VZCZCXRO9174
RR RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #0983/01 0581604
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 271604Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5560
RHMFIUU/CDR USNORTHCOM
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHDC
RUEAHLA/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUCNFB/FBI WASHDC
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 000983 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL; WHA/MEX; 
DHS FOR A/S J.MYERS; OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - K 
O'REILLY; CBP - C.STALLWORTH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTE SNAR MX
SUBJECT: SECRETARY CHERTOFF'S MEETINGS WITH ATTORNEY 
GENERAL EDUARDO MEDINA MORA AND PUBLIC SECURITY SECRETARY 
GENARO GARCIA LUNA 
 
THIS CABLE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PLEASE HANDLE 
ACCORDINGLY. 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  (SBU)  During a two-day trip to Mexico City, Secretary of 
Homeland Security Michael Chertoff met February 16 with 
Mexican Secretary of Public Security Genaro Garcia Luna. 
Secretary Chertoff and senior Department of Homeland Security 
 
SIPDIS 
(DHS) staff heard Medina Mora outline plans to improve 
investigation and prosecution of crime in Mexico, discussed 
increasing cooperation in attacking the trade in 
methamphetamine precursor chemicals, reviewed Mexico's 
strategy for controlling its southern border, and agreed to 
further operational engagement in each of these areas.  End 
Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Policing/Prosecutorial Changes Outlined 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Medina Mora opened by outlining the legal changes 
the Calderon administration would seek from the Mexican 
Congress to improve the link between policing, 
investigations, and prosecution.  First, he said, President 
Calderon would seek a constitutional amendment to give a 
reorganized federal police force the power to conduct 
criminal investigations.  Every federal police officer should 
have the capacity to conduct investigations without prior 
approval from the Office of the Attorney General (PGR), as is 
now required.  His office would still need to validate the 
results of such investigations, but he expected his officers 
in the future to focus on building legal cases rather than 
"chasing bad guys."  Chasing bad guys is a police function, 
he said. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Second, he said, he expected Mexico to move toward 
a mixed system of oral trials and the current accusatorial 
system of justice.  Without outlining a time frame or 
legislative strategy to effect the change, Medina Mora said 
the PGR would seek to institute oral trials at the federal 
level for "minor" crimes, retaining accusatorial procedures 
for major criminal cases, particularly against the cartels. 
However, under the reforms outlined above, his office would 
have a strengthened capability to develop and present 
evidence to judges for processing major criminal cases. 
Embassy comment:  There is something inconsistent across 
these plans on justice reform.  But then the legal package is 
still being developed.  End comment. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Finally, Medina Mora noted that he wanted to bring 
all of Mexico under single criminal and procedural codes at 
the federal and state levels. 
 
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OASSIS 
------ 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Secretary Chertoff led his comments by noting the 
success of the Smugglers and Traffickers Initiative on Safety 
and Security (OASSIS) program and offered to work with the 
GOM to expand it.  Medina Mora agreed, called the program 
valuable, and endorsed its extension, particularly to the 
area between Eastern California/Baja California and 
Sonora/Arizona where he estimated 80 percent of the migrant 
traffic crossed into the United States.  Secretary Chertoff 
reminded Medina Mora that he would be traveling to Arizona 
the following week, noting he needed to remain visibly active 
in promoting tighter controls against the flow of illegal 
immigrants even as his administration worked for a temporary 
worker program. 
 
--------------- 
Meth Precursors 
--------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Medina Mora turned to Mexico's growing problem 
with methamphetamine production and trafficking and told 
 
MEXICO 00000983  002 OF 003 
 
 
Secretary Chertoff that the GOM had recently seized close to 
 
SIPDIS 
40 metric tons of pseudoephedrine shipped from Hong Kong 
through Long Beach to Manzanillo.  He noted that as much as 
97 percent of illicit precursor chemicals were routed in this 
fashion, and asked for better U.S. monitoring and 
interdiction at the port of Long Beach, as well as U.S. - GOM 
diplomatic engagement in Asia, to target and impede such 
illegal shipments.  Secretary Chertoff asked Medina Mora to 
share more details of the seizure with DHS.  If such large 
volumes are passing through Long Beach, then improved 
targeting, informed by Mexican Law Enforcement intelligence, 
could improve U.S. targeting of precursor shipments bound for 
Mexico.  The U.S. and Mexico need to cooperate more closely 
in this area, Secretary Chertoff agreed.  He offered to "put 
someone operational" to work in this area to see how both 
countries could share intelligence and jointly analyze 
vulnerabilities. 
 
-------------- 
Southern Focus 
-------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Broadening the discussion, Medina Mora outlined 
what he called the three most critical law enforcement 
challenges Mexico faces:  improving the institutional 
strength of local, state, and federal police forces; 
dismantling the sophisticated business operations run by the 
drug cartels; and crafting a regional strategy encompassing 
the U.S., Mexico and Central America.  The cocaine trade 
through Central America gives Mexican cartels the money, 
incentives, capabilities, and corrosive impact they have in 
Mexico and its southern neighbors, he said. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Secretary Chertoff asked Medina Mora to outline 
Mexico's southern border strategy.  Medina Mora suggested 
that interdiction capacity-building among Central American 
countries as a necessary key focus.  The problem for Mexico, 
he said, is truly regional, and potential instability in 
Central America would pose direct and immediate threats to 
public security in Mexico.  He cited Guatemala as 
particularly problematic.  Understandable reductions in the 
armed forces there in recent years have created a security 
vacuum, particularly in the Peten, the northernmost 
department of Guatemala, which Medina Mora called a no-man's 
land. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  The Attorney General suggested shifting U.S. 
Halcon Citations to Guatemala, since, he averred, airborne 
shipments of illegal drugs within Mexico toward the north 
were rare.  Similarly, Mora staffer Oscar Rocha outlined a 
proposal whereby the U.S. would purchase go-fasts seized and 
re-furbished by Mexico and provide them to Central American 
governments for their own interdiction efforts..  Providing 
them a shore-based interdiction capability they currently 
lack would compliment U.S. blue water patrols in the region 
and get buy-in from the Centrals for a regional counter-drug 
effort.  Without providing encouragement to these specific 
proposals, Secretary Chertoff agreed the situation warranted 
creative approaches and promised to work the inter-agency 
community in Washington to see what kinds of resources 
various elements, such as DOD, might be able to put into the 
mix. 
 
---- 
Cuba 
---- 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  Medina Mora warned of the destabilizing dangers 
of a rapid post-Castro regime collapse in Cuba and argued 
that a "semi-authoritarian" regime evolving toward democracy 
would be better for stability in the region.  He said 
displaced Cuban regime elements, particularly from the armed 
forces, could pose an organized crime threat in the 
Hemisphere akin to the Russian mafia in Europe. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  The meeting concluded with the Attorney General 
saying he sought a "U.S.- Canadian-style" relationship, a 
true partnership rather than a "made-in-USA" program such as 
what he argued characterized much of Plan Colombia.  If we 
are to truly improve the quality of our cooperation, he 
 
MEXICO 00000983  003 OF 003 
 
 
stated, Mexico needs to build its own capabilities, as well 
as help its Central American neighbors.  Secretary Chertoff 
responded by saying he understood Mexico's political dynamic 
and urged again that the GOM give the U.S. its own plan, 
particularly concerning the southern border.  He said he 
would work it through our inter-agency, map it, and build a 
support strategy. 
 
----------- 
Garcia Luna 
----------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  Secretary Chertoff next met with Public Security 
Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, who thanked Secretary Chertoff 
 
SIPDIS 
for the cooperation DHS had extended to him, both at the 
Public Security Secretariat (SSP) and at the Mexican Federal 
Investigations Agency (AFI), which he ran during the Fox 
administration.  He briefly discussed some of the same legal 
reforms Medina Mora had discussed and outlined the Mexican 
President Felipe Calderon's plans to merge a number of 
Mexican Law Enforcement agencies under his authority at SSP, 
and noted that he would be recruiting over 8,000 new officers 
in the coming year.  This, he said, would require a new 
approach to vetting officers, and he expressed the hope that 
DHS could help him establish programs for assuring the 
integrity of his force. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Garcia Luna asked for clear guidance from DHS 
regarding appropriate points-of-contact within each DHS 
component and on particular issues of mutual interest.  Both 
governments have complex federal law enforcement systems, and 
sometimes make "erroneous" connections.  Secretary Chertoff 
noted that he would soon send a senior DHS Attache to Mexico 
and expressed the hope that this would improve coordination 
efforts. 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  Garcia Luna highlighted the operational focus of 
his Secretariat and the need for close coordination with DHS. 
 "You will have open access to our (law enforcement) 
intelligence information," he said, and added that he hoped 
to work closely with DHS to establish protocols to allow for 
more sharing of "high-quality" law enforcement intelligence. 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  Secretary Chertoff emphasized the importance of 
Border Enforcement Security Taskforce (BEST) program as a 
forum for DHS cooperation with SSP, and told Garcia Luna that 
he had designated Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
Assistant Secretary Julie Myers as the principal point of 
contact for pursuing cooperation via that program.  He also 
noted the importance of the Border Violence Protocols, and 
told Garcia Luna that his lead for that program would be 
Chief of the Border Patrol David Aguilar.  DHS Chief 
Intelligence Officer Charles Allen of the Department's Office 
of Intelligence and Analysis has the lead on intelligence and 
information exchanges, Secretary Chertoff said. 
 
¶16.  (U)  Secretary Chertoff did not have an opportunity to 
review this message before leaving Mexico. 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity 
GARZA