URUGUAY: AMBASSADOR'S ASSESMENT ON UN HUMAN RIGHTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L MONTEVIDEO 000454 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR UNDER SECRETARY NICHOLAS R. BURNS DEPT ALSO FOR IO/RHS, DRL/MLGA AND EUR/PGI E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/07/2017 TAGS: PHUM PREL UNHRC UY SUBJECT: URUGUAY: AMBASSADOR'S ASSESMENT ON UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ELECTION REF: A. STATE 63345 ¶B. MONTEVIDEO 0440 Classified By: Ambassador Frank E. Baxter for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) ¶1. (C) We have taken ref B demarche very seriously. Embassy Montevideo has adequately covered allof the bases with the exception of Foreign Minister Reinaldo Gargano. He is very anti-US and I fear it would be counterproductive for me to directly approach him on this topic. Gargano is the only one who could conceivably cause Uruguay to abstain on Belarus, though I doubt he will do this. I understand that our French and UK colleagues will be delivering their joint demarche to the Deputy Foreign Minister today. 2.(C) Special Representative for Social Issues Ambassador Grover Joseph Rees vigorously raised the Belarus issue with the Deputy Foreign Minister and panel of senior MFA officials during his trip here in late April. Since then, my DCM demarched the MFA's Secretary General on the subject and our Political Counselor has met with the Acting Director General for Political Affairs and the Acting Director of Multilateral Affairs to discuss UNHRC elections and Belarus. All of our interlocutors understand that Belarus would give the UNHRC a black eye and have expressed support for Slovenia's candidacy. However, I don't think that they have made up their minds on who else to support from the Eastern Europe group, including Bosnia. ¶3. (C) Bottom line: I believe that we have done all we can with this left-leaning government. I am convinced that any further efforts to push more on the upcoming UNHRC, particularly with the Foreign Minister, would only be counterproductive. Baxter