CICIG'S CHALLENGES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND MANDATE

S E C R E T GUATEMALA 001370

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2018
TAGS: KCRM PREL SNAR ASEC PINR GT
SUBJECT: CICIG'S CHALLENGES, ACCOMPLISHMENTS, AND MANDATE
EXTENSION

REF: A. GUATEMALA 1286

B. GUATEMALA 1187

C. GUATEMALA 387

D. GUATEMALA 1171

E. GUATEMALA 1056

Classified By: Ambassador Stephen S. McFarland for reasons
1.4 (b&d).

Summary
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1. (C) UN and CICIG officials acknowledge that CICIG needs
to show more results before consideration is given to
extending its mandate. CICIG is confident that it can
successfully prosecute some important cases before its
mandate ends in September 2009, while others it is
investigating would require multi-year efforts. Should
donors and the GOG ultimately decide to seek a mandate
extension, conventional wisdom is that it would have to be
approved by the Guatemalan Congress, a formidable challenge.
A draft resolution on CICIG soon to be presented to the UN
General Assembly does not address the question of mandate
extension. End Summary.

UN Official Discusses Mandate Extension
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2. (C) Martha Doggett, Deputy Director for the Americas and
Europe of the UN's Political Department, met with the
Ambassador and Pol/Econ Couns Oct. 23 to discuss issues
related to the status of the UN-led International Commission
Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). CICIG's two-year
mandate began in September 2007. With eleven months
remaining, Doggett and CICIG indicated an interest in
extending the mandate. If there is to be an extension,
Doggett said, Guatemalan PermRep to the UN Gert Rosenthal
would likely need to lead the effort to secure it. She said
Rosenthal had recently told her as well as senior CICIG
leaders that, per MFA lawyers, the Guatemalan Congress would
need to approve any extension. Her reading of the agreement
between the UN and the GOG did not indicate that to be the
case, but she said Rosenthal had been firm in asserting it
was so. It might be useful to get an advisory opinion from
the Guatemalan Supreme Court, Doggett said. The Ambassador
responded that powerful persons being investigated by CICIG
might influence the Court and force the GOG to seek
congressional approval.

First, Show Results
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3. (C) The Ambassador said it would be important for CICIG
to produce successful prosecutions of organized criminal
groups within the state prior to any serious discussions
about an extension. Doggett said she appreciated the need
for more results. The Ambassador also noted that CICIG has
180 days to decide whether it wants to bring a case against
former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo. Mexico
recently extradited Portillo to face corruption charges, but
a judge immediately freed Portillo on bail under lenient
conditions (ref a). The Ambassador also noted that he and
Commissioner Castresana are overseeing an exchange of
information between the Embassy and CICIG investigators and
prosecutors. While the Embassy cannot share certain kinds of
sensitive information, USG law enforcement officers and other
Embassy officials are collaborating with CICIG as closely as
possible.

Upcoming GA Resolution on CICIG
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4. (C) Doggett said that she had been working with PermRep
Rosenthal on the text of a resolution, to be presented to the
UN General Assembly in November, that would report to the
Secretary General that CICIG had been established and was
working. The draft resolution did not address the question
working of a possible extension of CICIG's mandate. Despite CICIG
Commissioner Carlos Castresana's goal of making CICIG an
official UN body (in order to facilitate recruiting and
resolution of status questions such as immunity),the
resolution would not do so. CICIG had been established
through voluntary member state contributions, and there was
no precedent for making such a body part of the formal UN
system, Doggett said. Recalling that some member states
opposed CICIG, Rosenthal was trying to garner support for the
resolution quietly. CICIG's precedent-setting nature had the
potential to put the UN in an uncomfortable position, Doggett
observed. For example, in response to the UN's assertion
that it could not investigate the assassination of former

Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani
representatives had cited CICIG as a precedent for doing so.

CICIG on Accomplishments, Challenges
--------------

5. (C) During a separate conversation Oct. 24, CICIG Deputy
Commissioner Amerigo Incalcaterra told visiting WHA/CEN
Director Chris Webster and Pol/Econ Couns that CICIG is
working under the assumption that its mandate will expire in
eleven months. CICIG and MFA attorneys had independently
concluded that the Guatemalan Congress would have to approve
any extension of CICIG's mandate, Incalcaterra said. He
thought securing such approval would be difficult.


6. (C) Webster asked Incalcaterra what CICIG had achieved so
far. Incalcaterra said CICIG had identified corrupt and
ineffective officials at the Attorney General's Office, to
include then-Attorney General Florido, and had persuaded
President Colom to remove them (ref b). CICIG is now
directly supervising a hand-picked, vetted prosecutorial unit
within the Attorney General's Office. Its assistance had
been key in the dismantling of a child trafficking ring in
Panajachel, Guatemala, saving some 150 children. CICIG had
prepared prosecution of an organized crime ring within the
National Civilian Police (PNC) known as "The Crazy Mariachi,"
but a judge had mishandled the case. CICIG was also
participating directly as a co-plaintiff in the trial of
Mexican drug traffickers for the March 25 narco-melee in
Zacapa that killed eleven narcotraffickers (ref c).
Incalcaterra predicted that CICIG would successfully
prosecute at least one of two major organized criminal
structures within the state prior to the expiration of its
mandate. Doing so would demonstrate to both the Guatemalan
public and rule of law authorities that impunity need not be
the norm.


7. (C) Incalcaterra enumerated several obstacles that CICIG
has so far encountered in developing successful prosecutions.
Wire-tapping, controlled drugs deliveries, and other
investigative tools are not yet available in Guatemala,
forcing prosecutors to rely primarily on voluntary witness
testimonies. That puts a premium on protecting witnesses,
but Guatemala's witness protection program is utterly
inadequate, Incalcaterra said. CICIG has arranged an initial
visit by U.S. Marshalls to look into the possibility of
training the GOG in witness protection, but would prefer to
place witnesses directly into cooperating countries' existing
programs. Most of approximately 40 potential witnesses are
themselves suspected criminals, and only a few countries --
Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Cuba -- appear to be seriously
considering receiving them. The Netherlands is talking to
CICIG about receiving witnesses, Incalcaterra said, but its
participation in the Schengen visa regime raises concerns
about the ease with which witnesses might make their way to
other parts of Europe. Asked how CICIG would overcome these
difficulties were its mandate to be extended, Incalcaterra
said CICIG was preparing a package of legislative reforms
that would facilitate its work as well as that of Guatemalan
rule of law officials.

Some Cases Promising, Others Will Take Longer
--------------

8. (S) A CICIG prosecutor told Pol/Econ Couns Oct. 28 that
CICIG would take on the Portillo embezzlement case. The
The current Guatemalan prosecutor's case is weak, he said, but
could be strengthened and likely carried through to a
successful conclusion. A successful prosecution of Portillo
would also entail developing a case against Portillo's
Attorney General, Carlos de Leon Argueta, for money
laundering. The prosecutor was also optimistic that the
Zacapa narco-melee case would produce convictions of Zetas
(the armed wing of the Mexican Gulf Cartel that ambushed
Guatemalan trafficker Juan Leon and his bodyguards March 25).
He said that some lines of inquiry indicate that Colom's
former presidential security chief, Carlos Quintanilla, may
have been complicit in the Zetas' incursion into Guatemala
(ref d).


9. (S) Regarding the April murder of controversial Ministry
of Government senior advisor Victor Rivera, the prosecutor
opined that a successful investigation and prosecution would
take years. Former Chief Homicide Prosecutor Alvaro Matus,
whom President Colom removed from the Public Ministry in
August at CICIG's behest, had taken evidence from the crime
scene, and had similarly compromised investigations into

related cases, including the PARLACEN deputies and Boqueron
police murders (ref e). In order to prosecute the Rivera
murder, the CICIG prosecutor said, at this point it would be
necessary to redo the investigations into the related cases,
a tremendous challenge. The only alternative might be to
wait until the perpetrators of Rivera's murder struck again.
He said the modus operandi of Rivera's killers tied them to
several other crimes. There was reason to believe that they
were associated with police or perhaps military intelligence.
A new crime bearing the same hallmarks might make it easier
to resume the investigation.

Comment
--------------

10. (C) The Guatemalan Congress repeatedly demurred before
finally approving CICIG in August 2007. Securing
congressional approval for an extensio will be an uphill
climb. In any case, CICIG mus make more progress in
prosecuting organized criinal groups within the state before
any serious discussion of an extension can take place. Only
concrete achievements will dispel widespread skepticism about
CICIG's efforts to date. The CICIG prosecutor's optimistic
comments on the Portillo and Zacapa cases are encouraging.
With technical assistance and some pressure from the Embassy,
Congress passed an Organized Crime Law that provides for some
of the law enforcement tools CICIG seeks. However,
implementation of the law has been slow and political will
lacking. There is no legislative panacea for the problems
CICIG faces. The Embassy will continue to share information
with CICIG when it can, but in order to earn support for
extension of its mandate, CICIG will need to show that it can
adapt and succeed in this challenging environment.
McFarland