SUBJECT: BRAZIL: PROBABLY WILL SUPPORT ARGENTINA

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 002070 SIPDIS SIPDIS WHA FOR CRAIG KELLY AND CHRIS MCMULLEN WHA/BSC FOR FRIEDMAN, SLATTERY, CROFT, CHIANG S/CT FOR DELL DAILY AND ARNOLD SIERRA NEA/IR FOR REBECCA HUMMEL L/LEI FOR HEATHER MCSHAIN NSC FOR JUAN ZARATE E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2017 TAGS: PTER ASEC KJUS PGOV PREL IR BR SUBJECT: SUBJECT: BRAZIL: PROBABLY WILL SUPPORT ARGENTINA AT INTERPOL GENERAL ASSEMBLY VOTE ON AMIA CASE REF: SECSTATE 147320 Classified By: Classified by Political Counselor Stephen M. Liston. Re asons: 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) On 29 October, Poloffs delivered reftel demarche to director of the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations (Itamaraty) Office of Transnational Crimes, Virginia Toniatti. While Toniatti was familiar with the AMIA case and the upcoming Interpol General Assembly vote, and noted Brazil,s continuing solidarity with Argentina for the attacks it suffered in 1992 and 1994, she indicated that the Interpol vote was still under deliberation within the Brazilian Government. When Poloff remarked that Brazil's voice carried weight in Lusophone countries in Africa and that perhaps Brazil could act as an interlocutor on behalf of Argentina, particularly in countries where Argentina lacks an Embassy, Toniatti was non-committal and noted that Argentina had not requested such actions on Brazil's part. ¶2. (C) Although Toniatti did not explicitly state Brazil would vote to confirm Interpol Executive Committee's unanimous recommendation to issue the red notices, in a conversation with Guillermo Devoto, Political Counselor for Internal Affairs at the Argentine Embassy, Devoto informed Poloff that Argentina's Minister-Counselor in Brasilia had raised the upcoming vote with both Itamaraty and the Brazilian Federal Police and both had given full assurances that Brazil would support Argentina's position at Interpol. ¶3. (C) COMMENT: Despite Toniatti's less than definitive answer on whether Brazil would vote to issue the red notices and her reluctance to carry any water for the Argentines with Lusophone Africa, Toniatti's general expressions of support for Argentina's effort to bring the perpetrators of the AMIA attack to justice and the comments by Argentine Embassy contacts leave no reason to believe Brazil will vote against issuing the notices. END COMMENT. SOBEL