DEMARCHE DELIVERED: PROPOSAL TO LIST CHINESE

S E C R E T SAN JOSE 000154 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN, S/CT, EEB/ESC/TFS LRECHT, AND EAP/CM BANDREWS. E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2019 TAGS: EFIN ETRD ETTC PGOV KTFN CS SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED: PROPOSAL TO LIST CHINESE NATIONAL ABDUL HAQ WITH UNSC 1267 COMMITTEE REF: STATE 15118 Classified By: Political/Economic Counselor David E. Henifin for reason 1.4(d). ¶1. (S) On March 4, we delivered reftel demarche to Carlos Cordero in the MFA's Department of Disarmament, Terrorism, and Organized Crime. Cordero told us that Costa Rica would support the joint U.S.-Chinese 1267 listing but would be unlikely to cosponsor the listing because Costa Rica lacked strong internal procedures to take actions, such as freezing assets. ¶2. (SBU) The GOCR's usual procedure with UN-sponsored listings is to provide the names to Costa Rican banking oversight agencies and to coordinate with Interpol, though these procedures should be strengthened given recent GOCR passage of a terrorism finance bill. (The new bill was signed by President Arias on March 4, and will take effect as soon as it has been published in the official gazette.) Cordero said he would wait to share the information until the listing was made public. ¶3. (C) COMMENT: We hope to receive more concrete responses from the MFA in the future regarding terrorism finance demarches, at least those that are associated with the UNSC 1267 Committee, with the recent passage of Costa Rica's terrorism finance law (Law 17009). Practically, this law strengthens existing legislation on terrorism and contains specific language on freezing assets. As soon as the this new anti-terrorism tool takes effect, we will push the GOCR to use it, and to seize assets when appropriate. END COMMENT. ¶4. (U) An unofficial translation of Law 17009's relevant language on terrorism finance follows: "In case of persons and organizations determined by the Security Council of the United Nations to be linked to terrorism, acting in conformity with Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Finance Intelligence Unit (FIU) shall arrange for the retention and immobilization of funds and financial products, and the immobilization by registry annotation of other assets. When, for purposes of investigation, lists of persons and organizations linked to terrorism are circulated among the national and international institutions indicated in Articles 14, 15, and 15b of this Law (which includes financial and insurance regulators, financial institutions, as well as the "informal" players such as pawn shops, casinos, credit card companies, etc.), such institutions shall have the obligation to review and report to the FIU of the Costa Rican Drug Institute (equivalent to the U.S. ONDCP) if the persons and organizations included on the lists possess resources or assets in such institutions." CIANCHETTE