This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 GUATEMALA 002673 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/21/2014 
TAGS: CASC ETRD MARR PHUM NU ES OAS USAID
SUBJECT: LUNCH WITH PRESIDENT BERGER 
 
Classified By: Ambassador J.R. Hamilton for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:   At lunch October 21, President Berger and 
the Ambassador addressed a variety of international and 
national topics.  Principal among them, Berger said Guatemala 
would give the informal candidacy of exGuatemalan UN PermRep 
Gert Rosenthal 30 days and then fall in behind his good 
friend Francisco Flores.  Berger is deeply concerned over the 
stability of the Bolanos government in Nicaragua and was 
pleased to learn of our strong support for it.  Berger 
intends to keep current Defense Minister Mendez Pinelo on 
through the end of the year and then replace him with General 
Carlos Aldana (not current chief of staff Ricardo Bustamante, 
whose nomination would send shivers through the human rights 
community).  Berger acknowledges that Guatemala has not 
pushed CICIACS the way it should but reiterates his 
government's interest.  Ditto for establishment of an office 
here of the UN Human Rights Commissioner.  He is still 
optimistic that Hague Convention-consistent adoptions 
legislation can be approved by the Guatemalan Congress this 
year.  He is similarly optimistic that the CAFTA will enjoy 
strong support in the Guatemalan Congress.   Expressing 
appreciation for U.S. support of what his government wants to 
accomplish, the President also committed to signing, together 
with the Ambassador, the recently negotiated 5-year umbrella 
agreement with AID in a public ceremony.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (C) The Ambassador and Mrs. Hamilton hosted the lunch, 
which Mrs. Berger also attended. Taking each topic in turn: 
 
¶3.  (C) OAS Secretary General election: 
 
Berger said he knows former Salvadoran President Francisco 
Flores a lot better than he knows veteran Guatemalan diplomat 
Gert Rosenthal, but that he had signed off on an effort to 
explore possibilities of a Rosenthal candidacy just before 
Flores phoned him to advise of his candidacy and to seek 
Guatemala's support.  Berger says Flores would provide the 
OAS strong leadership, while noting that Rosenthal is a good 
diplomatic technocrat.  Berger confirmed that the Central 
Americans have committed to supporting a single candidate - 
whoever can line up the most support in the next month. 
Berger thinks that Flores' baggage is his close association 
with the U.S. and that the votes of Venezuela, Brazil and 
CARICOM states could conceivably be won by a Rosenthal 
candidacy.  He is aware of Peruvian and Argentine interest, 
but notes that Chile, Bolivia and Colombia would not support 
an Argentine candidacy and he is not sure that Peru's 
interest, whether for Paniagua or FM Rodriguez, is serious. 
Notwithstanding his observation about Flores' relationship 
with us, Berger indicated an expectation and hope that the 
U.S. would support him, repeating that Flores could provide 
the kind of strong leadership the OAS needs.  The Ambassador 
said we think Flores is in fact the strongest candidate, to 
which Berger responded that he was honor-bound to let 
Rosenthal have a run at the job but that he would fall in 
behind Flores after that. 
 
¶4.  (C) Nicaragua: 
 
Berger spoke of his trip over the weekend to Managua to 
support the embattled Bolanos government and he recounted 
Bolanos' description of what he is facing in terms that match 
Managua's reporting.  He was not previously aware that we are 
strongly supportive of Bolanos and sounded relieved to hear 
it, noting that ousting Bolanos would be "disastrous" for the 
region and its image as a democratic, modernizing partner of 
the U.S. in CAFTA. 
 
¶5.  (C) Defense Ministry: 
 
Confirming what our DATT has been picking up, Berger said he 
had decided to make recently promoted General Carlos Aldana 
his next Minister of Defense, at the end of the year, a 
traditional time for changes in the military.  Berger 
acknowledged that former GANA coalition partner General Otto 
Perez Molina is upset that his own close associate, General 
Ricardo Bustmante, current Chief of Staff of the Armed 
Foreces, is being passed over and retired.  Berger said he 
had not yet settled on a replacement for Bustamante. 
(Comment:  Bustamante's appointment would have been 
unsettling to civil society groups, here and abroad.  Aldana, 
who is a support, not combat, officer, will be better 
received outside the military.  Inside it, there will be 
grumbling that an officer who has not paid his combat dues is 
being elevated.  End comment.)  On a related subject, Berger 
said his government would (contrary to what we have been 
hearing) have funds in its 05 budget for military 
modernization.  He also said that Guatemala is prepared to 
send up to 650 troops to Haiti (500 bilaterally, an 
additional 150 as part of a Central American peacekeeping 
battalion).  He noted that the compensation from the UN was 
not insignificant.  So lucrative as to be a source for 
modernization. 
 
¶6.  (C) CICIACS, the Office of the UN Commissioner for Human 
Rights, and Article 98: 
 
Berger acknowledged the Ambassador's point that CICIACS has 
been languishing but reiterated his government's support of 
reconfiguring it so as to overcome Constitutional Court and 
Congressional objections.  A further comment implied that he 
has personally spoken about CICIACS in recent meetings he has 
held with Congressional leaders.  He is similarly committed 
to winning Congressional approval for the agreement with the 
UN to set up an office here of the Commissioner for Human 
Rights.  He said Human Rights Adviser La Rue and former UN 
PermRep Rosenthal are en route to Geneva now to tweak the 
agreement so as to meet the strongest Congressional 
objections to it.  Berger did not make any particular comment 
about Article 98 but seemed comfortable with the Ambassador's 
description of MFA/Embassy plans to seek ratification this 
fall. 
 
¶7. (C) CAFTA: 
 
Asked about the Guatemalan timetable for submitting CAFTA to 
their Congress, Berger's response suggested he had not given 
it much recent thought, as he recalled what he had told the 
Ambassador a couple of months ago, that the Centrals wanted 
to move in unison.  He did say that, in his own travels 
around the country, he is finding that indigenous leaders 
strongly favor CAFTA and that only a few "tiny groups" would 
ultimately be opposed.  Comment:  This unfortunately does not 
jibe with our own impressions that the public, indigenous 
groups especially, are not yet well informed on CAFTA. 
Berger could hardly contain his enthusiasm for a November 15 
ceremony on the border with El Salvador where the last 
remaining obstacles to physical integration will be stood 
down.  Crossing the border will thereafter be much like 
crossing a state line in the U.S.; Berger feels that he and 
his Salvadoran counterparts have done more this year to 
promote real integration than their predecessors did in 40. 
 
¶8. (C) Adoptions: 
 
Berger and Mrs. Berger, who is deeply involved in the 
adoptions issue, confirmed that they are supporting a new, 
Hague-consistent version of adoptions reform legislation, 
that they oppose any suspension of adoptions (as some 
reformers have advocated), and that they favor a grandfather 
clause for adoptions in process once the new legislation goes 
into effect.  Mrs. Berger thought the opportunity for getting 
such legislation approved this year was slipping away but the 
President, citing a conversation earlier this week with the 
President of Congress, said there was still a good chance for 
positive action. 
 
¶9. (C) Bilateral relations: 
 
The Ambassador briefed Berger on his consultations in 
Washington, noting the changed, more positive view of 
Guatemala both within and outside the executive branch (while 
emphasizing the more critical view, largely because of 
CICIACS and the UNHRC office, within the U.S. human rights 
community).  The Ambassador said that we have a good 
possibility of freeing up at least $2m in frozen MAP funds 
and that doing so would send an important signal of progress 
made civil-military relations and ending impunity within the 
military.  Reiterating how out on a limb he is with his 
military over modernization, Berger said he would be deeply 
grateful if we could provide such support.  He also recounted 
with pleasure how friendly and gracious ("and he recognized 
me immediately") the President was when they spoke briefly at 
the UNGA and said how much he appreciates the support we are 
giving in general.  In that vein, he said he wants to conduct 
a public signing of the new 5-year umbrella agreement between 
his government and AID, which AID has recently negotiated. 
 
¶3. (C) Comment: 
 
This was a fairly informative, useful exchange.  Atmospherics 
were on this occasion quite good. 
HAMILTON