ONDCP WALTERS MEETINGS WITH MEXICAN OFFICIALS

104379 2007-04-13 22:28:00 07MEXICO1854 Embassy Mexico CONFIDENTIAL 07MEXICO965|07MEXICO966 VZCZCXYZ0000 PP RUEHWEB DE RUEHME #1854/01 1032228 ZNY CCCCC ZZH P 132228Z APR 07 FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6452 TAGS: SNAR PREL MX C O N F I D E N T I A L MEXICO 001854 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/13/2017 TAGS: SNAR PREL MX SUBJECT: ONDCP WALTERS MEETINGS WITH MEXICAN OFFICIALS REF: A. MEXICO 965 ¶B. MEXICO 966 Classified By: NAS Director Scott Danaher for Reason 1.4 (B, D) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The February 27 visit by John Walters (ONDCP) helped initiate coordination with the newly installed Calderon Administration. In separate meetings with Attorney General Medina Mora and Public Security Secretary Garcia Luna, Director Walters emphasized the importance of information sharing for interdiction and for attacking drug trafficking organizations. Noting that the U.S. was awaiting Mexican thoughts about a strategic counter-drug partnership, he urged early operational cooperation, and discouraged megaprograms as likely to be too ponderous to be effective. He emphasized U.S. willingness to work in partnership with Mexico at the Southwest Border, and on database and information sharing, arms trafficking, specific law enforcement operations, and training and equipment suited for requirements identified by Mexico. While ONDCP Director Walters pressed Mexican naval officials for progress on a maritime agreement, they remained reticent on the subject although generally open to better U.S.-Mexico cooperation. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) On February 27, John Walters (Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy - ONDCP) and staff visited Mexico City for meetings with leaders of the newly installed Calderon Administration, including Eduardo Medina Mora (Attorney General) and Genaro Garcia Luna (Secretary for Public Security). Walters also met with the Army (SEDENA),the Navy and GOM health authorities. ¶3. (SBU) In Walters, meeting with Eduardo Medina Mora, the AG reemphasized many topics raised with recent USG visitors (reftels),including the GOM's priority on attacking the cartels, improving interdiction (with an emphasis on methamphetamines and a reorientation towards Mexico's southern border),improving eradication, improving anti-money laundering efforts, stemming the growth of small-scale drug dealing, promoting prevention and rehabilitation, improving intelligence gathering and assessing and countering arms trafficking. The AG emphasized the need for both governments to break down the partitions that artificially divide our respective anti-money laundering efforts, and to seek new means to pursue money launderers. The AG also focused in on the threat of Chinese exports of methamphetamine precursors, asking for USG help in urging the Chinese to better control their exports and in improving coordination of inspection of trade and interdiction of illicit goods transiting Long Beach destined for Mexico. ¶4. (C) Walters expressed his concern for ensuring that top-level people in the Mexican policy community have adequate personal protection to prevent traffickers from defeating significant reforms by intimidation and selective assassination. With respect to Mexican concerns about weapons entering from the United States, Walters told Medina that ATF was prepared to conduct serial number traces of all weapons referred by Mexican authorities, and that the U.S. would initiate proactive surveillance and investigation of gun shows and other sources in the Southwest Border area, particularly the sales of armor piercing munitions. Medina acknowledged the importance of serial number traces, but requested a level of information sharing that would provide Mexican access to information about purchasers of military-style munitions and pro-actively put them in a position to arrest and prosecute. ¶5. (C) With respect to cash movements, Walters said the U.S. would be prepared to follow Mexico's lead, but suggested that strengthening investigations and invocation of U.S. foreign assets control legislation could effectively hit traffickers cash supply and cause considerable disruption. ¶6. (C) Turning to methamphetamine, Walters reviewed consultations with his German, Indian and Chinese counterparts, as well as in international organizations, noting U.S. interest in working to control precursor chemicals at the source. He added that if the Attorney General thought it would advance policy, the two of them might approach the Chinese jointly -- a proposal Medina accepted. ¶7. (C) Moving to legislation currently in the Mexican Congress to expand the authority of state and local jurisdictions to enforce drug laws, Walters suggested a sustained dialogue as the legislation advanced. ¶8. (SBU) Walters discussed the pending reorganization of the federal police forces into a single entity in his meeting with Genaro Garcia Luna. GGL is ambitious, hoping to reverse the endemic corruption that has afflicted the SSP personnel, essentially by paying his staff better, introducing more stringent selection criteria and vetting all 20,000 of them. (In coming years, this staffing level will likely rise to 40,000.) Walters also emphasized the USG's desire to see better coordination with ATF on arms trafficking. ¶9. (SBU) In meetings at SEDENA with Gen. Oliver Cen (Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations) and Gen. Morafin (Intelligence),the Army emphasized its need for help with demand reduction amongst its own elements, as well as more broadly; this was especially true with regards to methamphetamine use in Mexico. Gen. Oliver also noted the shift of responsibility for all forms of eradication to the military, with the Office of the Attorney General (PGR) transferring to SEDENA the equipment (aircraft, parts and facilities) PGR had used previously for aerial fumigation of opium poppy. SEDENA planned to adopt a new standard operating procedure in its manual eradication activities, employing dozens of surge operations with a more focused approach for maximum impact, instead of permanently deploying the 20,000-30,000 troops that SEDENA and Marina have fielded in the past. They also discussed VIP security, which is the responsibility of SEDENA. Walters noted that ATF was willing to work with SEDENA to address the rampant arms smuggling that feeds into the violence associated with Mexico's drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). ¶10. (SBU) In a working lunch with the DCM and Navy (Marina) Admiral Enrique Henaro Galan (Chief of Staff, CNO),Admiral Roberto Gomez Caranza (Deputy Chief of Operations) and others, Walters pressed for Mexican consideration of a maritime agreement. While generally friendly, the Navy delegation indicated that cooperation could be improved outside the context of a formal agreement, and suggested that the Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE) was the better place to press the issue of an agreement. The luncheon made clear the excellent relationship that exists between the Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard representative at post, and highlighted the Navy's general interest in cooperating with the U.S. ¶11. (SBU) In a final meeting with Mauricio Hernandez Avila (Under Secretary of Health for Prevention and Promotion) and Dr. Carlos Rodriguez Ajenjo (Technical Secretary of National Council Against Addiction - CONADIC),Walters shared insights on the means by which ONDCP tracked real-time changes in drug usage in the United States. Hernandez recounted his hope that the past de facto policy of tolerance for illicit use of drugs and alcohol by minors at the individual level would be changed in the Calderon administration. There was a huge bulge in the population profile, with a youth cohort aging into adulthood, and with high levels of abuse of all drugs of concern, including tobacco. The powerful alcohol industry created demand in ads aimed at youths and young adults, complicating any message the GOM might put out. Hernandez also noted a desire to pair cities along the border in an attempt to address illicit consumption of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes among youth. Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity GARZA