VZCZCXYZ0016
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBR #1035 2101135
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 281135Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2183
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
INFO RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHDC IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 001035 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR L JOHNSON AND L/LEI, WHA/BSC, WHA/CHRIS MCMULLEN, 
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FOR SWARTZ AND OIA, DRUG ENFORCEMENT 
ADMINISTRATION FOR OGC JOHN WALLACE, DEA REGION DIRECTOR US 
EMBASSY LA PAZ PATRICK STANKEMP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2018 
TAGS: KJUS KCRM CJAN PREL CVIS SNAR BR
SUBJECT: UPDATE AND ACTION REQUEST ON ABADIA EXTRADITION 
 
REF: A. STATE 079928 
     ¶B. BRASILIA 000999 
     ¶C. STATE 76939 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Lisa Kubiske for reason 1.5 (d) 
 
¶1. (C) As a follow up to ref a instructions, Post, on July 
24, 2008, once again contacted Ministry of Justice Legal 
Advisor, Rafael Tomaz Favetti regarding the expulsion of Juan 
Carlos Ramirez Abadia (Chupeta).  Favetti advised Post that 
he had encountered stiffer opposition within the Ministry 
than he expected and now doubts that the order of expulsion 
can occur at all. Moreover, Favetti explained that there are 
three obstacles from the U.S. perspective should the 
expulsion be ordered: (1) expulsion would take effect only 
after Abadia serves his 30 year Brazilian sentence; (2) 
expulsion would be to the country of origin; and (3) most 
importantly, he confided that he had discussed the issue with 
Minister Genro, who noted to Favetti that if the United 
States wanted the expulsion, any consequences are "on the 
Americans".   In other words, if the expulsion caused 
problems for the Lula administration, whether from the 
judiciary and the press, the United States will take the 
blame as the Minister of Justice will deflect any negative 
repercussions at America's door.  Post expended large amounts 
of political, intelligence, and judiciary equities in running 
this extradition request to ground.  In the short term, 
Washington needs to decide whether to provide the assurances 
in order to extradite Abadia or allow the subject to remain 
in Brazil without any hope of being removed to the United 
States; in the long run, Post highly recommends that the 
DOJ/OIA and State/L send representatives to Brasilia to take 
part in future extradition dialogues with the GOB in order to 
resolve the assurances issue. 
 
¶2. (C) Action request: As a result of this new conversation, 
it is now clear that Brazil will not provide any cover to the 
United States in its pursuit of the expulsion of Abadia. 
Continuing to pursue the expulsion option will leave the 
United States in an extremely vulnerable political position 
and jeopardize any future extraditions and law enforcement 
intelligence cooperation.  As this point, we see no other 
course of action to assure Abadia's removal from Brazilian 
territory than to provide the assurances the Brazilian 
Supreme Court has demanded. 
 
¶3. (C) Post urgently request immediate instructions. 
KUBISKE