EL SALVADOR'S REGIONAL SECURITY PLAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 000837 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR D FISK E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/02/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL KCRM KHLS ES GT HO MX SUBJECT: EL SALVADOR'S REGIONAL SECURITY PLAN REF: A. SAN SALVADOR 273 ¶B. SAN SALVADOR 814 Classified By: Ambassador Charles L. Glazer for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) On April 30, Polcouns met with Director of the National Civil Police (PCN) Rodrigo Avila to review progress on El Salvador's draft Regional Security Strategy. Avila, who is leading the GOES efforts to draft this strategy, reported that the GOES hosted a technical meeting on April 23 as a follow on to the Campeche Summit. He said that Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico sent representatives to the meeting, and that significant progress is being made on the Regional Security Strategy. (Note: Costa Rica and Nicaragua did not attend, and Avila believes Nicaragua purposefully excluded themselves from the meeting because they align themselves with Chavez and do not want to give Mexico a more prominent role in regional affairs. End Note). Avila reported that significant progress was made in following areas: --Anti-Drug Efforts: Proposals for establishing criteria for region-wide interdiction efforts; for the distribution of funds and property seized from illicit activities; and to strengthen of mechanisms for the exchange of information; --Judicial Efforts: Proposals for a Central America-wide cooperation convention for the protection of witnesses and victims; to hasten efforts to put into effect a Central American Arrest Warrant; to coordinate a "red alert" system for Central America; for all countries that do not legally allow wire-tapping to pursue reforms to legalize it; to create mechanisms to deal with value lost and damage to stolen vehicles and other property that are returned to their owners under the Central American Treaty on the Return and Recuperation of Stolen Vehicles and Other Properties; --Police Efforts: Proposal for each country to assign police attaches in their Central American embassies and mount region-wide efforts to recover stolen vehicles; --Anti-Gang Efforts: Creation of a Transnational Anti-Gang Center (TAG) and utilization of Interpol I-24/7; --Training: Expand existing training initiatives between Mexico and Central America, and focus further on training to staunch the flow of precursor chemicals and synthetic drugs. ¶2. (C) Avila reports that progress is being made in the elaboration of a specific plan for each of these proposals and that he will provide post with a copy of the final written strategy as soon as it is completed. Post will report on this document septel. Glazer