BRAZIL WILL SEEK RATIFICATION OF LAST THREE

UNCLAS BRASILIA 000064 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER ASEC PREL BR SUBJECT: BRAZIL WILL SEEK RATIFICATION OF LAST THREE COUNTERRORISM CONVENTIONS REF: 04 STATE 269653 ¶1. (SBU) Poloff delivered talking points to Ministry of External Relations, Transnational Crimes Office Chief Marcus Pinta Gama. According to Pinta Gama, the GOB hopes to ratify the last three outstanding international counterterrorism accords this year. Of the three, the most urgent ratification, he explained, was the Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. Although a 2004 Congressional hearing on the Convention was postponed, following his own discussions with key Deputados, Pinta Gama believed Congressional passage was feasible during the "first semester" of 2005. ¶2. (SBU) Regarding the Safety of Maritime Navigation Convention and the Protocol on Fixed Platforms, Pinta Gama noted that the GOB did not intend to push these two through Congress as strongly as the Terrorism Financing Convention. However, he felt that both could be ratified by the second half of 2005. ¶3. (SBU) In Pinta Gama's view, the most critical legislative step Brazil needed to take on the topic of terrorism was revision of Brazil's military regime era National Security Law. While the 1978 law provided the tools to punish terrorists and terrorist financiers, Pinta Gama was uncertain Brazilian judges would allow the law, if put to the test, to be applied since it preceded Brazil's 1988 Constitution. A Working Group, he added, had been proposed to develop a national policy and structure for more effective counterterrorism, including review of existing legislation. The new legislation, as Pinta Gama perceived it, thus could be crafted to be in conformity with the Inter-American Convention against Terrorism. Danilovich