SOUTHERN CONE COM CONFERENCE REVIEWS NEXT STEPS TO

S E C R E T SANTIAGO 000453 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EB, WHA/BSC, WHA/PPD, E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2018 TAGS: ECON EINV ENRG FARC IR MARR PGOV PREL PTER SENV, CI, AR, BR, EC, CO, PE, PA, UY SUBJECT: SOUTHERN CONE COM CONFERENCE REVIEWS NEXT STEPS TO IMPROVE REGIONAL COORDINATION Classified By: Ambassador Paul E. Simons for reasons 1.4 (b & d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) Southern Cone COMs, meeting in Santiago April 25-26, and joined by ranking SOUTHCOM, WHA, and OES representatives discussed a wide range of regional issues, including security, economic and envionmental challenges, as well as reviewed consular, immigration and public diplomacy best practices. Participants agreed to seek from Washington: 1) policy guidance on coordinated USG use, privately and publicly, of information gleaned from the Reyes hard drives; 2) suggestions on how to better encourage host government regional cooperation through multilateral initiatives, such as peacekeeping and disaster relief; and, 3) policy guidance on Brazil's regional defense council proposal. Conference participants also agreed that an upcoming July 2008 SOUTHCOM meeting in Florida would be an appropriate venue to review: 1) DOD's proposed Senior Defense Official concept; 2) better coordination of military (SOUTHCOM) and civilian (USAID) humanitarian disaster relief efforts; and, 3) the nexus between the FARC, Iran, and Venezuela, and its potential threat to regional security. The COMs proposed, too, inviting Commerce Secretary Gutierrez to the region to meet with regional U.S Chambers of Commerce, and host country officials, to discuss regional economic integration and common concerns. ¶2. (U) COMs were briefed by DVC on OBO's "green embassy" initiatives, and heard from Embassy Santiago on its efforts in this area. OES provided an overview of its priorities, including on biofuels. Environmental, public diplomacy, and consular discussions, including sharing of best practices in the region, reported septel. End summary. ¶3. (U) Ambassador Paul Simons and Embassy Santiago hosted April 25-26 the fourth iteration of the Southern Cone Chiefs of Mission conference, an initiative begun in 2006 to encourage exchange of views and best practices on issues of common interest to missions in this region. Ambassadors Simons, Tony Wayne (Argentina),Cliff Sobel (Brazil),Jim Cason (Paraguay),and Frank Baxter (Uruguay) were joined by Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., J-3 Director of Operations, SOUTHCOM; Ambassador Reno Harnish, OES PDAS; and, Chris McMullen, WHA DAS for South America. DCM Urban and E/Pol Counselor were also present for all working sessions. -------------- Next Steps on Colombia-Ecuador -------------- ¶4. (C) DAS McMullen opened the April 26 session with a review of developments tied to the Ecuador-Colombia border incident. COMs expressed strong interest in how they could be of assistance in the Southern Cone to further USG interest in bolstering Uribe and further weakening the FARC. All noted that there is strong public interest in the case but also considerable skepticism on the part of regional leaders (such as Chile's Bachelet),intelligence services (as with Brazil), and opinion makers in the veracity of the data found on the hard drives. They also noted the Colombians did not seem to have an active campaign, public or private, underway to convince Southern Cone leaders or publics of their positions. Ambassadors were interested in whether Posts would receive policy guidance and instructions from Washington once Interpol finished its analysis. ACTION FOR WHA/BSC: COMs request cleared, inter-agency guidance that can be used to brief host government leadership on strategic implications of information found on Reyes hard drives, including evidence of FARC's destabilization activities in the region, as well as its connections to Chavez. COMs also request PD points for use with media. COMs request as well that WHA coordinate with DoD and CIA to send participants to the July 16-17 SOUTHCOM conference, which COMs will seek also to attend, to facilitate discussion regarding the nexus in the region between Iran, the FARC, and Venezuela and to formulate a strategic response. -------------- The View From SOUTHCOM -------------- ¶5. (S) RADM Harris then briefed on SOUTHCOM efforts in the region to strengthen mil-to-mil relationships. He reviewed with COM's the dim chances of entering into SOFAs with host nations; although Ambassador Cason was cautiously optimistic that President-elect Lugo in Paraguay might consider, the overall sense was "not likely." U.S. Special Operations forces are working effectively with Paraguay in the tri-border region and SOUTHCOM is considering staffing of a MIST (Military Information Support Team) in Brazil. This latter intrigued the COM's who believed MIST deployments could be useful to overall regional public diplomcy, including publicizing bilateral and multilateral counternarcotics efforts. COMs discussed with RADM Harris the need to better coordinate USAID and SOUTHCOM efforts in the face of humanitarian disaster relief and to make clearer how COMs can draw on and use both sets if tools and under what circumstances. Ambassadors suggested that we look for more opportunities to bring regional defense representatives together on non-controversial themses such as disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, and peacekeeeping. RADM Harris's review of regional arms sales sparked discussion of Brazil's proposed Regional Defense Council initiative, with Ambassador Sobel noting the Brazilan's view that the proposal is meant in part to "embrace Chavez" and keep him "on the ranch." Ambassador Simons noted Chile's reluctance to embrace what is still an undefined proposal. The COMs agreed to seek Department guidance on the Brazilian initiative, which several of them saw as connected with Brazil's earlier efforts to create an exclusive South American forum which it could heavily influence. ¶6. (C) RADM Harris also briefed on SOUTHCOM's planned reorganization intended, as he explained, to ensure SOUTHCOM is "more engaged in inter-agency planning, cooperation, and action." RADM Harris' review of DoD's decision to put both MilGroup and DAO activities under the command of a single Senior Defense Officer (SDO) sparked some concerns, with COM's asking for more information as to how the concept will be implemented, specifically chain-of-command within embassies and with DAO/MilGroup headquarters. ACTION FOR WHA/BSC in coordination with USAID and SOUTHCOM: COMs request Department's policy guidance on Brazil's proposed Regional Security Council proposal. COMs also request USAID be present at the July 16-17 SOUTHCOM conference prepared to discuss how to improve humanitarian disaster relief coordination with SOUTHCOM. At that conference, COM's would also request that a DoD representative brief further on its SDO proposal, as noted above. COMs also suggest WHA/PPD consider how it might partner with DoD's MIST teams to further public awareness of the threat presented by transnational crimes, and how militaries in the region are playing lead roles in combating the threat, while remaining mindful of how publics in host nations are skeptical of using militaries in this manner. The COMs also expressed interest in how the USG could better promote cooperation and integration through use of the two peacekeeping schools in the region (e.g. more "training the trainers"). COMs also agreed it would be very worthwhile to put together a list of "Best Practices" in use of public diplomacy for military events and visits. With this, all COMs in the hemisphere could benefit from the good practices established elsewhere. -------------- Economic Concerns -------------- ¶7. (U) Over lunch, participants reviewed state of play on the U.S-Colombia FTA, regional desire for increased U.S. investment, and whether the U.S. wants to engage with MERCOSUR. On the latter, it was agreed that the organization did not function well and that Venezula's potential membership complicated matters (although Ambassador Sobel noted Brazil likely supported it as another means to wrap Caracas in a regional embrace). Noting the strength and influence of U.S. Chambers of Commerce in several host nations, the COM's thought a regional conference of Chambers - perhaps with a respected voice such as Secretary of Commerce Gutierrez as keynote speaker - could usefully draw host government officials into a discussion of business' concerns and how to better attract foreign investment. ACTION FOR WHA/BSC and EB: COMs request Department policy guidance on USG support for and engagement with MERCOSUR, including whether we support Venezula's membership. COMs further ask that the Department work with the office of Secretary Gutierrez to arrange his participation in a Southern Cone regional U.S. Chambers of Commerce conference. URBAN