U.S.-PORTUGAL COLLABORATION IN AFRICA

C O N F I D E N T I A L LISBON 000595

SIPDIS


DEPARTMENT FOR AF, INL, G/TIP, DRL, F

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2018
TAGS: PREL SNAR PHUM MASS PINR KJUS ETRD SMIG PO
SUBJECT: U.S.-PORTUGAL COLLABORATION IN AFRICA

Classified By: Dana M. Brown, Pol-Econ Officer, U.S. Embassy Lisbon
Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (U) This is an action request. Please see paragraph 12
for details.

Summary
--------------


2. (SBU) AF/RSA Office Director Louis Mazel met in Lisbon
with Portuguese officials from the Ministries of Interior,
Justice, and Foreign Affairs on February 20-21 to discuss
ongoing trilateral assistance programs with Portugal in
Africa and to explore areas of possible future cooperation.
Portuguese interlocutors were uniformly satisfied with
ongoing efforts at cooperation in Lusophone Africa and
solicited U.S. suggestions on new joint projects ranging from
border control and judicial reform to consolidation of
democracy and counter-narcotics efforts. End summary.


Border Controls and Multilateral Efforts
--------------


3. (SBU) Mariana Sotto Maior and Paulo Caldas from the
Ministry of Interior reviewed the successful, ongoing
collaborative program to enhance border controls in
Mozambique. The cooperative effort -- which began in 2005 --
trains immigration officials to spot false passports, photo
substitutions, and other alterations on official travel
documents. The Portuguese police trainers also are working
to improve the National Police's coordination on border
control issues, and to train Mozambican police on emergency
response procedures. In addition, the U.S. component of the
assistance supplies the central database and the computers
for Mozambique's police.


4. (SBU) Caldas reported that the program has been so
successful that the Portuguese initiated similar efforts in
Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe in 2007. He launched
the program in Mozambique because he was the law enforcement
attache at the Portuguese embassy in Maputo in 2005. He
stressed that similar cooperation could easily be established
through other Portuguese and U.S. embassies in Lusophone
Africa and welcomed ideas for collaboration on future
projects.


5. (SBU) Caldas noted that Portugal was involved in two other
multilateral programs administered by the Interior Ministry.
The European Commission (EC) agreed to have Portugal manage a
10 million euro assistance program in Mozambique, but
provided no further detail. In addition to the EC funds,
Portugal has begun working with UNICEF in Mozambique to
establish safe havens for child victims of domestic violence.
Mazel noted that curbing trafficking in persons and forced
labor is a major U.S. priority, so there could well be
opportunities in the future to work together on this critical
humanitarian issue.


Legal Assistance
--------------


6. (SBU) Ministry of Justice Deputy Director for
International Programs Jose Andrade praised U.S.-Portuguese
cooperation on the commercial law program in Angola. He
echoed Caldas' assessment that this ongoing project made the
most of the Portuguese language and legal expertise in
Lusophone Africa as well as the U.S. experience in improving
computer capabilities and commercial systems management in
Angola. Andrade added that he hoped the United States would
consider other trilateral cooperation, especially in Guinea
Bissau.


7. (C) Andrade stated that, partially due to the lack of
prisons and police stations, Guinea Bissau is on the verge of
falling completely under the control of narco-traffickers.
He confirmed that Portugal's Judicial Police (PJ) had sent
one officer to Bissau to train local police, but he lamented
that the Guinean force could do little to stop the
traffickers since they had no means of conducting identity
checks, preventing private, non-registered flights from
landing on remote air strips, or holding suspected criminals
for questioning. In fact, Andrade opined that it was nearly
impossible for Guinean officials to stop or even slow the
narco-traffickers' use of the country for transit of drugs to
Europe and other destinations. He urged the USG to consider
urgent assistance, especially for construction of prisons and
police stations in the capital.


8. (C) AF/RSA Director Mazel acknowledged that continued,
unhindered narco-trafficking in Guinea Bissau was likely not
only to destabilize the country but could well increase the
flow of drugs to Europe and possibly the United States. He
asked whether Guinea Bissau's immigration controls at its
international airport could be upgraded and linked to
international databases so that known narco-traffickers from
South America could be identified and the information
transmitted to Interpol and other law enforcement entities.
Andrade responded that the drug traffickers, in an effort to
avoid scrutiny, often bypassed the capital and used private
landing strips throughout eastern Guinea Bissau and had even
constructed new roads to facilitate in-country transfer of
narcotics.


9. (U) Regarding other legal assistance, Andrade reported
that Portugal was working with Cape Verde and Angola to
streamline the business registration process to promote
higher compliance among businesses and to improve the
investment climate for foreign investors.


Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Response
--------------


10. (SBU) AF/RSA Director Mazel noted to MFA officials that
the United States and Portugal share an interest in seeing
Africa consolidate democracies, enhance emergency response
capacities, promote trade and investment, improve
peacekeeping capacities, and prevent health epidemics. MFA
Deputy African Affairs Director Isabel Ferreira agreed,
adding that Portugal's latest participation in EUFOR in Chad
and UNAMID in Sudan aimed to respond to the humanitarian
crisis and prevent additional violence. Mazel asked whether
Portugal had any indication of the willingness of Lusophone
African nations to engage in peacekeeping activities. He
noted Mozambique had received training under the ACOTA
program but had only offered up three military observers to
the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). He added that the USG was
interested in further engaging Angola on peacekeeping
operations and training but that Angola had not shown much
interest yet. Mazel shared with MFA officials a list of
African nations contributing to UN and AU peacekeeping
missions on the continent, adding that many had benefited
from U.S-provided training under the ACOTA and ACRI/ACRF
programs. He suggested that Portugal might play a positive
role in nudging the Angolans towards a more active role in
contributing to peacekeeping activities on the continent. He
also suggested that the U.S. and Portugal could jointly train
Angolan peacekeepers, utilizing expertise and training
capabilities present in both countries.


11. (U) In response to a question, Mazel sought to clarify
AFRICOM's mission and underscored President Bush' recent
remarks that AFRICOM would not mean the establishment of new
military bases on the African continent. He stressed that
AFRICOM will involve the consolidation of ongoing activities
into one combatant command that will enable the U.S. to focus
more clearly on providing the type of military-to-military
cooperation that African nations are requesting. Mazel added
that AFRICOM will also contain a large civilian component
(representing a number of U.S. agencies, including the State
Department and USAID) that will be useful in assisting the
military when it is called upon to lend its considerable
logistical expertise in the event of a humanitarian crisis.
Mazel noted that the U.S. military is often called upon to
deliver humanitarian relief and cited efforts by the U.S.
military to reach victims of the Southeast Asian tsunami who
were stranded in remote locations only accessible by
helicopter. Mazel made it clear that the headquarters would
remain in Germany for the foreseeable future. Liberia was
the only African country actively seeking to host the
headquarters. Mazel added that Liberia not only recognized
the significant economic benefits of an AFRICOM presence on
its territory but also believed in the stabilizing impact
that it could have on both Liberia and the region.


Future Cooperation
--------------


12. (SBU) Jorge Cabral, the MFA's Deputy DG for Political
Affairs, praised the successes of our current trilateral
cooperation in Mozambique and Angola and welcomed proposals
for future collaboration. Mazel reiterated Ambassador
Stephenson's recent suggestion to FM Amado that, in its
current role as Chair of the Community of Democracies (CD),
Portugal was well positioned to offer election support and
observers to Angola. Cabral agreed that it seemed like a
good opportunity and promised to discuss it further and
consider approaching Angola with an offer.


13. (C) Action Request and Comment: The GOP - from the
highest levels down - regularly expresses its desire to work
with us in Africa. The follow-through, however, has been
less than energetic, due primarily to bureaucratic
inefficiencies. Nevertheless, the political commitment is
genuine, and we want to continue to take advantage of it by
proposing specific areas of collaboration that advance both
our interests and those of our African partners. We would
welcome the Department's guidance on potential areas of
collaboration in Lusophone African nations that would make
use of Portugal's linguistic and area expertise while
furthering USG priorities. Democratization and rule of law,
peacekeeping training, anti-terrorism and border controls,
economic growth and development, and health strike us as
potentially fruitful areas. End comment and action request.
Stephenson