CENTRAL AMERICAN SUMMIT ADOPTS DECLARATION ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEGUCIGALPA 001892

SIPDIS

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (ADDED PARA MARKING)

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/04/2016
TAGS: PREL PINS SNAR XK
SUBJECT: CENTRAL AMERICAN SUMMIT ADOPTS DECLARATION ON
REGIONAL SECURITY


Classified By: Political Counselor Alexander Margulies. Reason:
1.4(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: An Extraordinary System of Central
American Integration (SICA) Summit on 10/3, adopted a series
of potentially important measures to improve regional
security, including:

-- Promoting prompt ratification of the Central American
Treaty on the Simplified Detention and Extradition Order;

-- Agreement to improve security cooperation by creating an
effective information sharing network between SICA members'
immigration agencies and INTERPOL, putting into operation a
Central American Information Systems Network, establishing an
interconnected data base facilitating real-time communication
of intelligence and information, placing police attaches at
their respective Embassies in SICA counterpart capitals, and
considering forming bi-national police forces to improve
frontier security on the Guatemala-El Salvador model;

-- Create a Regional Anti-Drug Training Center in Honduras;

-- Working with judicial authorities to develop a Framework
Convention of Central American Cooperation for the Protection
of Witnesses, Experts and Others Involved in Criminal
Proceedings; and

-- Instructed the SICA Commission on Security to meet October
18-20 to develop an Action Plan to implement the Summit's
decisions.

The U.S. delegation obtained consensus agreement to recognize
the USG's participation in the Regional Coordination Center
Against Narcotrafficking, language which subsequently was
excised at the insistence of a Guatemalan delegate during the
post-meeting preparation of the final Declaration by the SICA
Secretariat. The Ambassador raised this issue with Foreign

SIPDIS
Minister Milton Jimenez, and the Honduran Government has
asked the SICA Secretariat to consult with its SICA
counterparts to restore the agreed-to language. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) The U.S. was represented at the Summit by INL DAS
Christy McCampbell, INL Sergio Garcia, the Ambassador,
Polcouns, Pol-Miloff and INL Contractor.


3. (U) Begin Text of Unofficial Translation of the SICA Summit
Declaration (original faxed to WHA/CEN):

DECLARATION ON SECURITY

EXTRAORDINARY MEETING OF THE HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT OF
COUNTRIES MEMBERS OF THE SYSTEM OF CENTRAL AMERICAN
INTEGRATION (SICA)

Bosques de Zambrano, Francisco Morazan, Honduras, October 3,
2006

The Heads of State and Government of countries members of the
System of Central American Integration (SICA),meeting in
Bosques de Zambrano, Francisco Morazan, Republic of Honduras,
on October 3, 2006, with the firm purpose and will to define,
support and adopt mechanisms that assure the execution of an
integrated security strategy in the countries members of the
System of Central American Integration, in conformity with
the Tegucigalpa Protocol and in accordance with the Model of
Democratic Security in Central America, with this objective:

WE AGREE TO

(1) Urge our congresses and national assemblies to promptly
ratify the Central American Treaty Relative to the Simplified
Order of Detention and Extradition (order of Central American
detention),to assure the effective capture and punishment of
criminals in Central America.

(2) Update an effective communication network between the
Central National Offices of the International Police
(INTERPOL) and Migration Directorates of the SICA countries,
with the purpose of providing alerts on evaders of justice in
the region.

(3) Proceed to the definitive execution of the Central
American Network of Information Systems (RECSI) project in
those countries that still have not put it into practice.

(4) Strengthen the Communication and Police Intelligence
Network, establishing an inter-connected data base with the
purpose of exchanging information and intelligence in
real-time, in furtherance of which we have instructed our
countries' Ministers of Interior or Security to make this
network operative as quickly as possible.

(5) Take advantage in every Central American country of the
experience and efforts accomplished by the bi-national forces
of Guatemala and El Salvador, with the goal of preventing and
fighting more effectively the level of crime in the
respective border zones, in accordance with the police and
security procedures, as well as the judicial norms of each
SICA country.

(6) Recognize the importance of the multi-disciplinary study
"Gangs, an Urgent Regional Challenge that Demands Integrated
Action," financed by the Swedish Agency of International
Cooperation for Development (ASDI) and the Central American
Bank of Economic Integration (BCIE).

(7) Instruct the Ministries of Public Security, Interior or
Justice and the Institutes of Childhood and Youth to
elaborate a Regional Project of Technical Assistance for the
treatment of minors at social risk or in conflict with the
law, and request technical and financial support from UNESCO,
UNICEF AND BCIE.

(8) Recognize the Central American Observatory on Violence
(OCAVI) as a mechanism for regional institutionalization, and
support the exchange of information necessary to fulfill its
assignment, in accordance with the possibilities of each
State.

(9) Instruct the Foreign Ministries so that they can proceed
to create Police Attaches in the diplomatic representations
of the countries members of the System of Central American
Integration, and proceed with the respective appointments in
accordance with the national juridical norms and
possibilities of each State.

(10) Instruct the corresponding authorities to formalize the
proposal for the creation of the Regional Antidrug Training
Center, in fulfillment of the Plan of Regional Action
2003-2008 of the Permanent Central American Commission (CCP)
for the &Eradication of the Production, Traffic, Illicit
Consumption and Use of Narcotics and Psychotropic
Substances,8 which will based in Honduras.

(11) Invite the Judicial Branches, State Prosecutors and
other judicial authorities of the SICA countries, jointly
with the General Secretariat of the System of Central
American Integration (SICA),to promote the Project of a
Framework Agreement of Central American Cooperation for the
Protection of Witnesses, Experts and others who take part in
criminal proceedings, particularly in narcotics activities
and organized crime, for the approval of the Ministers of
Foreign Relations.

(12) Support the process initiated by Honduras and Nicaragua
for debt-forgiveness by the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB),which will be subject to the recapitalization of the
respective fund to sustain development financing efforts.

(13) Instruct the Central American Commission of Security
that to develop a Plan of Action of the priorities for
Democratic Security in the framework of an Integrated
Security Strategy in the region that comprehends the
components of frontier and tourism security.

(14) Instruct the Central American Commission of Security,
within the framework of strategic actions, to continue
advancing on the formulation on reasonable balance of the
regional forces in the shortest term.

(15) Manifest its support and endorsement for the creation
of the Regional Center of Coordination Against
Narcotrafficking in Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico
(CERCONAR) as an operative and necessary initiative for
regional security in Central America. (See NOTE in paragraph
4).

(16) Continue reviewing the Treaty of Democratic Security in
Central America, through the Commission Ad Hoc created for
this purpose, with the intention of fortifying regional
institutionality.

(17) Promote the development and implementation of policies
and actions directed to the prevention and fight against
crime, creating a culture of citizen security, establishing a
participation mechanism that includes the creation of local
organizations and community policing.

(18) Celebrate the signing of the Agreement between the
Agency of the United States for International Development
(USAID) and the General Secretariat of SICA (GS-SICA),that
will contribute to the implementation of prevention programs
for youth in social risk and ex-gang members.

(19) Thank the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for
its support to the Regional Implementation Unit of the
&Central American Project for the Control of the Illicit
Traffic of Small and Light Arms,8 that will be based in
Nicaragua.

(20) Send to the Central American Commission of Security,
for its development, the document &Priorities in the Matter
of Democratic Security in Central America,8 that is annexed
to the present Declaration.

(21) Instruct the General Secretariat of SICA to summon,
before October 20, 2006, a meeting of the Central American
Commission of Security, with the intention to follow-up the
agreements adopted in this extraordinary meeting, and
establish a calendar of meetings for itself and its
sub-commissions.

(22) Reinforce the capacity of the General Secretariat of
SICA to follow-up the agreements and initiatives of the
Central American Commission of Security, with the intention
of assuring their effective and opportune fulfillment, as
well as the agreements adopted by the meetings of Presidents
and Ministers Council in the matter of regional security.

(23) Recognize the interest demonstrated in this summit by
Colombia, Mexico, the United States of America, Taiwan and
the European Union, and invite them to continue their
cooperation with the countries of SICA in the consolidation
of a System of Security in Peace, Democracy, Freedom and
Development.

Express appreciation the cooperation that the European Union
and its Member States are offering in this sphere and
inviting them to continue these actions.

(24) Express thanks for the visit of Mr. Felipe Calderon
Hinojosa, President-Elect of Mexico, and his interest in the
security problem in Meso-America; simultaneously, to augur a
hopeful future for the democracy of our people, the
strengthening of the Puebla Panama Plan (PPP) and the
consolidation of the Meso-American Energy Integration program
(PIEM).

The Heads of State and Government of Belize, Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Dominican
Republic, as well as invited countries to this Extraordinary
Summit on Security, thank the Government and People of
Honduras for their hospitality and kind attention.

(signed)

Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales
President of the Republic of Honduras

Oscar Berger Perdomo
President of the Republic of Guatemala

Jose Alfredo Gomez Urcuyo
Vice President of the Republic of Nicaragua

Luis Manuel Piantini
Advisor of the Foreign Minister of the Dominican Republic

Elias Antonio Saca Gonzalez
president of the Republic of El Salvador

Martin Torrijos Espino
President of the Republic of Panama

Laura Chinchilla
First Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica

Alfredo Martinez
Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of Belize

END TEXT.


4. (C) NOTE: The Ambassador intervened during the
discussion on paragraph 15, noting that the United States
participates in and funds CERCONAR, and suggesting that the
listing at the close of this provision be revised to "... in
Meso-America, the Caribbean and the United States of
America." His proposal was approved by consensus and
included in the Declaration being revised by SICA officials
on a large computer screen visible to all delegations.
According to a reliable GOH contact, during the final
preparation of the document by the SICA technical staff, one
Claudia Herrera, a Guatemalan delegate from that country's
Ministry of Government, insisted that the reference to the
United States be excised; a demand with which the SICA
technical staff acquiesced. Our contact said that the
Government of Honduras is objecting to the SICA Secretariat,
pointing out the SICA technical staff does not/not have the
authority to revise language agreed to by the SICA Plenum,
and asking the Secretariat to initiate formal consultations
with the other SICA members to amend the final declaration to
restore the language agreed to by consensus. END NOTE.


5. (U) COMMENT: The atmosphere throughout the Summit was
highly positive, with all delegations expressing their
enthusiasm for regional cooperation on security matters.
There were no/no major substantive differences during the
discussion of the text. Costa Rica raised
objections to specific provisions in the original draft that
could entail funding commitments, obtaining in response
language recognizing that countries would comply with these
objectives "in accordance with their judicial norms and
possibilities." The next step in the regional security
cooperation process will be the SICA Commission on Security
Meeting, tentatively set for October 18-20, which is tasked
with developing an Action Plan to implement the Summit's
decisions. To date, however, there is no/no agreement on
where it will be held, although a Honduran Foreign Ministry
contact told us El Salvador will be the most likely host.
END COMMENT.
FORD