COSTA RICA: TIP UPDATE

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000286 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN RBEAL AND G/TIP BFLECK, G, INL, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB KCRM KFRD KWMN PHUM PREF SMIG CS SUBJECT: COSTA RICA: TIP UPDATE REF: SAN JOSE 0194 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In a meeting with ADCM and Poloffs on April 16, Vice Minister Duran painted a mixed picture of the GOCR's anti-TIP efforts. She described new training initiatives for law enforcement personnel, which might reach 500 officials over the next year, and legislative initiatives which may lead to new laws against domestic trafficking in persons and protecting victims. Duran could not offer any new information on specific TIP cases or investigations, but she said she would push the prosecutor's office to dig deeper into possible TIP aspects of the recent immigration case involving 400 Dominican women, and to make available information from the on-going investigation into a Chinese TIP ring broken up in January 2007. Duran agreed that more needed to be done, especially on TIP investigations and prosecutions, adding that she had already raised TIP issues with the new Minister of Public Security. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) On April 16, ADCM and Poloffs met with Ana Duran, Vice Minister of Security in Costa Rica and senior-most GoCR official involved in trafficking issues, to stress the need for Costa Rica to show tangible progress in TIP investigations, prosecutions, and victims' assistance or risk being downgraded in the 2008 TIP report. We reiterated our earlier request for updated information and statistics to be reported to Washington as the 2008 TIP report was nearing completion. We noted that Costa Rica's anti-TIP efforts over the past year could best be illustrated by tangible results. ¶3. (U) TRAINING: Duran responded by describing the GOCR's anti-TIP education efforts for public security personnel, which began earlier this year with trafficking sensitivity/awareness training for 34 officers. She envisioned similar training reaching 500 security officers, prosecutors, investigators and other personnel within the law enforcement community over the next 12 months. Duran explained that law enforcement and judicial personnel needed to learn to "discriminate" genuine TIP cases from others involving immigration fraud or sex trade violations. Unfortunately, all three elements sometimes combined in the same cases. Before Costa Rica could better act against TIP, enforcement personnel had to recognize the signs of TIP, she added. ¶4. (U) LEGISLATION: Responding to our specific questions, Duran said that the National Coalition Against Trafficking (which she heads) is undertaking studies into two main areas of concern. The first is possible new legislation to incorporate domestic trafficking of persons into Costa Rica's penal code in compliance with the UN Protocol definition. The second is posible new legislation to protect and better assist trafficking victims, perhaps as part of the omnibus domestic security law now under debate in the National Assembly. Duran noted that the witness protection elements in the omnibus law might be copied and adopted for victims' protection. She acknowledged, however, that no victims' protection language had been added yet to the bill under consideration. ¶5. (U) INVESTIGATIONS: Duran said the recent, well-publicized investigation into 400 Dominicans involved in the sex trade in Costa Rica was being handled as an immigration case and not a TIP case. A few of the women involved may have been trafficked, and minors may have been involved, however. She said she would push the prosecutor's office to dig deeper into the potential TIP aspects, but the investigation thus far had not uncovered a major trafficking network, as asserted by the media. On the January 2007 case involving a Chinese trafficking ring, Duran said she woud push the local prosecutor's office (fiscalia) to make available concrete, updated information. (The case remains under investigation.) Echoing what other GOCR officials told us as we prepared our 2008 TIP submission, Duran said that under-staffed, under-funded (and over-worked) prosecutors remained a challenge in dealing with TIP cases. Even with TIP training, she had to rely on like-minded judges and prosecutors to make the time for the training courses. A focus on TIP issues and cases is not built into the justice system. ¶6. (U) NEW MINISTER, NEW FOCUS? We passed Duran a list of actions that would help the GOCR improve its anti-TIP efforts, including amending the relevant law(s) to conform to UN protocols, intensifying efforts to identify and assist victims, increasing assistance for victims, promptly releasing TIP-related statistics and above all, increasing prosecution enforcement. She agreed that everything on our list should be done, and reiterated her interest in making progress. She said she had already discussed TIP issues in general with newly-appointed Minister of Public Security Janina Del Vecchio (septel),and that Del Vecchio shared Duran's interest in trafficking issues. After all, concluded Duran, fighting trafficking and protecting trafficking victims in fully consistent with Costa Rica's long-established support for general human rights issues. ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT: The TIP story remains mixed in Costa Rica. Duran seemed somewhat more committed and the GOCR's anti-TIP efforts somewhat better organized since we met with her to begin our TIP report preparation. She is correct in describing the mixed trafficking/immigration/sex trade elements in TIP-related cases here. She is also correct in describing the prosecutorial problems in a nation where a very small percentage of criminal cases are fully prosecuted, let alone TIP, IPR or other non-criminal cases. Government awareness and commitment is only part of the solution, however, and Duran provided us context instead of specific results. But, she at least accepts that the GOCR needs to do more, and has taken the initiative to sensitize her new boss, Del Vecchio, to that need. BRENNAN