El Salvador: Funes Pushing New Public Security Plan

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 000081 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/18 TAGS: PGOV KCRM SNAR ES SUBJECT: El Salvador: Funes Pushing New Public Security Plan CLASSIFIED BY: Robert I. Blau, Charge d' Affaires, Department of State, Executive Office; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (SBU) President Mauricio Funes has pushed his Public Security team to develop a new plan to confront ever worsening levels of violent crime in El Salvador. His Wednesday evening February 17 meeting with the diplomatic corps was the final of a series of town-hall-style meetings Funes hosted on the subject; previous ones included business and media leaders, mayors, judges, and political parties. The process of consulting was billed as a two-way conversation; but the plan was presented as a fait accompli, ready to be launched this month. ChargC) commented favorably on the plan to local media pointing out that its objectives are in line with our multiple assistance programs. ¶2. (SBU) The plan itself (details septel, with the GOES's slides attached) includes many good ideas, such as putting more police on the streets, gathering and sharing better criminal intelligence, providing services to victims, improving management of crime scenes, and cracking down on corruption and lack of discipline in the prison system. In the diplomatic corps briefing, attended by ChargC) and Emboffs, the most telling comments and questions were those that pointed out the plan's shortcoming in the area of impunity, pointing out that the public's loss of confidence in the GOES is precisely because criminals have a less than five percent chance of getting convicted for a crime. Even if convicted, gang members still find ways to operate in prison, where the National Civilian Police (PNC) estimates over 70 percent of phone-called extortions originate. ¶3. (C) Comment: If nothing else, the new plan is the Funes Administration's recognition that the old plan was not working. Citizen insecurity is the public's number-one concern, and likely to cut into Funes's high approval ratings if/when, after all the fanfare associated with this new plan, six months down the road there is no noticeable improvement. Embassy's view is that carrying out the plan, with a less-than-stellar public security team in charge of its implementation, will be a lot harder than developing the plan. That said, if just one aspect of this plan succeeded, specifically tightening management of prisons, it would represent a victory. BLAU