Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09GUATEMALA904
2009-09-18 18:32:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Guatemala
Cable title:  

STAFFDEL JACOBSTEIN STRUCK BY GUATEMALA'S SECURITY

Tags:  OREP PHUM PREL PGOV PINS ASEC EAID MARR MCAP MOPS GT 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0012
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #0904/01 2611833
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 181832Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0034
INFO WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000904 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR INL (MAYRA AHEARN) AND H (BARBARA FLECK)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OREP PHUM PREL PGOV PINS ASEC EAID MARR MCAP MOPS GT
SUBJECT: STAFFDEL JACOBSTEIN STRUCK BY GUATEMALA'S SECURITY
CHALLENGES

REF: A) SECSTATE 85132 B) GUATEMALA 776 C) GUATEMALA 497

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000904

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR INL (MAYRA AHEARN) AND H (BARBARA FLECK)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OREP PHUM PREL PGOV PINS ASEC EAID MARR MCAP MOPS GT
SUBJECT: STAFFDEL JACOBSTEIN STRUCK BY GUATEMALA'S SECURITY
CHALLENGES

REF: A) SECSTATE 85132 B) GUATEMALA 776 C) GUATEMALA 497


1. (SBU) Summary: Human rights and UN officials told Staffdel
Jacobstein September 1-4 that weak institutions, vulnerability to
narco-traffickers, and corruption were all serious problems facing
the Colom government. These points were reiterated by the Country
Team, and driven home during the Staffdel's site visit to an
exhumation of victims of an extrajudicial execution in the
Department of Chimaltenango. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Staffdel Jacobstein - consisting of professional staff
members Eric Jacobstein and Fred Ratliff from the House
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, and Robyn Wapner from the
House Foreign Affairs Committee - visited Guatemala from September
1-4. The purpose of their visit was to explore increased violence
and drug cartel activity in Guatemala and the impact of the Merida
Initiative and other U.S. foreign assistance programs in the
country. The Staffdel also examined the work the Embassy is doing
to promote good governance and rule of law and to fight
institutionalized corruption. Highlights of their visit included
meetings with the Attorney General, the Director of the UN-led
International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG),and
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Outside of the capital, the
Staffdel met with members of a rural indigenous community in the
Department of Chimaltenango, and visited an Embassy-sponsored model
police station and a youth-gang outreach center in Villanueva.


3. (SBU) Guatemala's weak institutions and the country's
vulnerability to narco-trafficking cartels figured prominently in a
roundtable discussion the Staffdel had with a dozen Guatemalan
human rights activists. While these HR representatives in general
agreed that Guatemala's police and judicial systems are broken,

they were similarly unified in their opposition to giving the Army
a greater role in combating narco-trafficking. The solution to
these security challenges, they argued, must be to reform the
police and judicial institutions, while providing jobs and
education to a people who have too little of either. All of them
supported the work CICIG has done to date, but warned that the
international organization could not solve the country's problems.
Eventually, CICIG will leave Guatemala, and strong institutions
must be in place to fill the void that will be felt by the
organization's departure. At the end of the day, political will
and leadership are the most important ingredients necessary for
Guatemala to reverse the culture of corruption and impunity that
plagues the country.


4. (SBU) The theme of institutional weakness and corruption
continued when the Staffdel met with CICIG Commissioner Carlos
Castresana. Castresana explained that the grand strategy of his
organization is to establish some legal precedents through
successful prosecution of six to eight important cases which CICIG
is currently investigating. Castresana said that he is generally
satisfied with the work CICIG has done in training a small group of
Guatemalan public prosecutors and judges, and that this effort to
create a trustworthy judicial "micro-system" would continue to be a
major focus of his organization over the course of its second
two-year mandate. This effort, he acknowledged, is being impeded
by the absence of sufficient funds to provide for their physical
protection and the protection of witnesses in the key cases CICIG
is investigating.


5. (SBU) In the Staffdel's subsequent meeting, Attorney General
Amilcar Velasquez lauded the constructive relationship his office
enjoys with CICIG, noting the first-class training some of his
prosecutors are receiving there. Velasquez pointed to the success
his staff has had in recent months in a couple of high-profile
narco-trafficking cases, and brought attention to the growing
capacity of the Attorney General's Office (Public Ministry) to
prosecute money-laundering cases. Like Castresana, Velasquez
expressed dismay about the lack of resources at his disposal to
protect his prosecutors, and appealed to Congress for help and
resources in this regard.


6. (SBU) At the Foreign Ministry, the Staffdel met with Carlos
Morales and Julio Martini, Directors General respectively for
Bilateral and Multilateral Affairs. They and other MFA staff
members present emphasized the extremely close nature of relations
with the United States, and thanked the Staffdel for Congress's
support of the Merida Initiative. They also emphasized Guatemala's
centrist political character, claiming that, under President Colom,
the country would never be a member of ALBA. With respect to
President Zelaya's ouster in Honduras, they expressed the
importance of a united message that coups would not be tolerated in
the hemisphere and felt that the situation in Honduras demonstrated
a failure of the OAS. Failure to reverse the coup in Honduras,
they argued, would only encourage further coups in the region. In
a subsequent meeting with the Staffdel, a number of leading


Guatemalan business leaders revealed that they had no enthusiasm
for the return of Zelaya, whom they view as a potential threat to
investment in the region and as a stooge of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez.


7. (SBU) Before leaving Guatemala City to tour USAID-funded
projects in Chimaltenango and Villanueva, the Staffdel visited the
international airport to learn about Guatemala's Counter-Narcotics
Quick Reaction Force. The Staffdel was able to review the use of
four U.S.-donated Huey helicopters and Merida funding to train a
joint task force of pilots, mechanics, police, and Army Special
Forces (Kaibiles) to react to drug-smuggling flights that violate
Guatemala airspace and land here.


8. (SBU) In the small, indigenous town of Paraje Xesiguan in the
Department of Chimaltenango, the Staffdel and the new Deputy Chief
of Mission witnessed an exhumation of victims of an extrajudicial
execution that took place during the internal conflict. According
to some estimates, over 45,000 Guatemalans were forcibly
disappeared between 1960 and 1996. USAID sponsors a program
throughout the country to recover and indentify their remains. The
Staffdel and DCM met with a number of the victims' family members,
who noted how important this effort is in terms of giving them
closure, and expressed their deep appreciation for U.S. support for
this program.


9. (SBU) In Villanueva, a poor, sprawling suburb just outside of
Guatemala City, the Staffdel visited a model police station, which,
with NAS support and training, has markedly increased arrest and
conviction rates within its precinct over national averages. The
model station has been so successful that it is being replicated in
Mixco, another high-crime area in the greater Guatemala City
metropolitan area. The Staffdel also visited a youth outreach
center in Villanueva, which, with USAID seed money, has been
extremely successful in steering away at-risk youth in Villanueva
from joining local gangs. The Embassy is also supporting the
replication of other such centers throughout Guatemala.


10. (SBU) In the country team briefing with the Staffdel, the
Ambassador noted that bilateral relations between the United States
and the Government of Guatemala (GoG) are excellent. The GoG's
support of a U.S.-funded and trained wire-tapping unit, the
Ambassador observed, had resulted in the headline-grabbing arrest
on August 7 of the national police chief and three of his top
lieutenants while they were stealing cocaine (Ref B).


11. (SBU) The Ambassador also praised the GoG for the greater
commitment it had recently demonstrated to judicial reform. As
examples, the Ambassador cited the GoG's support of legislation
passed this May that was designed to make the selection of Supreme
Court and appellate judges more transparent (REF C),and its
openness to the idea of possibly extending the U.S.-backed
polygraph program to vet high-level government officials. The
Ambassador also lauded CICIG's performance, noting that the
UN-sponsored organization was making progress in a number of
high-profile cases, including the May murder of attorney Rodrigo
Rosenberg, and the investigation of former President Portillo on
embezzlement and corruption charges. Notwithstanding these
advances, impunity, corruption and poor leadership continue to
challenge GoG progress.


12. (SBU) In addition, Guatemala continues to face grave security
challenges, none more serious than the threat posed by the
extremely lucrative narcotics trade flowing up from South America
to markets in the United States and Canada. The Political and
Economic Counselor noted that the NYC street value of cocaine
transiting Guatemala exceeds the country's entire national budget.
In addition to funding increasingly sophisticated and professional
gangs of narco-traffickers, the money generated by this trade
continues to have an extremely corrosive effect on already-weak
government institutions. The National Civilian Police (PNC) and
judicial system are riddled with corruption, and largely
ineffective and unprofessional. The murder rate in Guatemala is
among the highest in Latin America, with only two percent of all
murder cases resulting in conviction. The government has lost
control of entire swaths of the country to narco-trafficking gangs,
particularly in the border areas with Mexico.


13. (SBU) Given the weakness and unreliability of the PNC, the
Staffdel asked if it would make sense for the Guatemalan Armed
Forces to play a greater role in counter-narcotics operations. The
Ambassador noted that the military is well-regarded by the
Guatemalan general public but is seriously understaffed and is
lacking in resources: we believe the GoG should put more resources
into the military so it can carry out its constitutional mandate to
protect the borders. That said, the military needs to be more
forthcoming about conflict-era abuses its former members committed.


The Defense Attach???? added that the United States has a restricted
military-to-military relationship with the Guatemalan Armed Forces.
Current legislation excludes the United States from giving the
Guatemalan Army, except for military engineers, any FMF or IMET
funding, despite the fact that the Army has not been credibly
implicated in any gross human rights violations since the end of
the internal conflict in 1996. The Army makes up 85 percent of the
armed forces in Guatemala. The Ambassador noted that the Army is
already playing a critical supporting role in the fight against
narcotics trafficking. Reforming and professionalizing the police,
however, has to remain a key part of the solution to Guatemala's
security challenges, the Ambassador added.


14. (SBU) In response to the Staffdel's question on how the Merida
Initiative could be made more effective, the country-team suggested
that Congress consider giving the program a greater regional focus
and building in more programmatic flexibility, particularly in the
out-years. Because the narco-trafficking cartels have proved to be
so highly adaptable, the United States needs a counter-narcotics
funding source that is similarly agile. Having such flexibility,
for example, might have allowed the Embassy to move in a more
expeditious manner to help "harden" rural communities in the
central Department of Alta Verapaz against the encroachment of
Mexican drug cartels moving south from the Peten and Mexico. The
Country-Team also suggested that the delivery of Merida funding
between U.S. agencies be better coordinated and integrated, noting
that the various sections in the Embassy, including NAS, DEA, ICE,
and USAID, had received their respective tranches at different
times or were still waiting to receive them.


15. (SBU) The Ambassador concluded the Country Team briefing with
an appeal to support such institutions as CICIG and the judiciary,
and to engage the Guatemalan general public and build up their
confidence in the country's institutions. The United States should
also reinforce and leverage those areas where the Guatemalan
government demonstrates political will with additional resources.
The Embassy's success in getting the GoG to buy into the
wire-tapping and polygraph programs are two examples of programs
that have succeeded because of GoG political will buttressed by
steady Embassy persuasion.


16. (SBU) Comment: The three members of the Staffdel indicated
that were struck by the enormity of the challenges facing the
country, particularly with respect to reforming the police and the
judiciary. Nonetheless, they had also seen some positive signs.
They were particularly impressed with contributions that CICIG is
making to the rule and law and with the Attorney General's
commitment to build a corps of trustworthy and professional
prosecutors. They took onboard the Country-Team's suggestions to
give the Merida Initiative more of a regional focus and greater
programmatic flexibility, but wondered about the capacity of the
GoG to absorb significant levels of additional aid. With respect
to the possibility of giving the Guatemalan military greater
counter-narcotics assistance, the Staffdel acknowledged that there
is significant interest, as well as resistance, to this idea in
Congress. Finally, the Staffdel expressed their support for the
USAID and NAS-sponsored projects that they had visited, noting in
particular that the briefings they had received on these programs
had been done largely by Guatemalans, which helped to convey a
strong sense of ownership. End comment.


17. (U) Staffdel Jacobstein has cleared this cable.
MCFARLAND