VZCZCXYZ0013
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #0242/01 0581956
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 271956Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4858
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 4736
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000242 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/PPC, G, AND INL/G-TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PHUM KCRM KFRD KWMN PREF SMIG PGOV GT
SUBJECT: G-TIP DISCUSSES HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN GUATEMALA 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary:  G-TIP Western Hemisphere Reports Officer 
Barbara Fleck visited Guatemala February 13-15 during a 
week-long regional trip.  Fleck met with government officials 
and civil society leaders to discuss anti-trafficking efforts 
and the congressionally mandated Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 
Report.  Fleck highlighted the global reach of TIP and 
suggested the "three-P" model of prevention, protection, and 
prosecution to combat the problem.  Civil society leaders 
agreed on the need for a comprehensive approach, including 
reform of the Penal Code.  Fleck acknowledged Guatemala's 
accomplishments and commitment to combat human trafficking, 
but noted the lack of services for victims and lack of 
prosecutions.  Government officials cited lack of resources 
and a climate of impunity as serious impediments to 
anti-trafficking progress.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) During a February 13-15 visit to Guatemala, G-TIP 
Western Hemisphere Reports Officer Barbara Fleck met with 
government officials and civil society leaders to highlight 
the issue of human trafficking.  She discussed the role of 
G-TIP, anti-trafficking efforts, and the congressionally 
mandated TIP Report.  She emphasized that human trafficking 
is a global problem that affects many countries, including 
the U.S., and estimated that 20,000 victims are trafficked 
into the U.S. each year.  Fleck explained the TIP Report's 
country ranking system and urged development of a model that 
incorporates crime prevention, protection of victims, and 
prosecution of trafficking offenders, as outlined in the 
Palermo Protocol, to combat TIP.  She acknowledged 
Guatemala's accomplishments and commitment, but noted the 
lack of services for victims and lack of prosecutions. 
 
Anti-Trafficking Laws and Crime Prevention Efforts 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
¶3. (SBU) Congressional Human Rights Committee President 
Carlos Bautista (FRG) stressed the importance of preventive 
efforts.  The Committee has been working closely with the 
Human Rights Ombudsman's Office to focus greater attention on 
prevention through public awareness.  It has also been 
working to strengthen sanctions, especially for trafficking 
of minor victims.  Bautista noted that proposed reforms to 
the Penal Code are pending in the Legislative Committee. 
Despite some "obstacles," including lack of agreement within 
civil society, Bautista remained hopeful that there was 
enough momentum to reach agreement on anti-trafficking 
legislation, in addition to dedicating resources for 
anti-trafficking activities in the GOG's budget for 2009. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Civil society leaders acknowledged GOG progress in 
combating TIP, especially in passing the Organized Crime Law, 
but agreed on the need for legislative reform and greater 
public awareness of TIP, a relatively new crime under 
Guatemalan law.  Local USG-funded NGO Association Against 
Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents 
(ECPAT/Guatemala) asserted that some authorities do not 
understand the crime of pandering, and many confuse TIP with 
alien smuggling.  UNICEF Child Protection Specialist Justo 
Solorzano identified the key weakness of the 2005 anti-TIP 
law as the lack of a clear definition of the crime.  Civil 
society leaders also pointed to systemic weaknesses, such as 
institutional corruption, lack of coordination among key law 
enforcement and justice sector institutions, lack of female 
police officers, and lack of continuity in the National Civil 
Qpolice officers, and lack of continuity in the National Civil 
Police (PNC) due to frequent staff turnover.  ECPAT estimated 
that only two percent of PNC officers are women.  UNICEF's 
Solorzano suggested that the PNC's lack of institutional 
continuity has limited the long-term impact of training 
efforts. 
 
¶5. (U) Casa Alianza National Director Claudia Rivera called 
for changes to the Penal Code, including criminalizing 
prostitution, strengthening penalties for human trafficking, 
and sanctioning clients of brothels and TIP-related crimes, 
such as pandering and operating a brothel.  She estimated 
that Casa Alianza attends to 100 minor TIP victims per year, 
the majority of them from Honduras and El Salvador. 
International Justice Mission (IJM) Director Pablo Villeda 
urged reform of laws against sexual abuse of minors. 
Currently, IJM is working on 50 cases of sexual abuse of 
minors, which includes trafficking cases as well as domestic 
child abuse cases.  In May/June it will investigate bars in 
the high-crime "red zones" around Guatemala City to help 
rescue sexually exploited minors. 
 
Victim Protection Efforts 
------------------------- 
¶6. (U) The Secretariat of Social Welfare currently operates 
seven generalized shelters for abandoned minors under 18 
years of age, and 35 integral care centers for children up to 
12 years of age.  However, according to civil society 
leaders, the government lacks dedicated services for TIP 
victims.  Most minor victims are referred by the GOG to NGOs, 
particularly to Casa Alianza, for care.  But little 
government or NGO attention is provided to adult victims. 
Casa Alianza's Rivera observed that adult victims are treated 
more like criminals than victims due to a presumption that 
they, unlike child victims, engage voluntarily in commercial 
sexual activities.  Foreign undocumented adult TIP victims 
are typically detained and deported, according to Rivera. 
Legal advisor Norma Palacios said that the Secretariat of 
Social Welfare would like to expand its shelter network, 
particularly to vulnerable populations in high-crime zones, 
but its budget of Q270 million (USD 36 million) is 
insufficient due to high anticipated costs of construction. 
She noted, in particular, the need for specialists and 
equipment for its victim assistance centers. 
 
¶7. (U) In September 2007, the MFA opened a call center to 
provide referral assistance to TIP victims and other victims 
and to direct cases to the appropriate authorities.  Consular 
and Migratory Affairs Director General Erick Maldonado 
estimated that the call center had been receiving an average 
of 50 calls per month but the numbers had dropped in recent 
months due to lack of publicity.  He also reported that 
23,063 Guatemalans were deported from the U.S. in 2007, and 
2,004 were deported in the first two months of 2008.  He 
noted that the consulates of Mexico, Honduras, and El 
Salvador had been instructed on the protocol for treatment 
and repatriation of TIP victims, and that the GOG had 
collaborated with civil society on a public awareness 
campaign in 2007. 
 
Challenges to Mounting an Effective Response 
-------------------------------------------- 
¶8. (SBU) Government officials acknowledged the lack of 
prosecutions of TIP crimes in the broader context of 
impunity, particularly the lack of prosecutions of murders. 
They stressed the need for additional resources to train 
judges and police investigators and to ensure the proper 
functioning of the Public Ministry's small witness protection 
program.  PNC Anti-TIP Unit Chief Pedro Herrera said the PNC 
is not allocated specific funds to focus on TIP.  The unit 
has five police agents and one vehicle, but lacks a 
surveillance mechanism, including cameras, to properly 
investigate TIP crimes.  According to Herrera, traffickers in 
Guatemala generally operate in small informal networks, which 
do not involve organized crime but include Nicaraguans, 
Salvadorans, and Colombians utilizing authentic but illegally 
issued Guatemalan identification documents, typically 
originating from municipal authorities in more distant parts 
of the country.  Chief of the Prosecutor's Office for Women 
Alma de Migoya raised corruption concerns and their possible 
link to sex tourism.  Survivors Foundation Director Norma 
Cruz  described the trafficking networks as very powerful, 
some with ties to high officials.  She noted that if at least 
three suspected traffickers are captured in a raid, the crime 
can be prosecuted under the law against organized crime. 
However, judges fear retaliation from these powerful 
networks, which often leads to a reduction in criminal 
Qnetworks, which often leads to a reduction in criminal 
charges.  Both GOG officials and NGO leaders expressed 
concern over leaks of information about pending raid and TIP 
investigations to criminal targets. 
 
. (U) Alexander Colop, Chief of the Anti-TIP Unit in the 
Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, hopes to improve the 
model of investigation and prosecution of TIP crimes with his 
new unit, which began functioning in November 2007.  Formerly 
housed within the Prosecutor's Office for Women, the unit 
provides greater visibility and focus to human trafficking. 
The staff of 12 works in close collaboration with NGOs. 
Colop estimated that approximately 60 percent of the unit's 
caseload are illegal adoption cases, and 40 percent are TIP 
cases.  Prosecutor Migoya noted that the Public Ministry 
received 15,000 complaints of domestic violence and sexual 
abuse in 2006 and 8,000 complaints in 2007.  She stressed the 
importance of expanding training to judges and prosecutors 
outside the capital, providing TIP training to police, 
increasing the number of female police officers, and 
improving the GOG's witness protection program. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶10. (SBU) Civil society leaders and government officials all 
agree on the need to allocate greater resources to expand 
ongoing efforts to combat TIP, especially to provide greater 
assistance to adult victims and to prosecute traffickers.  In 
a country where few crimes are prosecuted, government 
institutions are notoriously weak and controlled by organized 
crime, and government resources are limited, translating the 
government's anti-TIP efforts into a measurable increase in 
the number of prosecutions appears to be an enormous 
challenge.  The International Commission Against Impunity in 
Guatemala, the law against organized crime, and the Public 
Ministry's new Anti-TIP unit under Colop's capable leadership 
are positive steps toward attaining this immensely difficult 
but worthy objective. 
 
¶11. (U) G-TIP Barbara Fleck cleared this cable. 
Derham