JESSICA LEWIS AT LOS PINOS

UNCLAS MEXICO 000609 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/MEX, INR, INL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON MX SUBJECT: JESSICA LEWIS AT LOS PINOS ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Senate Foreign Affairs staff member Jessica Lewis visited Mexico for two days February 20-22 to discuss elements of the Merida Initiative with GOM contacts, independent security analysts and representatives from rights organizations. With her official interlocutors, Lewis discussed the GOM,s overall security strategy and efforts already underway here to curb crime and violence. With her non-governmental contacts, she reviewed the political landscape, discussed human rights concerns and assessed the strengths and weaknesses of Mexican law enforcement and security elements. Below are highlights of key meetings. ¶2. (SBU) Meeting at the Los Pinos office of Sigrid Arzt, Technical Coordinator of President Calderon,s National Security Cabinet, Lewis sounded out the GOM,s core Merida Initiative team on their strategic objectives in the counter narcotics battle, what Mexico was already doing without USG assistance and Mexico,s efforts to integrate its strategy with other countries in the region. Lewis also offered a preview of how the Merida Initiative will be discussed in Congress later this spring. Arzt was accompanied by Carlos Rico, Undersecretary for North American Affairs at SRE, David Najera, Rico,s Special Affairs Coordinator, and Juan Carlos Foncerrado, Head of International Affairs at Mexico,s National Security Intelligence Center (CISEN). ¶3. (SBU) Carlos Rico, Undersecretary for North American Affairs at SRE outlined the initiative,s evolution over the last year, and said Mexico,s goal was to regain the ground lost to the cartels in recent years. Mexico has begun by deploying the military -- its most effective asset -- but intends to &civilianize8 the effort and give the lead to improved law enforcement elements at the earliest possible juncture. ¶4. (SBU) The Merida Initiative will help the GOM promote coordination among Mexican federal law enforcement elements, &re-engineer8 key law enforcement and judicial institutions, train and equip forces and encourage better intelligence collection and information sharing. Mexico's federal government will also play a larger role in building the capabilities of state and local law enforcement, provide resources conditioned on local reforms. He said Merida,s importance lies in providing Mexico with some of the best counter-crime technology available, such as sophisticated avionics, advanced surveillance aircraft and non-intrusive inspection equipment that is simply not available through commercial channels. It also offers Mexico budgetary &elbow room8 to expend its own resources to modernize policing. ¶5. (SBU) Lewis asked her Los Pinos contacts what Mexico would be doing if the Merida Initiative did not move forward. Both Rico and Arzt stressed that Mexico had significantly expanded its counter-narcotics budget and activities. Merida Initiative funding would be modest in comparison to what the Mexican government is throwing against the cartels, said Rico. The GOM had already scored significant successes in the past year, and it would be important to carefully evaluate the value-added of U.S. counter-narcotics assistance, he said. He added that the initiative, if carried out fully, should involve more than just resource transfers from the U.S. to Mexico: it will also involve actions undertaken in the U.S., such as efforts to stem the flow of illegal weapons into Mexico. ¶6. (SBU) Lewis noted that many in the U.S. congress may have concernce that not enough emphasis is being given to soft-side initiatives in Mexico. The cartels can,t be beaten with helicopters alone, she said. In response, Arzt and Rico outlined the steps Mexico was taking to encourage community policing strategies at the municipal levels in order to strengthen the interface between local police and communities. Rico noted Mexico,s increased demand reduction efforts and other intitiatives being carried out with the support of other international partners. He also pointed to the extensive legal reform before Mexico,s congress, which will have a positive impact on the government,s ability to dismantle the cartels. ¶7. (SBU) Discussion turned to Mexico,s relations with its neighbors in fighting organized crime. Rico said a regional approach was essential to a successful strategy, and that Mexico was as engaged with its Central American neighbors. He noted that El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were most seized with the challenges presented by illicit narcotics trade, and that Nicaragua, for a variety of reason, has not been as energetic a partner. Lewis and her interlocutors agreed on the need to keep Colombia closely involved in a regional counter-narcotics strategy. ¶8. (SBU) Lewis concluded the meeting by offering a preview of how the Merida Initiative will be taken on in congress, noting that its inclusion as part of the administration,s next Iraq war supplemental funding request made it difficult to assess its prospects at this juncture. While most congressional attention would be focused on hotly contentious questions related to operations in Iraq, a number of congressmen will likely raise concerns related to Mexico. She offered no assessment of the Merida Initiative,s prospects in Congress. -------------- - Meeting with Human Rights/Democracy Advocates -------------- - ¶9. (SBU) During her visit, Lewis met with Julian Bell, Director for National Democratic Institute Mexico (NDI) and Edgar Cortez, Executive Secretary for the Human Rights Network. Both outlined their views on organized crime with regard to human rights and democracy in Mexico. ¶10. SBU) Cortez expressed concern about the militarization of Mexico,s efforts to fight drug traffickers, specifically, the federal strategy against organized crime and military intervention on the local level, which he said too often leads to human rights violations.8 Cortez argued that there is not enough transparency on human rights issues within the military and said human rights organizations need to know more about how the military investigates human rights abuse allegations against its soldiers. ¶11. (SBU) Cortez also outlined the pros and cons of the justice reform legislation before Congress. While the move toward oral trials is positive, he said, human rights organizations in Mexico believe some aspects of the bill will lead to more rights abuses here and that it omits some much-needed police and judicial reforms. ¶12. (SBU) Neither Cortez nor Bell said they were opposed outright to the Merida Initiative, but both urged the U.S. to monitor its results as well as its impact on the behavior of security forces. The USG should encourage independent experts to evaluate results on the Initiative as well, they said. -------------- A Meeting with a Security Analyst -------------- ¶13. (SBU) Lewis also met with Ernesto Lopez Portillo Vargas, President of the Mexican Institute for Security and Democracy (INSYDE),who also discussed the pending legal reform bill in congress. Portillo said his main concern is with the issue of accountability. With the new reform, police forces ) not free of corruption ) will work independently and be able to escape accountability. He also criticized the GOM,s strategy for reforming federal policing, saying it concentrated too heavily on vetting individual officers and not enough on changing flawed institutions. ¶14. (SBU) Portillo said that Calderon and Garcia Luna wanted results quickly, but that taking on to many projects in such a short time period poses risks. For example, the GOM could develop a powerful justice system in very short order with more technology/equipment, but it would remain unaccountable. Police powers could be broadened without providing for adequate civilian oversight of policing. The longer the military was on the front line of the counter narcotics battle, the more likely it would be to suffer desertions and infiltrations of the ranks at all levels by cartels. ¶15. (SBU) The Merida Initiative, he opined, invests money in weakly controlled (both externally and internally) institutions. Although Portillo does not think the MI will have much of an effect on the war against organized crime, he said that it may help promote greater transparency through oversight and monitoring of how the USG-granted equipment is being used ) but only if the USG puts a mechanism in place and the GOM develops metrics to determine progress against the cartels. ¶16. (SBU) Comment: Lewis heard from the GOM,s key Merida Initiative players who offered a reasoned and detailed justification of the proposal. She also heard from some of the toughest critics of the efforts it has mounted to date against the cartels. Second-guessing aside, all interlocutors agreed that circumstances here warrant a focused and sustained counter narcotics effort. End Comment. Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / GARZA