PERU-COLOMBIA RELATIONS -- WHY WE EXPECT AN ERA OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 002392 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PE CO SUBJECT: PERU-COLOMBIA RELATIONS -- WHY WE EXPECT AN ERA OF CLOSE COOPERATION AHEAD Classified By: Ambassador Curtis Struble for Reason 1.4 (B, D) ¶1. (SBU) A significant consequence of Alan Garcia's victory in the 6/4 presidential election here is the potential for strategic cooperation between Peru and Colombia on issues such as counternarcotics, anti-terrorism, and regional economic development, and the opportunity this provides to the USG to coordinate relevant initiatives with both countries. Given the history of Garcia's APRA Party, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will be holding some important high cards in the relationship with the incoming Peruvian administration. ¶2. (U) Colombia has over the years done several much-appreciated and well-remembered good turns for APRA. Beginning in January 1949, APRA's founder Victor Raul Haya de la Torre spent five years of political asylum inside the Colombian Embassy in Lima, during which time the Colombians went to bat for Haya by defending his rights in a protracted legal proceeding before the International Court of Justice. After a contradictory ruling by the Court on Haya's eligibility for asylum, the GOC negotiated an agreement with Peru which allowed Haya to be symbolically turned over to the Peruvian Minister of Justice, but then be banished from the country and put on a plane to Mexico within an hour. ¶3. (SBU) When Alan Garcia left office unpopular and discredited at the end of his first term in 1990, the Colombian Government made an important gesture by giving him one of Colombia's highest awards in a highly public ceremony in Bogota. Like Haya de la Torre before him, Garcia also enjoyed Colombian hospitality for a time after former President Fujimori attempted to arrest him as a consequence of the auto-coup of 1992. After escaping over roof-tops, Garcia eventually made his way to safety in Colombia, and finally from there to France. In sum, Colombia has been a constant friend to APRA when it was down, and Ambassador Struble has heard APRA party stalwarts comment that they think it fitting and proper for President Uribe to collect on the debt that Colombia is owed. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: Peru has been Colombia's most reliable friend in South America during the Toledo Administration. We expect this to continue to be the case. It is also likely to be the case that this cooperation will be managed in intel-to-intel, mil-to-mil and President-to-President channels, rather than between the Foreign Ministries. Our view is that the Colombians have staffed their Embassy in Lima with individuals who received an overseas posting as a reward for political support for Uribe -- the Colombian Mission here is more oriented towards the social dimensions of diplomacy rather than advocacy or building government-to-government ties. STRUBLE =======================CABLE ENDS============================