VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #1371/01 3082127
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 032127Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6379
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L GUATEMALA 001371

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/17/2018
TAGS: SNAR PBTS PGOV ORP GT
SUBJECT: STAFFDEL TESS, GUATEMALA VISIT OCTOBER 12-14

REF: A. STATE 107293
¶B. GUATEMALA 1056

Classified By: Lance Hegerle for reasons 1.4(b,d)

¶1. (C) Summary: Staffdel Tess visited Guatemala October 12 to
14 as part of a three-country fact finding tour of Central
America. Delegation members held meetings with the members
of the country team, civil society, and CICIG, as well as
touring Guatemala's border with Mexico in the department of
San Marcos. The various meetings provided input on the
challenges as well as opportunities facing Guatemala and the
region. The border visit illustrated the porous nature of
Guatemala's frontier with Mexico and the scarce resources
available to Guatemalan officials charged with controlling
the border, and combating narcotics trafficking and smuggling
in the region. The border tour also helped demonstrate some
of the resource and capacity shortfalls that Plan Merida is
projected to address. The trip underscored the negative
impact that narcotics trafficking is having on Guatemala and
the rest of the region, while at the same time providing
insight on efforts the GOG is making to improve the rule of
law in Guatemala. End Summary.

¶2. (C) Staffdel Tess from the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence (SSCI) traveled to Guatemala October 12 to 14 as
part of a three-country fact finding tour of Central America.
The delegation was comprised of Caroline Tess Todd
Rosenblum, and Alissa Starzak.

Meeting with Civil Society
--------------------------
¶3. (C) The delegation met with local representatives for the
National Democratic Institute (NDI), Eduardo Nunes, and the
International Republican Institute (IRI), Charles Littlefield
to discuss those organizations' ongoing programs and get
their views on civil society development in Guatemala. Both
Nunes and Littlefield agreed that as a result of the peace
process there had been substantial economic reform and
increased individual freedom coupled with a smaller and
weaker state structure. Nunes stressed that as a result,
while the state had less ability to provide social services
and security, citizens' expectations had increased. He added
that one of the main weaknesses of the Guatemalan political
system was the weakness and instability of political parties.
He stated that since 1985 there had been 65 different
political parties with 36 of them only lasting one election
cycle. Nunes stated that President Alvaro Colom's
administration had made more progress in the areas of social
cohesion and rural development than in other areas such as
security.


Meeting with CICIG
------------------
¶4. (C) The delegation met with the Deputy Director of the
UN-led International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala
(CICIG), Amerigo Incalcaterra, to discuss CICIG's progress
and gain Incalcaterra's opinion on the political situation in
Guatemala. Incalcaterra explained that CICIG's dual goals
are to assist the Prosecutor's Office and to develop
independent investigations. He added that another mission of
CICIG was to report on the effectiveness of officials in the
Attorney General's Office and other rule of law organs in
order to identify prosecutors who lack the capacity or
willingness to prosecute crimes. According to Incalcaterra,
many of the current prosecutors are good, but some do not
want to work with CICIG, and a few have actively worked
against the organization. He stated that CICIG's priority
has been to "clean the top of the pyramid" of the Attorney
General's office in the hopes that by removing problematic
senior prosecutors the rank and file prosecutors would feel
Qsenior prosecutors the rank and file prosecutors would feel
more freedom to work with CICIG. He added that due to input
from CICIG, the new Attorney General, Jose Amilcar Velazquez,
had recently removed a number of top prosecutors, which has
greatly improved cooperation between the two agencies (ref
B). He also added that one month ago the Attorney General
established a special prosecutors office to work directly
with CICIG.

¶5. (C) Incalcaterra acknowledged that with one year of
CICIG's two year mandate already gone and there were limits
to how much CICIG could accomplish before its mandate
expired. He stated that CICIG's goal was to present at least
one major case of organized criminal penetration of the
state, ready for prosecution, in order to demonstrate to GOG
authorities that if they want to move forward they can. When
pressed about the possibility of extending CICIG's mandate he
stated that he was not focused on a renewal and that he felt
CICIG would need to demonstrate progress before even
considering requesting that donor countries provide
additional funding. He stated that recently the Guatemalan
Ambassador to the United Nations, Gert Rosenthal, informed
him that as the law authorizing CICIG's operation in
Guatemala did not outline the procedures for a mandate
extension, Congress would have to approve any extension.
Incalcaterra stated that obtaining Congressional approval for
an extension of CICIG likely would be difficult. The
question of CICIG's mandate aside, Incalcaterra was upbeat on
CICIG's performance thus far. He stated that unlike other
U.N. sponsored commissions that operated outside of the host
country's systems, CICIG was unique in that it worked within
the Guatemalan legal system to produce results, and he hoped
that if CICIG succeeds it will become a model for future
programs.

Visit to Border Region
----------------------

¶6. (C) The delegation traveled to Guatemala's San Marcos
department which borders Chiapas, Mexico, to examine
narcotics trafficking and cross border issues. Colonel Jaime
David Funes, the 2nd Commander of Task Force West, and Ensign
Lopez, the commander of the small navy detachment located in
Ocos, briefed the delegation on military readiness and
narcotics smuggling. Lopez stated that he had two small
boats to patrol 125 miles of coastline, including four river
mouths often used by smugglers. He added that he currently
had 130 gallons of gasoline and at best he received 50
gallons every two months. He said that with his limited
resources his unit is only able to patrol once a week, but
that they had effectively deterred smuggling operations in
and around Ocos. He stated that he was aware that the
smugglers had simply moved farther south, adding that with
300 gallons of gasoline per month he believed he could
suppress smuggling in his entire area of operation. Lopez
added that his main concern was narcotics and human
smuggling, but that he also targeted contraband smuggling as
well. He related to the delegation that he had recently
intercepted two boats smuggling contraband fuel from Mexico,
but that after two days the police had returned the boats and
contraband fuel to the boats' owner.

¶7. (C) Funes stressed that there were at least 72 known
illegal border crossings across the river separating San
Marcos from Chiapas, and that he had only two vehicles and 70
men available to control the border. He added that the rest
of his task force, some 370 men, were located in the
mountainous interior of San Marcos department engaged in
poppy eradication and other operations. He stressed that the
local police were corrupt and that his forces lacked
sufficient resources to effectively control the border.
After the briefing Funes accompanied the delegation to an
illegal border crossing point where several rafts were slowly
taking immigrants to Mexico and bringing contraband goods
back to Guatemala. The smugglers seem unconcerned by the
presence of the Guatemalan Military, several offered to carry
the delegation across the river for $1 per person.

¶8. (C) The delegation visited the official pedestrian border
crossing at Tecun Uman and received a briefing by the local
head of Immigration, Miguel Cantoral. Cantoral explained the
procedures for legally crossing the border and related that
most people did cross the border legally. He stated that
even though local residents could legally cross the border,
many would pay raft operators to bring them across the river
to save time. Cantoral acknowledged that those without
papers usually crossed the shallow river dividing the two
countries in pontoon rafts, claiming that Mexican officials
intercepted hundreds of undocumented immigrants weekly in
Chiapas. Cantoral provided a tour of his office and walked
QChiapas. Cantoral provided a tour of his office and walked
the delegation across the bridge to the Mexican side of the
river. Along the way he pointed out a large hole in the
fence which allowed those without documents access to the
bridge, and a nearby house flying Mexican and Guatemalan
flags that he attested belonged to local narcotics
traffickers. Cantoral openly discussed the smuggler rafts
crossing the river in plan view from the bridge, stating that
even if authorities cracked down on the practice the only
result would be that the rafts would move upriver.
Cantoral's staff diligently process all travelers who choose
to cross the border at their checkpoint, but have no ability
to control illegal crossings.

¶9. (C) Comment: The visit to Guatemala's border with Mexico
served to demonstrate the difficulties facing border
officials, the limited resources they have available to
accomplish their missions, and in some cases, authorities'
lack of will. The delegation's meetings indicated that
assistance programs and security reforms contemplated under
the Merida Initiative would help strengthen Guatemala's
ability to reduce transnational crime in the border area.

¶10. (U) This cable was cleared by Staffdel Tess.
McFarland