President Calderon Bolsters Ties with Guatemala in Oct 26-27

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000955

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PBTS SNAR SENV ENRG CVIS MX GT
SUBJECT: President Calderon Bolsters Ties with Guatemala in Oct 26-27
Visit


1. (SBU) Summary: In an October 26-27 visit to Guatemala, Mexican
President Felipe Calderon discussed a number of initiatives with
his Guatemalan counterpart, Alvaro Colom, to better control
migration and enhance security along their shared border. The two
leaders pledged to reinforce joint efforts to combat drug
trafficking, organized crime, human trafficking, money laundering,
and arms trafficking. President Calderon also proposed that the
two states consider signing an agreement on intelligence sharing.
Colom said he would study it. Other highlights of the visit
included the joining of electrical grids between the two countries
and the inauguration of a new road and model border crossing point
linking Mexico's southern states of Tabasco and Chiapas to Peten,
Guatemala's northernmost department. We will follow up with the
Mexican Ambassador to assess the visit's impact on more sensitive
counter-narcotics issues. End Summary.




2. (SBU) President Calderon used the opportunity of his first
official trip to Guatemala October 26-27 to discuss with President
Colom two relatively new Mexican initiatives to better control
migration: A) issuing a new border crossing card valid in four
Mexican border states (Quintana Roo, Chiapas, Tabasco, and
Campeche),and B) issuing a new work visa valid in the same areas.
According to Mexican DCM Mario Puga, the new border crossing card,
inspired by the one used on the U.S. - Mexico border, has replaced
the previous, local border crossing passes which, he added, were
"inexplicably" issued by Guatemalan authorities, rather than the
Mexican National Migration Institute. The new border crossing
cards have anti-counterfeiting protections including a chip with
biometric data that allows the automated recording of movements
across the border. These border crossing cards are currently only
available to Guatemalans from departments bordering Mexico, but
Calderon announced that some time during 2010 Mexico will extend
the benefit to all Guatemalans. Currently there are 35,000 such
cards in circulation. They are valid for travel up to 100 kms. and
allow stays of up to three nights.




3. (SBU) The new work visa is intended to extend better state
control over the movement of temporary Central American workers
into southern Mexico, and distinguish them from other migrants
seeking to make their way farther north. Like the border card,
issuance of these new visas also began about eight months ago, and
is part of a broader national strategy of strengthening controls at
Mexico's southern isthmus - the narrowest portion of Mexico's
southern territory that runs along a line north from the state of
Oaxaca. With the new work visa, temporary workers will be free to
move about southeast of the choke point.




4. (SBU) Guatemalan MFA Director General for Bilateral Affairs
Carlos Raul Morales told Pol/Econ Counselor the two governments
concur that exercising physical control over the entirety of the
Mexican-Guatemalan border, much of which is covered by dense,
nearly impenetrable forest, is not a practical goal, so instead the
two sides want to develop more intelligence on and exercise greater
control over the people who cross the border. Morales added that
the new border crossing cards fit within a broader Guatemalan
effort to strengthen border controls, the "Integral Border Security
Plan." The first manifestation of the new plan is the model border
crossing installation under construction at El Ceibo, Peten, which
the two presidents visited Oct. 27. El Ceibo will be the first of
eight new model border crossing points designed to new
specifications. The GOG selected these points because they
coincide with the route of the planned Northern Transversal
Highway.




5. (U) During the visit, the two presidents also inaugurated a
22-kilometer stretch of road connecting Guatemala's northernmost
department of Peten with the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas.
The new road will facilitate movement of tourists between the Mayan
ruin sites of Palenque, Mexico, and Tikal, Guatemala. Calderon and
Colom also took time to inaugurate a new electrical power
substation in the department of Retalhuheu on the Pacific coast.
The opening of the $54 million substation links Mexico's electrical
grid to Guatemala's through a 103 km-long transmission line between
the two countries. Joining of the two grids is expected to provide
Guatemala with about nine percent of its total electrical needs and
additional surge capability, and is part of a larger regional
scheme (Plan Puebla) to eventually link the electrical grids of
Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. Finally, Calderon visited
the department of Quiche, where Colom decorated the Mexican flag


with the Order of the Quetzal as a token of appreciation for the
support Mexico showed to Guatemalan refugees during its armed
internal conflict. An estimated 45,000 (mostly indigenous)
Guatemalans sought refuge in Chiapas, Quintana Roo, and Campeche
between 1954 and 1996.


6. (SBU) Before Calderon's departure, Guatemala offered to host
the February 2010 counter-narcotics summit in which Panama, Mexico,
Colombia, and Guatemala will participate. (This will be the second
such summit by the four countries; the first was held in Colombia.)
According to Mexican DCM Puga, Mexico will likely support
Guatemala's offer, and anticipates Panama and Colombia will agree.



7. (SBU) Comment: The discussions the two presidents had about
controlling migration through the use of biometric border crossing
cards and regional work visas are noteworthy, as are those they had
on enhancing border security through the construction of model
border stations and the possible exchange of criminal databases.
The border between Guatemala and Mexico is porous and continues to
be used by illicit traffickers of all kinds. End Comment.
McFarland