals of
interest, and the Ambassador expressed his appreciation for
this assistance. General Felix said that in addition to
the joint operations that we were working together, the
Brazilian government was also appealing to moderate, second
generation Arabs, many of whom were successful businessmen
in Brazil, to keep a close eye on fellow Arabs who may be
influenced by Arab extremists and/or terrorist groups.
General Felix said that it was in the interest of these
moderate, Arabs to keep potential firebrands in line and
keep the microscope off of the Arab community in Brazil.
General Felix said that the recently murdered former prime
minister of Lebanon sent that same message to the Arab
community in Brazil during a visit a few years back.
General Felix said that it was important that
counterterrorism operations were packaged properly so as
not to negatively reflect on the proud and successful Arab
community in Brazil.

4.(S) Venezuela: Following the CT discussion, the
Ambassador raised Venezuela and its president Hugo Chavez
and noted that Chavez was disrupting Brazil's efforts to
play a leading role politically and economically in South
America. General Felix nodded his head and appeared to be
very carefully measuring his response. He then said that
he had his own personal opinions about Chavez (which he did
not share) that were different from the Brazilian
Government?s position. That being said, General Felix said
that he preferred keeping in line with the official
position (though he did not elaborate on it either). Felix
noted that whether one was pro- or anti-Chavez, he had
become very much a part of the "Latin American" reality.

5.(S) Additional Assistance: The Ambassador asked General
Felix if there were any areas where the USG could better
assist the GSI and/or ABIN. Felix said that he was very
happy with the assistance currently being provided by the
USG. One area where he claimed that the Brazilian
Government was falling behind was in protecting its own
classified and unclassified computer systems. Felix said
that he would welcome any assistance (courses, visitors,
etc.) in this area. Felix also said that he was trying to
beef up the GSI and ABIN's SIGINT capabilities and could
always use some assistance along those lines.

6.(S) Embassy Comment: General Felix is an amiable, low-
key individual. He does not appear overly ambitious and
admitted that he preferred traveling for the sake of
pleasure as opposed to business. He is not someone who
will make waves, and this likely contributed to his walking
carefully through the Venezuela discussion. The above
being said, General Felix has always been a straightforward
interlocutor, and his term at GSI has been highlighted by
very cooperative, joint CT operations between RMAS and
ABIN. All in all, his continued presence at GSI bodes well
for U.S. interests.

DANILOVICH