MEETING WITH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CARLOS GAVIRIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 000696

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2016
TAGS: PGOV KJUS PTER CO
SUBJECT: MEETING WITH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CARLOS GAVIRIA

REF: 05 BOGOTA 2217

Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood, Reasons: 1.4 B & D.


1. (C) Summary: In a meeting with poloffs on January 18,
Senator and Presidential aspirant Carlos Gaviria discussed
the Justice and Peace law, the ELN peace process, and
upcoming elections. A former president of the Constitutional
Court, Gaviria predicted that the Court would declare the
Justice and Peace law unconstitutional. Gaviria stated he
was able to campaign freely around the country and did not
feel directly threatened by illegal armed groups. Gaviria
expected Senator Antonio Navarro to defeat him in the
Alternative Democratic Pole (PDA) presidential primary on
March 12. While conceding the Presidential contest was a
lost cause for the PDA, Gaviria said the party had the
potential to be the second largest force in the upcoming
Congress. End Summary.


2. (C) Poloffs met on January 18 with Senator Carlos Gaviria
Diaz, who is running for the leftist PDA's presidential
nomination, and is a major figure in the Colombian legal
community. Regarding the Justice and Peace law, Gaviria
continued to state, as he has done for over a year, that the
law touches on fundamental rights of citizens and therefore
should have been debated/voted as a statutory law. (Note:
The GOC opted to treat the law as ordinary, vice statutory,
which implied easier required voting margins, namely majority
of quorum vice majority of members. End note.) For this
reason, he predicted the Constitutional Court (where he sat
for eight years in the 1990s) would strike down the law in
its entirety. Regarding the GOC decree implementing Justice
and Peace, Gaviria predicted that the Council of State
(Consejo de Estado) would strike down the use of
prosecutorial discretion (principio de oportunidad),arguing
that such discretion cannot be codified into law via decree.


3. (C) On the ELN peace process, Gaviria held out some hope
for success. He viewed the ELN as generally more moderate
than the FARC, and desperately concerned about its declining
"military" position vis-a-vis both GOC public security forces
and the FARC. He noted that during the last 15 years he had
had regular contact with several ELN leaders, whom he viewed
as more reasonable and disposed to dialogue than the FARC.
Gaviria was present in Havana in mid-December and spoke with
ELN military commander Antonio Garcia at length. Gaviria
said Garcia seemed to lack a concrete agenda for the peace
process with the GOC. He also noted a division within the
ELN leadership


4. (C) Turning to the electoral season, Gaviria stated he
felt relatively free to travel around the country, and had
only minimal fear for his personal safety. He conceded that
Senator Antonio Wolff would win the PDA primary on March 12,
but that the PDA had no chance of winning the Presidential
contest. He described the PDA's Congressional candidates,
however, as strong, and having a fighting chance of being the
second largest single political group in the next Congress.
WOOD