GOC ASKS FOR USG HELP TO PERSUADE EU AND RUSSIA TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BOGOTA 002409 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/29/2019 TAGS: PREL PTER ETTC PARM SW RS EU CO SUBJECT: GOC ASKS FOR USG HELP TO PERSUADE EU AND RUSSIA TO SUSPEND ARMS SALES TO VENEZUELA Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Brian A. Nichols, reason 1.4(b&d) ¶1. (U) This is an action request, please see paragraph 3. ¶2. (C) Vice Foreign Minister Clemencia Forero and Vice Defense Minister Sergio Jaramillo called Charge to the Foreign Ministry on July 29 to request USG assistance in persuading the EU and Russia to suspend arms sales to Venezuela. The meeting was the morning after Venezuelan (BRV) President Hugo Chavez recalled his Ambassador in response to GOC statements regarding anti-tank missiles seized from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that had been purchased by the BRV from Swedish manufacturers. Forero and Jaramillo lamented the BRV's reaction --rejecting the link to Venezuela, calling the evidence a false invention, linking the story to the establishment of U.S. "military bases" in Colombia, recalling the Ambassador and senior diplomats in Colombia, and threatening to sever commercial ties-- and the media's focus on souring Colombia-Venezuela relations. They thought the issue should remain a bilateral one between Venezuela and Sweden. ¶3. (C) The vice ministers agreed that USG public statements would only please Chavez. However, given the incontrovertible evidence (the Swedish Government, U.S. ATF, and INTERPOL all independently confirmed the source of the seized weapons),GOC intel reports that the FARC is seeking to purchase surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS),and the apparent unwillingness of the Swedish Government to warn the rest of the EU, the GOC requests that the USG discreetly help convince EU members to cease military sales to Venezuela until the issue of end use of Swedish weapons is resolved. The GOC also asked that the USG again weigh in with Russia on its sales to Venezuela. ACTION REQUEST: Post requests guidance on USG's reply to the GOC request that the USG encourage the EU and Russia to suspend military sales to Venezuela. END ACTION REQUEST. ¶4. (C) The GOC also plans to urge the Russians to cease military sales to Venezuela, or at least ensure that transferred arms do not go to the FARC. VM Jaramillo repeatedly stressed that the MANPADS threat was serious, and said the GOC was documenting all evidence and communications with the BRV and Russia so that they would be prepared if the GOC eventually needed to take the issue to the UN Security Council. The vice ministers said the GOC did not want to engage in escalating rhetoric with Caracas and would maintain its line of seeking to work with the BRV to investigate the arms transfers and resolve differences rather than freezing relations. BACKGROUND -------------- ¶5. (C) The GOC has seized M-136 AT4 anti-tank missiles from the batch sold to Venezuela by Sweden on several occasions, beginning in 2003. The latest seizure occurred on October 7, 2008, and the link to Venezuela and Sweden was made public through British publication "Jane's" last week. Beginning in May 2009, the GOC requested USG (ATF) and INTERPOL help in tracing the weapons, and then asked the Swedish Government for information. The Swedish Embassy in Bogota provided the GOC a letter dated June 25, 2009, confirming that the missiles and related ammunition seized in July and October 2008 were manufactured by Saab Bofors Dynamics of Sweden and that they had been sold to Venezuela in 1988. The GOC provided us a copy of the letter, photographs and video of the seized weapons clearly showing the serial numbers, and excerpts from previously disclosed FARC e-mails dated January 4 and 20, 2007 that referred to the acquisition of these types of weapons through BRV military officials. ¶6. (C) VM Forero told us that the Swedish Ambassador had traveled to Caracas in June but had not succeeded in getting the Venezuelan Defense and Foreign Ministries to investigate. On the night of July 28, after the story hit the media and Chavez's reaction, the Swedish Charge in Colombia told a news station that the Swedish Government had confirmed that the weapons seized from the FARC were produced in Sweden and sold BOGOTA 00002409 002 OF 002 to Venezuela as the end user, and that the Swedish Government had "asked the BRV to explain how this equipment was found in Colombia." ¶7. (C) Later on July 29, President Uribe issued a statement from Costa Rica listing the facts and timeline. The statement highlighted that Sweden had asked the BRV for an explanation, that the BRV refused to respond to evidence the GOC had shared on June 2, and that the FARC was seeking to acquire surface-to-air missiles. ¶8. (U) The text of the statement follows: --In October 2008, the Armed Forces of Colombia impounded three rocket launchers from a camp of the FARC narcoterrorist group, at La Macarena in the Meta Department. --The Swedish Government has confirmed that the material was manufactured in Sweden and sold to Venezuela in 1988. --Sweden has asked Venezuela for an explanation. --On 2 June, during a private meeting in San Pedro Sula (Honduras),the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Jaime Bermudez, gave the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, a document containing evidence of the FARC narcoterrorist group possessing these rocket launchers, which were part of a batch sold by the Government of Sweden to the Government of Venezuela in 1988. --In that same meeting of 2 June in San Pedro Sula, Foreign Minister Bermudez also provided information demonstrating that two leaders of the FARC narcoterrorist group had discussed assistance received from three senior officials of the Venezuelan Government in the delivery of some rocket launchers, with similar characteristics to the ones impounded by the Armed Forces in La Macarena. --The Government of Colombia handed over the information discreetly in order to obtain clarification from Venezuela. --To date, Venezuela has not responded, despite our permanent and reiterative disposition for dialogue. --The Government of Colombia has received additional information which confirms that the FARC narcoterrorist group has been trying to obtain surface-air missiles. --The FARC narcoterrorist group is arranging the acquisition of surface-air missiles through international weapons traffickers from other countries. --The Government of Colombia has asked and is asking these other countries for assistance in avoiding this terrorist weapons trafficking and in capturing the traffickers. Nichols