UNSC VOTE: JAMAICA "UNDECIDED"?

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINGSTON 001624 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/CAR (BUDDEN) E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/17/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL JM VE SUBJECT: UNSC VOTE: JAMAICA "UNDECIDED"? REF: A. KINGSTON 1605 ¶B. KINGSTON 1370 ¶C. STATE 125664 ¶D. KINGSTON 1592 Classified By: Charge d'Affairs James T. Heg for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d ). ¶1. (C) On August 18, Poloff met with XXXXXXXXXXXX, Deputy Director of the International Organizations Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT),who reported that Jamaica was "undecided" regarding the UNSC seat vote and that Jamaica would make its decision based on "national interests." This information tracks with that which Ambassador Johnson received from Chilean Ambassador to Jamaica Alfonso Silva (ref A). ¶2. (U) XXXXXXXXXXXX also stated that the decision would be a high-level political decision and that she was not in a position to speculate on what position Jamaica might take. ¶3. (SBU) XXXXXXXXXXXX would not comment on whether Minister of Foreign Affairs Anthony Hylton is currently in Venezuela as that would be an issue for the Office of Bilateral Affairs. On August 17, however, Econoff spoke to Alison Stone, Deputy Director of the Foreign Trade Department at MFAFT, who confirmed that Hylton would be in Caracas today in order to conclude negotiations on a number of financing deals (ref B). ¶4. (U) Interestingly, in a Joint Communique signed by Portia Simpson Miller and Hugo Chavez after Chavez' August 14th visit to Jamaica, Chavez "thanked Jamaica for its support of the Venezuelan candidature for the United Nations Security Council." ¶3. (C) COMMENT: We are still groping to understand the reasons for GOJ's mixed messages on this issue. It is possible, as Post commented in ref A, that the GOJ wants to take some of the sting out of our perceptions of recent agreements with GOV that total in the hundreds of millions of dollars. There is also a chance that the GOJ is pushing subtly for a new, viable third option. JOHNSON