INVITATION TO GPOI G8 GLOBAL CLEARINGHOUSE

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 001938 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR PM/PPA DENNIS MALONE DEPT ALSO FOR IO/UNP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MARR MASS PGOV KPKO GT SUBJECT: INVITATION TO GPOI G8 GLOBAL CLEARINGHOUSE CONFERENCE OCTOBER 24-26 REF: STATE 126989 ¶1. (U) Poloff delivered reftel demarche September 18 to Luis Carranza, Director of Multilateral Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Carranza informed poloff September 20 that he had forwarded the invitation to the Director of Peacekeeping Operations at the Ministry of Defense to forward to the Conference of Central American Armed Forces (CFAC). ¶2. (U) MilGrp confirmed with CFAC on September 24 that CFAC will not be able to participate in the conference due to lack of funding for travel and its participation in an important executive-level CFAC meeting in El Salvador during the same week as the GPOI conference. The meeting in El Salvador will determine the CFAC training calendar for 2008 and plan the handover of the CFAC presidency from Guatemala to El Salvador. ¶3. (U) MilGrp will extend the invitation to the GPOI conference to Defense Minister Leiva for possible MOD participation. Embassy will follow up and encourage the MFA to consider sending a representative from its embassy in Washington to attend the conference if no one can travel from Guatemala City. Derham