NEW HONDURAN FM EDMUNDO ORELLANA: WE CAN WORK WITH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TEGUCIGALPA 000107

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/31/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL PTER SMIG CVIS VE HO
SUBJECT: NEW HONDURAN FM EDMUNDO ORELLANA: WE CAN WORK WITH
THIS GUY!

REF: TEGUCIGALPA 89

Classified By: Ambassador Charles Ford, reason 1.4 (b & d)


1. (C) Summary: On his first day in office, Foreign Minister
Edmundo "Mundo" Orellana received the Ambassador for a
courtesy call. They discussed moving the bilateral agenda
forward, especially in the areas of security and migration
issues. Orellana lamented the chaos the Foreign Ministry was
in, and pledged to remove the political activists in his
ministry and the "ghost" diplomats in the United States who
never show up to work. He expressed complete surprise to
learn Vice FM Reina had made pronouncements on the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC - see reftel),
and the Ministry had sent a dipnote supporting those
statements. In short, he was open, admitted when he did not
know something, and expressed an earnest desire to build on a
relationship that had been neglected by his predecessor. End
Summary.


2. (C) On February 1, the Ambassador paid a courtesy call on
Foreign Minister Edmundo "Mundo" Orellana --his first day in
office. Orellana said he was honored to receive the
Ambassador on his first day and hoped that the Ambassador
would feel free to come to him at any time. The Ambassador
told Orellana he wanted to continue to build on the
U.S.-Honduran relationship by addressing issues of bilateral
concern, and mentioned our August 2007 letter to President
Manuel Zelaya that proposed seven points of possible
discussion. Orellana denied any knowledge of this agenda,
which the Ambassador offered to send to him. The Ambassador
solicited any additional issues Orellana might want to
discuss, and Orellana immediately suggested the status of
migrants should be added to the list. Orellana then asked
about some general issues, including Petrocaribe and Zelaya's
trip to Washington February 7, saying he was not even sure if
he would be accompanying Zelaya. Orellana promised to
re-start the bilateral discussions as soon as he could form
his team of advisors.


3. (C) Orellana then told the Ambassador that when he left
the Ministry of Governance, he held a reception for the
incoming Minister and introduced him to the staff and briefed
him on the most important outstanding issues. He said that
he arrived at the MFA today to no welcome at all -- he does
not even know what his new telephone number is. Orellana
characterized the MFA as "chaotic" and said he was going to
get rid of the estimated 500 political activists who were
brought in under previous FM Milton Jimenez. He said Jimenez
completely politicized the Ministry and rewarded political
activists with no qualifications or experience with Ministry
positions. Orellana was surprised to learn from the
Ambassador that there were multiple Honduran diplomats in the
United States who had requested and received diplomatic
visas, but who had never shown up for work. He asked for
further information on these cases and pledged not only to
get rid of them, but also to right-size staff in all the
overseas missions because it was a huge drain on their hard
currency reserves.


4. (C) Orellana also seemed genuinely surprised to hear that
Vice FM Reina had made "wishy-washy" pronouncements on the
FARC that left it open to interpretation that the GOH did not
consider the FARC to be terrorists, and even more surprised
that the MFA had followed it up with a diplomatic note
confirming this position. The Ambassador told Orellana that,
in contrast, the Chief of Defense had issued a letter saying
that the Honduran Armed Forces work from the U.S. terrorist
list (which contains the FARC). The Ambassador explained to
Orellana that most of our bilateral military cooperation is
in the counterterrorism (CT) field, and that much of the CT
work was combating the influence of the FARC in Central
America. The Ambassador said he had discussed this issue
with Zelaya, who had told him that personally he considered

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the FARC terrorists, but that he "could not say that
publicly." Orellana thanked the Ambassador for this insight,
because he said that if he had been asked, he had been
planning to say, "Of course the FARC are terrorists." He
promised to consult with the CHOD, the Minister of Security,
and the President and get back to us on this issue.


5. (C) Comment: In short, Orellana struck us as an open and
honest interlocutor, who admitted when he did not know
something and who honestly wants to work to improve the
bilateral relationship. He told us that when Zelaya asked
him to take on the position, he had told the President he did
not think he was the best person for the job, as he knew
nothing about diplomacy and does not speak other languages.
(Bio note: He told us he spent three years learning Italian,
and his time in New York studying English, but that he lost
all foreign language skills for lack of use.) Orellana
seemed to be "out of the loop" on many very big issues like
Petrocaribe, the FARC, and his own President's trip to
Washington next week; however, with time, we think he can use
his relationship with the President (they are related and
grew up living next door to each other) to gain more
influence. We look forward to working with Orellana and
think he may indeed be one of the "islands of sanity" that we
can go to when working with this administration. End
comment.
FORD