VZCZCXRO1052
PP RUEHCD RUEHGD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #2498/01 2271842
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 141842Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2954

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 002498 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR H ANDREW MACDERMOTT AND DELORES PARKS 
STATE FOR WHA/MEX ELIZABETH WOLFSON AND IAN BROWNLEE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SNAR ECON OREP MX
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR SENATOR SPECTER'S VISIT TO MEXICO 
AUGUST 17-19 
 
¶1. (SBU) Welcome to Mexico City. President Calderon 
recognizes the broad-ranging challenges his country faces and 
has the vision and political will to address them 
strategically.  He has demonstrated resolve in implementing 
his key policy objectives: improving security and the rule of 
law, attacking poverty, and creating jobs. The U.S. and 
Mexico have developed a solid set of institutional 
relationships that allow us to work productively on most of 
our priorities, including fundamental issues of homeland 
security and North American prosperity. Those links are set 
to expand.  With the recent signing of Merida Initiative 
funding, we are poised to significantly expand counter drug 
cooperation and support President Calderon's robust efforts 
to take down Mexico's drug cartels and improve public 
security. 
 
 
Strengthening Law Enforcement 
----------------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) President Calderon remains firm in his commitment 
to aggressively target violence and criminality and continues 
to sharpen the capabilities of his law enforcement team.  In 
the past year and a half he has: launched aggressive 
anti-drug operations in ten states; raised pay for the 
military; replaced numerous high-ranking federal police 
officers in an anti-corruption campaign; launched a billion 
dollar project to create real-time interconnectivity between 
all police and prosecutors, as well as a unified national 
crime database; and championed congressional legislation to 
unify federal police forces and reform the judicial system. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Calderon continues to strengthen law 
enforcement cooperation with the USG.  The GOM has ramped up 
extraditions to the U.S. - 83 in 2007 and 55 so far this 
year.  The ongoing security campaign has reduced the broad 
geographic range and legal impunity that the cartels have 
traditionally enjoyed in Mexico, although progress is tenuous 
and uneven.  Addressing personal security challenges 
continues to rank as the number one priority in public 
opinion polls and there is general support among the Mexican 
public and body politic for expanding bilateral cooperation. 
The Merida Initiative is only the highest profile element of 
an emerging pattern of cooperation across the board, which is 
likely to take on momentum in coming years. 
 
¶4. (SBU) It should be noted that Mexico's military plays a 
fundamental role in the fight against organized crime, and in 
particular narco-trafficking.  Both Army and Navy, at the 
direction of the President, have devoted significant 
resources and manpower to drug, firearms and bulk cash 
interdictions and eradication. 
 
Stakes Rising for Security Officials 
------------------------------------ 
¶5. (SBU) The human price Mexico is paying remains high, with 
over 2000 drug related killings so far in 2008, including 
more than 200 police and military officials.  A new 
disturbing trend in recent months has been the slaying of 
several senior police officials. 
 
 
Combating Corruption 
-------------------- 
¶6. (SBU) Turning the page on Mexico's endemic corruption is 
an essential component of President Calderon's 
efforts to combat organized crime.  The Public Administration 
Secretariat (SFP), created by the Fox administration, is at 
the center of this effort, coordinating a network of 
inspectors general in GOM offices.  In 2007, SFP reported 
that the number of investigations conducted and public 
officials dismissed 
nearly doubled over the prior year.  The Public Security 
Secretariat (SSP) has undertaken an ambitious program 
designed to eventually vet all 400,000 of Mexico's federal, 
state, and local law enforcement officials.  Mexico's 
recently approved judicial reforms should make Mexico's 
judicial processes more transparent and accessible. (see para 
7.) 
Meanwhile, Mexico's military seeks to deepen its cooperative 
relationship with the U.S., including through the acquisition 
of U.S. equipment, in large measure out of a desire to reduce 
the potential for corruption. Deepening U.S. cooperation 
through the 
Merida Initiative will advance significantly the GOM's 
anti-corruption efforts. 
 
 
 
MEXICO 00002498  002 OF 003 
 
 
Justice Reform 
-------------- 
¶7. (SBU)  In June, President Calderon signed into law major 
judicial reform legislation to facilitate transition to an 
oral trial system, give law enforcement officials broader 
search and seizure authority, allow consensual monitoring of 
telephone calls, and give police more responsibility for 
conducting investigations.  Effective implementation of the 
legislation will make the Mexican system work more 
transparently, expeditiously, and fairly.  A share of Merida 
Initiative support is tagged to assist Mexico with putting 
this improved system into place. 
 
 
Political Landscape 
------------------- 
¶8. (SBU) The president faces a hardening political 
environment here with the approach of legislative and key 
gubernatorial elections next year.   The window of 
opportunity to effectively cooperate with a divided congress 
on major reform initiatives, such as energy reform, is 
rapidly closing.  While security issues are paramount, 
prosperity is also a key priority in the minds of most 
Mexicans.  If his programs and policies prove unsuccessful in 
generating the kind of growth necessary to create more jobs 
and reduce poverty, Calderon could quickly find himself 
vulnerable to a reinvigorated political opposition. 
 
 
U.S.- Mexico Relations 
---------------------- 
¶9. (SBU)  The Calderon government has demonstrated pragmatism 
in its posture toward the United States and bilateral 
cooperation, particularly in law enforcement, has never been 
stronger.  However, the failure of immigration reform in the 
United States was a political setback for the president.  The 
result is that he enjoys less political space in which to 
openly cooperate with the U.S. on issues of mutual bilateral 
importance. 
 
 
Key Issues 
---------- 
¶10. (SBU)  Key Issues During Your Visit Include: 
 
-- Border Security:  In FY 2007 there were a total of 1,073 
incidents of violence that occurred at/or between the ports 
of entry against CBP law enforcement personnel - a 28% 
increase from FY06 to FY07.  The southwest border 
accounted for 99% of violent assaults against CBP law 
enforcement personnel for FY07. 
 
The protocols addressing border violence that we entered into 
with the GOM in 2006 are now in place throughout the entire 
U.S.-Mexico border.  Through these protocols, joint Border 
Security and Public Safety working groups meet locally on a 
monthly basis to discuss incidents of and mechanisms to 
address cross-border violence. 
 
Since the protocols were instituted, the most prevalent 
challenge has been the lack of GOM response to calls for 
assistance and/or support.  In response to the issue, SSP and 
CISEN (Center for Research and National Security) have worked 
closely to draft a plan of incorporation to make Mexico's 
Federal Police an equal partner in the protocols. 
 
The GOM is quick to posture on incidents of violence against 
undocumented aliens.  The occasional cases in which Border 
Patrol agents (often acting in self-defense) injure or kill 
undocumented aliens inevitably provoke a sharp reaction here. 
 Your visit can reinforce our message that we are concerned 
by the violence that is an unfortunate byproduct of illegal 
migration and that we need to work together to ensure safe, 
orderly and legal border crossings, while stemming the flow 
of illegal migrants.  (Note: Mexico has similar problems with 
violence along it's own southern border and Mexican treatment 
of illegal migrants from Central America.) 
 
 
-- Drugs:  Mexico is a central partner in USG efforts to 
combat drug trafficking and other trans-border threats.  The 
2000-mile border, with its high-volume ports of entry, and 
Mexico's maritime waters and airports, are vulnerable to 
criminal penetration.  As much as 80 percent of all the 
cocaine consumed in the United States transits Mexico. 
Mexico is a major source of heroin, methamphetamines, and 
marijuana, and the primary placement point for criminal 
proceeds from the U.S. into the international financial 
 
MEXICO 00002498  003 OF 003 
 
 
system.  While taking aggressive measures to tackle the 
problem at home, President Calderon has also publicly urged 
the United States to boost our own efforts to drive down 
demand for narcotics and improve controls on arms, cash, and 
precursor chemicals smuggled into Mexico. 
 
 
-- Arms Trafficking:  The smuggling of weapons into Mexico 
from the U.S. represents a major concern for Mexican 
authorities.  Approximately 95 percent of the illegal arms, 
including automatic weapons, smuggled into Mexico come from 
the U.S.  The GOM would like to see the U.S. take stricter 
measures to better enforce existing U.S. legislation on arms 
exports, which the GOM believes is fundamental to winning the 
war against organized crime and drug trafficking. 
 
ATF conducts all firearms traces of seized weapons in Mexico 
and also assists the Mexican Army in cases of ATF 
jurisdiction.  E-Trace has been deployed to all nine U.S. 
Consulate Offices in 
Mexico.  It is a means of electronically submitting a trace 
request via computer to ATF's National Tracing Center and 
providing the requester with a response within ten days.  An 
urgent trace can be submitted and received within 24 hours. 
E-Trace is available to both U.S. and Mexican law enforcement 
at these Consulate Offices.  ATF is currently waiting for SSP 
to sign an E-Trace MOU to deploy E-Trace via the SSP in all 
32 Mexican States. 
 
DHS continues to work on a number of important initiatives 
with Mexico involving arms trafficking. ICE recently 
initiated "Operation Armas Cruzadas" to combat the 
smuggling of weapons from the United States into Mexico.  As 
part of this initiative, DHS and GOM agencies will partner in 
unprecedented bilateral interdiction, investigation, an 
intelligence-sharing activities to identify, disrupt, and 
dismantle cross-border criminal networks that smuggle weapons 
from the United States into Mexico. 
 
Moreover, DOD through the Defense Attache has established a 
close working relationship with the Mexican army relative to 
firearms 
seizures.  Through "Operation Chuck Wagon" they assist the 
army in identifying high caliber and military type weapons 
(i.e.LAW rockets, RPG's and grenades). 
 
 
-- Immigration:  Far more than his predecessor, President 
Calderon recognizes that immigration reform is a U.S. 
domestic matter that is dependent upon U.S. congressional 
action.  He will seek progress in a low-key effort that 
avoids making migration the dominant bilateral issue.  He 
places great emphasis on creating economic opportunities for 
Mexicans inside Mexico.  President Calderon has publicly said 
that the 
solution to the immigration problem is the responsibility of 
the Mexican government, and must be done by bringing capital 
to the workers in Mexico, rather than having Mexican labor 
flow to capital in the United States.  Nevertheless, the 
Mexican public draws little distinction between documented 
and undocumented migrants, seeing both as hard-working 
countrymen who have been driven to the U.S. by domestic 
economic adversity and U.S. labor demand.  As such, 
domestic political considerations require that Calderon and 
his cabinet raise the issue with USG officials and that he 
publicly criticize measures that most Mexicans find 
offensive.  Should the issue arise in your meetings with your 
Mexican interlocutors, we encourage you to explain U.S. 
domestic political factors affecting the issue of migration 
and help your Mexican interlocutors maintain realistic 
expectations. 
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 / 
BASSETT