VZCZCXYZ3664
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHME #0609/01 0602048
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 292048Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0722
INFO RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RUEAHLA/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHMFIUU/CDR USNORTHCOM
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA 0113
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS MEXICO 000609 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/MEX, INR, INL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON MX
SUBJECT: JESSICA LEWIS AT LOS PINOS 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Senate Foreign Affairs staff member 
Jessica Lewis visited Mexico  for two days February 20-22 to 
discuss elements of the Merida Initiative with GOM contacts, 
independent security analysts and representatives from rights 
organizations.  With her official interlocutors, Lewis 
discussed the GOM,s overall security strategy and efforts 
already underway here to curb crime and violence.    With her 
non-governmental contacts, she reviewed the political 
landscape, discussed human rights concerns and assessed the 
strengths and weaknesses of Mexican law enforcement and 
security elements.  Below are highlights of key meetings. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Meeting at the Los Pinos office of Sigrid Arzt, 
Technical Coordinator of President Calderon,s National 
Security Cabinet, Lewis sounded out the GOM,s core Merida 
Initiative team on their strategic objectives in the counter 
narcotics battle, what Mexico was already doing without USG 
assistance and Mexico,s efforts to integrate its strategy 
with other countries in the region.    Lewis also offered a 
preview of how the Merida Initiative will be discussed in 
Congress later this spring.  Arzt was accompanied by Carlos 
Rico, Undersecretary for North American Affairs at SRE, David 
Najera, Rico,s Special Affairs Coordinator, and Juan Carlos 
Foncerrado, Head of International Affairs at Mexico,s 
National Security Intelligence Center (CISEN). 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Carlos Rico, Undersecretary for North American 
Affairs at SRE outlined the initiative,s evolution over the 
last year, and said Mexico,s goal was to regain the ground 
lost to the cartels in recent years.  Mexico has begun by 
deploying the military -- its most effective asset -- but 
intends to &civilianize8 the effort and give the lead to 
improved law enforcement elements at the earliest possible 
juncture. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The Merida Initiative will help the GOM promote 
coordination among Mexican federal law enforcement elements, 
&re-engineer8 key law enforcement and judicial 
institutions, train and equip forces and encourage better 
intelligence collection and information sharing.   Mexico's 
federal government will also play a larger role in building 
the capabilities of state and local law enforcement, provide 
resources conditioned on local reforms.  He said Merida,s 
importance lies in providing Mexico with some of the best 
counter-crime technology available, such as sophisticated 
avionics, advanced surveillance aircraft and non-intrusive 
inspection equipment that is simply not available through 
commercial channels.  It also offers Mexico budgetary &elbow 
room8 to expend its own resources to modernize policing. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Lewis asked her Los Pinos contacts what Mexico 
would be doing if the Merida Initiative did not move forward. 
 Both Rico and Arzt stressed that Mexico had significantly 
expanded its counter-narcotics budget and activities.  Merida 
Initiative funding would be modest in comparison to what the 
Mexican government is throwing against the cartels, said 
Rico.  The GOM had already scored significant successes in 
the past year, and it would be important to carefully 
evaluate the value-added of U.S. counter-narcotics 
assistance, he said.  He added that the initiative, if 
carried out fully, should involve more than just resource 
transfers from the U.S. to Mexico:  it will also involve 
actions undertaken in the U.S., such as efforts to stem the 
flow of illegal weapons into Mexico. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Lewis noted that many in the U.S. congress may 
have concernce that not enough emphasis is being given to 
soft-side initiatives in Mexico.   The cartels can,t be 
beaten with helicopters alone, she said. In response, Arzt 
and Rico outlined the steps Mexico was taking to encourage 
community policing strategies at the municipal levels in 
order to strengthen the interface between local police and 
communities.  Rico noted Mexico,s increased demand reduction 
efforts and other intitiatives being carried out with the 
support of other international partners.   He also pointed to 
the extensive legal reform before Mexico,s congress, which 
will have a positive impact on the government,s ability to 
dismantle the cartels. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Discussion turned to Mexico,s relations with its 
neighbors in fighting organized crime.  Rico said a regional 
approach was essential to a successful strategy, and that 
Mexico was as engaged with its Central American neighbors. 
He noted that El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were most 
seized with the challenges presented by illicit narcotics 
trade, and that Nicaragua, for a variety of reason, has not 
been as energetic a partner.  Lewis and her interlocutors 
agreed on the need to keep Colombia closely involved in a 
regional counter-narcotics strategy. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Lewis concluded the meeting by offering a preview 
of how the Merida Initiative will be taken on in congress, 
noting that its inclusion as part of the administration,s 
next Iraq war supplemental funding request made it difficult 
to assess its prospects at this juncture.   While most 
congressional attention would be focused on hotly contentious 
questions related to operations in Iraq, a number of 
congressmen will likely raise concerns related to Mexico. 
She offered no assessment of the Merida Initiative,s 
prospects in Congress. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
Meeting with Human Rights/Democracy Advocates 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  During her visit, Lewis met with Julian Bell, 
Director for National Democratic Institute Mexico (NDI) and 
Edgar Cortez, Executive Secretary for the Human Rights 
Network.   Both outlined their views  on organized crime with 
regard to human rights and democracy in Mexico. 
 
¶10.  SBU)  Cortez expressed concern about the militarization 
of Mexico,s efforts to fight drug traffickers, specifically, 
the federal strategy against organized crime and military 
intervention on the local level, which he said too often 
leads to human rights violations.8   Cortez argued that 
there is not enough transparency on human rights issues 
within the military and said human rights organizations need 
to know more about how the military investigates human rights 
abuse allegations against its soldiers. 
 
¶11.   (SBU)  Cortez also outlined the pros and cons of the 
justice reform legislation before Congress.  While the move 
toward oral trials is positive, he said, human rights 
organizations in Mexico believe some aspects of the bill will 
lead to more rights abuses here and that it omits some 
much-needed police and judicial reforms. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  Neither Cortez nor Bell said they were opposed 
outright to the Merida  Initiative, but both urged the U.S. 
to  monitor its results as well as its impact on the behavior 
of security forces.  The USG should encourage independent 
experts to evaluate results on the Initiative as well, they 
said. 
 
---------------------------------- 
A Meeting with a Security Analyst 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Lewis also met with Ernesto Lopez Portillo 
Vargas, President of the Mexican Institute for Security and 
Democracy (INSYDE), who also discussed the pending legal 
reform bill in congress. Portillo said his main concern is 
with the issue of accountability.  With the new reform, 
police forces ) not free of corruption ) will work 
independently and be able to escape accountability.  He also 
criticized the GOM,s strategy for reforming federal 
policing, saying it concentrated too heavily on vetting 
individual officers and not enough on changing flawed 
institutions. 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  Portillo said that Calderon and Garcia Luna 
wanted results quickly, but that taking on to many projects 
in such a short time period poses risks.  For example, the 
GOM could develop a powerful justice system in very short 
order with more technology/equipment, but it would remain 
unaccountable. Police powers could be broadened without 
providing for adequate civilian oversight of policing. The 
longer the military was on the front line of the counter 
narcotics battle, the more likely it would be to suffer 
desertions and infiltrations of the ranks at all levels by 
cartels. 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  The Merida Initiative, he opined, invests money 
in weakly controlled (both externally and internally) 
institutions. Although Portillo does not think the MI will 
have much of an effect on the war against organized crime, he 
said that it may help promote greater transparency through 
oversight and monitoring of how the USG-granted equipment is 
being used ) but only if the USG puts a mechanism in place 
and the GOM develops metrics to determine progress against 
the cartels. 
 
¶16.  (SBU)  Comment:    Lewis heard from the GOM,s key 
Merida Initiative players who offered a reasoned and detailed 
justification of the proposal.  She also heard from some of 
the toughest critics of the efforts it has mounted to date 
against the cartels.   Second-guessing aside, all 
interlocutors agreed that circumstances here warrant a 
focused and sustained counter narcotics effort.   End Comment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA