DEMARCHE DELIVERED: UNODC SELF-ASSESSMENT

UNCLAS BRASILIA 001261 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/BSC AND INL/PC - CHRISTINE CLINE AND SCOTT HARRIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL SNAR KCRM KJUS UN PG BR SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED: UNODC SELF-ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST REF: STATE 090304 ¶1. (SBU) On September 16, PolCouns delivered reftel demarche to the director of the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations (Itamaraty) Office of Transnational Crimes, Virginia Toniatti. Asked if Brazil would complete the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) self-assessment checklist, which Brazil has partially done, Toniatti responded that Brazil is fully committed to implementing the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime. She added that, if the UNODC is interested in the status of Brazil's response to the checklist, UNODC should ask the GOB directly. When told that we were asking many countries that have not yet filled out the questionnaire about the status of their effort, Toniatti responded that "Washington should not get gray hair worrying about Brazil." ¶2. (SBU) Comment: Toniatti's response to this demarche did not differ significantly in tone or substance from others we have delivered to her. With a staff of three to four diplomats at any given time, Toniatti's office is responsible for all multilateral and bilateral counternarcotics, counterterrorism, trafficking in persons, and other transnational criminal matters, including the US/Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina 3-plus-1 forum. In addition to being hobbled by serious under-staffing issues, she will not allow her staff to meet with us unless personally supervised by her. She is among the most sensitive of our Itamaraty counterparts to perceived U.S. intrusiveness into Brazilian domestic affairs and is generally unreceptive to U.S. requests for information or offers of cooperation or assistance. Post continues to enjoy excellent working relations with law enforcement agencies at a working level, but contacts with Itamaraty diplomats are often characterized by the kind of sensitivity displayed here. KUBISKE