MIGRATION: ECUADORIANS STILL LOOKING NORTH

UNCLAS QUITO 001549

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SMIG PHUM PREL EC
SUBJECT: MIGRATION: ECUADORIANS STILL LOOKING NORTH


1. (U) Summary: At least since the severe economic crisis
in 1999, the two certainties in Ecuador have been death and
emigration. A steady stream of 30,000 to 40,000 undocumented
migrants takes to the sea and skies annually from Ecuador in
pursuit of their own American dreams. Periodic reports of
migrant deaths, including a boat sinking that claimed 94
lives in August 2005, do not appear to deter outward-bound
Ecuadorians or the smugglers who profit from moving them.
Immediately following the August tragedy, the number of boats
bound for Mexico and Guatemala from Ecuador dropped. But
now, less than a year after the accident, the number of
embarkations is back up, the covert fleet having only
temporarily moved south to Northern Peru. The latest
drowning deaths put increased pressure on authorities to
crack down on alien smuggling -- Congress raised penalties
for convicted smugglers, but the northward flow continues,
fueled by limited economic opportunity at home. End Summary

Another Day, Another Death
--------------


2. (U) Carmen Chuni, Carlos Arevalo and Jose Gomez shared
the dream of thousands of Ecuadorians hungering for a better
life in the United States. They paid thousands of dollars to
a smuggling ring and embarked on the dangerous journey by
boat to Central America. Unlike some of their compatriots
who meet tragedy before even touching Guatemalan soil, the
three men landed there and passed into Mexico. There Chuni
and Arevalo and other migrants died in a bus accident as they
were shuttled northward. Gomez, injured in the crash, fled
the scene and spent four days in the mountains without food
before he turned himself in to police. He did so when he
read in a newspaper that his relatives' unidentified bodies
were going to be buried in unmarked graves. Gomez later died
from injuries sustained in the crash. The Public Ombudsman's
Office in Azuay Province paid $2,500 for the bodies of the
three to be returned to Ecuador. Chuni's corpse was returned
to his 22-year-old wife and daughters, ages 3 and 9 months.


3. (U) Sad stories of migrant tragedies appear regularly
here in newspaper, radio and TV reports. Also common are
reports of U.S. and Ecuadorian authorities rescuing hundreds
of hopeful immigrants from decrepit boats discovered on the
edge of disaster. The Ecuadorian Navy and National Institute
for Child and Family (INNFA) launched an awareness campaign
in January to dissuade potential migrants from risking their
lives and being deceived by smugglers. One anti-smuggling TV
spot even features the personal testimony of one of nine
people who survived the August boat sinking. Wilma Castro
spent three days clinging to a fuel tank before rescuers
found her. Sun and chemical burns left her face and those of
fellow survivors almost unrecognizable. Their images and
news of the 94 drowning deaths incensed many here who blame
corrupt politicians for failing to create economic
opportunities at home and for failing to jail smugglers. For
weeks, the media kept up the coverage of the tragedy. The
common refrain from journalists and public was "How can this
happen?" Congress scrambled to introduce bills increasing
punishments for convicted smugglers, called "coyoteros" in
Spanish.


4. (U) As a result of the clamor, smuggling boats
temporarily moved south along the Pacific Coast. Like the
returning tide, however, the irregular departures have now
returned to Ecuador. Willing customers picked up where they
left off, seemingly unfazed by the warnings of danger. As
often is the case, migrants rescued from sinking boats climb
aboard others. Congress, meanwhile, allowed the
anti-coyotero bills to languish.

Pieces of Coyote Pie
--------------


5. (U) Migrant smuggling is big business in Ecuador, and
involves an extensive network of smugglers that includes
recruiters, coyoteros, boat owners and crewmembers, providers
of ground transportation (in Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico)
and loan sharks. According to reports from smuggled
migrants, police and military also facilitate the illegal
migration.


6. (U) Ecuador's smuggling network is extensive and not
limited to the coast. Starting with the intending
immigrant's first contact with a recruiter -- through a
business card, a newspaper ad or word-of-mouth referral, he
or she is run through a relay of smuggling accomplices. Loan
sharks move in to help the migrant get the required cash for
the trip. Persons smuggled through Bolivia by air pay
$10,000 to $15,000. Oceangoing customers pay a similar
amount; usually only a portion is required up front with the
rest payable in installments along the route. Generally
coyoteros' customers aren't the poorest of poor, but rather
members of the lower middle class who are enticed by
materialism touted by the entertainment media, Congressman
Freddy Ehlers told PolOff. Ecuadorian National Human Rights
Ombudsman Claudio Mueckay agrees and blames the coyoteros
too. He shared the account of a driver, soundly middle
class, who was tricked into traveling by smugglers who
described a Utopian United States. Gina Benavides of INREDH,
a regional human rights foundation, points to the smugglers
as well, calling the business of alien smuggling "as ugly as
drug trafficking."


7. (U) Most people mortgage their homes and property in
exchange for the money and pay at least $500 monthly interest
for the loans. Next coyoteros and their accomplices set up
the route, often starting from Azuay province in the south or
Carchi in the north, sources of the heaviest outward
migration. Along the route the migrants relay from bus to
truck, hotel to hotel, until they arrive at a secluded beach,
where they shuttled out to a waiting converted fishing
vessel. Once aboard, it takes an average of eight to 10 days
to reach a patch of deserted Guatemala coastline. Overloaded
with migrants, otherwise seaworthy vessels become accidents
waiting to happen.

GOE Enforcement Diverting Flow
--------------


8. (U) Immediately following the August drownings, President
Palacio charged Vice Adm. Hector Holguin, commander of the
Ecuadorian Navy, with developing a plan to save migrants'
lives. In early May, the GOE launched its "Anti-Coyotero
Plan," which dedicates 1,500 sailors, three planes, 16 Coast
Guard boats and two ships equipped with helicopters to
patrolling Ecuador's 1,400 miles of coastline. Merchant
marine authorities were ordered to seize unregistered fishing
boats to prevent their being employed by smugglers.


9. (U) The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that 30,000 to 40,000
migrants left Ecuador in 2005 and 95 percent reached their
intermediate destinations in Mexico or Central America.
National Immigration Director Gen. Edmund Ruiz told PolOff
that his police officers had frustrated 700 intending
immigrants in the first five months of 2006, compared with
500 in all of 2005. Ruiz, whose jurisdiction stops at the
water's edge, speculates that more people are using air
routes because of the increased maritime surveillance under
the Anti-Coyotero Plan. Police have noted a rise in the
number of intending immigrants flying to Venezuela and the
Dominican Republic, countries that do not require visas and
can be used as launch pads to the United States.


10. (U) An integrated database introduced at Ecuadorian
airports in July 2005 has enabled immigration police at the
airports to check criminal records and deportations. Police
also patrol pre-embarkation halls for suspicious-looking
travelers who may have passed by immigration checkpoints
without proper processing. However, Ruiz acknowledged
police do make mistakes. An immigration officer earns about
$250 a month, Ruiz said. When offered a bribe of $500, the
temptation is great. But with pre-boarding checks and closed
circuit cameras at immigration desks, Ruiz claimed he could
detect and punish corruption among his immigration officers.

Corruption Creeps In
--------------


11. (SBU) One prosecutor from the coastal province of Guayas
told DHS that the Ecuadorian sailors assigned to the
Anti-Coyotero Plan travel from boat to boat collecting bribes
from complicit fishermen. We don't believe such activity to
could be occuring widely given the pressure under which
Holguin operates. We are aware of corrupt port captains who
take bribes from coyoteros and look the other way when boats
set sail. Politicians also succumb to temptation; a vice
mayor in Manta routinely releases detained smugglers.


12. (U) To address corruption in the police, the USG in 2002
supported the formation of a special vetted GOE police unit
to fight alien smuggling. The unit, called the Anti-Coyotero
Operations Center (COAC),consists of 12 police officers who
undergo regular polygraph tests and work under the
supervision of DHS/ICE. NAS provides the Quito-based unit
with logistical support including travel funds, vehicles and
sophisticated equipment to conduct investigations. Since its
inception, the work of the COAC has led to the arrests of 325
accused smugglers.


13. (SBU) Unfortunately, the vetted police team doesn't have
a vetted prosecutor and vetted judge to whom it can hand over
suspected criminals and criminal evidence. The number of
convictions to date has been disappointing. The COAC had
been working exclusively with one prosecutor, whom we had
deemed reliable, but evidence has recently surfaced linking
that prosecutor with the disappearance of criminal evidence
and the failure of witnesses to appear in court to testify.
The prosecutor is being transferred after having handled
preliminary procedures on several high-profile cases
including the case against Milton Bautista Guzman, charged
with the August drowning deaths, and the case of accused
alien smuggler Vinicio Luna, coordinator of the national
soccer team. DHS has asked the attorney general's office for
a complete accounting of the judicial status of all of the
alien smuggling cases the COAC unit has investigated.

Smugglers Face Greater Penalties
--------------


14. (U) After months of inaction, Congress approved penal
code reforms in April that increased prison sentences for
coyoteros and their accomplices to up to 25 years.
Previously, members of smuggling rings could receive a
maximum of 12 years imprisonment. The potential sentence
applies to anyone "who through illegal means, promotes,
overcrowds, induces, finances, participates in collaborates
with or helps the emigration of nationals or foreigners from
Ecuador to another country." The same penalty will apply to
anyone who subjects children to the dangers of illegal
emigration -- this includes parents and other relatives. If
a smuggling attempt results in the death of a migrant, the
convicted smuggler could receive a 16- to 25-year sentence.
Migrants who accuse their traffickers are protected from
prosecution.

U.S. Migration Enforcement Limited
--------------


15. (U) U.S. Navy and Coast Guard involvement in anti-migrant
interdiction efforts is peripheral to their primary anti-drug
mission. U.S. vessels or aircraft intervene only when they
spot imperiled boats of human cargo. Since April 2005, U.S.
Navy and Coast Guard vessels intercepted and boarded boats
carrying a total of nearly 700 migrants.


16. (U) Ecuadorian officials have expressed their desire to
require every Ecuadorian registered vessel to be outfitted
with a computer tracking chip, as Colombia does. However,
the GOE lacks resources to fund the chips and the tracking
equipment. The GOE also fails to reimburse costs of
repatriating deported Ecuadorians, a sore spot with the
governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua. Instead, DHS often
pays for the return of many migrants intercepted at sea, at a
cost of $40,000 to $60,000 per trip. Alejandro Guidi, head
of the International Migration Organization (IOM) in Quito,
told PolOff that a new IOM program paid for the "voluntary
return" of 176 Ecuadorians from Mexico in the first three
months of 2006. Under this program Ecuadorians avoid a
deportation record.

Demand Growing
--------------


17. (U) That Ecuadorians would seek opportunity outside of
their own country is not surprising, given that 70 percent of
the population lives below the poverty line. The country's
minimum wage of $160 a month is a dream to many. Ruiz
said he didn't expect the demand for smugglers to subside
with erection of a wall and U.S. National Guard Troops
patrolling the U.S. border with Mexico. "coyoteros are
specialists in avoiding the law, they'll simply find another
way in." Ruminahui Migrant Association President Juan
Manzanillas agreed that no wall or police force along the
U.S. border will stanch the migrant flow. The coyoteros will
simply charge more to find ways around new obstacles. The
only way to end the unnecessary loss of life, according to
Manzanillas, is for the U.S. to establish a policy of orderly
immigration that will allow foreigners to enter the country
as guest workers. Ecuadorians would wait their turn if they
knew that they could eventually obtain a work visa, he said.


18. (U) But will they really wait when family reunification
acts as an electromagnet pulling more and more Ecuadorians
toward the United States? Manzanillas and Ruiz both noted
that more younger travelers are attempting to migrate
illegally. Youth whose parents emigrated while they were
small are now heading north. The Migration Office reports
that from January through April of 2006, 874 Ecuadorians have
been deported--211 from Guatemala, 197 from the United
States, and 164 from Mexico. Sixty of the deportees were
minors.

Comment
--------------


19. (SBU) Despite public attention on Mexico, the
Ecuador-Central America maritime route sees some of the
heaviest migrant traffic in the world. The Government of
Ecuador's efforts to control this traffic are still
preliminary. Increased maritime surveillance appears to have
caught the attention of smugglers, who are switching to other
human cargo routes. Public awareness campaigns have started,
but the flow of migrants continues. First Lady of Ecuador
Maria Beatriz Paret de Palacio crafted and led the GOE's
anti-alien smuggling campaign that hit the airwaves in
January 2006. Ironically, the first lady, an Amcit, plans
herself retire to Miami when her husband leaves office in
January 2007.


20. (SBU) While USG efforts to interdict and assist
migrants on the high seas has saved lives and discouraged
some migrants, we believe that increased investment in
land-based efforts to be more cost effective. To be
successful, we need to establish a permanent DHS presence in
Ecuador and increase funding for anti-smuggling vetted units.
With these tools, we would be more effective targeting alien
smuggling kingpins and dismantling smuggling rings in Ecuador.


21. (SBU) While the "pull" factor of family and U.S. living
conditions continues to attract Ecuadorians at all levels,
the GOE must address the "push" factor by combating poverty
and providing economic opportunity at home. We will
encourage the new administration to continue to address the
dangers of alien smuggling and hope it will not require
another human tragedy to spur preventive action.
JEWELL