EL SALVADOR/MCC: POSITIVE FIRST MEETING WITH NEW

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 000503 DEPT FOR WHA; ALSO PLEASE PASS TO MCC ACTING CEO RODNEY BENT E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2019 TAGS: PREL EAID PGOV ES SUBJECT: EL SALVADOR/MCC: POSITIVE FIRST MEETING WITH NEW CHAIRMAN Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Robert Blau; Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Charge and MCC Country Director met on June 3 with Alex Segovia, President Funes's Chief of Cabinet, at his request to discuss his new role as Chairman of the Board of Fomilenio, the local MCC accountable entity. Segovia discussed the composition of the board of directors and the responsibilities attributed to each government and entity on the Fomilenio - MCC organizational chart. Repeating the key message delivered to Hugo Martinez (now Foreign Minister) on April 28, by MCC Acting CEO Rodney Bent, we stressed that Segovia had an automatic majority on the board and enjoyed political direction of Fomilenio. Segovia called for a board meeting on June 10 at which he and other GOES ministers would present their "Anti-Crisis" plan, and ask Fomilenio to respond with a briefing on how MCC/Fomilenio can be a part of that plan. ¶2. (C) Segovia then asked our opinion of the current Executive Director of Fomilenio, Jorge Angel Quiros, who Segovia said was not universally liked by the FMLN because of his former service as Public Works Minister in prior ARENA-led governments. Segovia added that Quiros's FMLN opponents alleged that he approved contracts without transparency. We urged Segovia to judge Quiros on his record of accomplishment at Fomilenio, which has been excellent by any and all objective criteria. Segovia took the point, adding that if Quiros could meet his and President Funes's standards of transparency and effective performance, he would have no objection to keeping him on board. ¶3. (C) Comment: Segovia requested this meeting right after the bilateral between The Secretary and President Funes on Monday, which Segovia attended. He commented Wednesday that he and Funes were very taken by both the substance and the friendly atmosphere of the bilateral, and wanted to make MCC a key element of the "anti-crisis" plan. Holding onto Quiros at Fomilenio will be an important test of Segovia's and Funes's ability to assert their authority in the face of hard-line FMLN pressure to sack him. Although we let Segovia know that the USG had veto power over a possible replacement for Quiros, our main argument was that decapitating Fomilenio now would paralyze the organization at exactly the time when it was reaching its peak performance. BLAU