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C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000097 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PM
SUBJECT: PANAMA: MEXICAN TAKE ON QUADRILATERAL MEETING 
 
REF: PANAMA 00084 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Mexico Pleased, But Somewhat Frustrated 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶1. (C)  While Mexico was pleased with the results of the 
January 16 Colombia-Guatemala-Mexico-Panama quadrilateral 
security talks, the Mexican delegation had also been very 
frustrated with the GOP's simplistic tendency to blame all 
its internal criminal problems on the presence of Colombians 
and Mexicans, without taking any responsibility for events 
themselves, Mexico's Ambassador Yanerit Morgan told 
Ambassador on January 29.  She said Panama's biggest concern 
in the meetings had been getting Mexico and Colombia to 
accept rapid deportation of their citizens who were suspected 
of drug trafficking and other crimes. Morgan said that Mexico 
was prepared to cooperate with Panama on this because Mexican 
prosecutors did have cases against almost all the suspects 
the GOP wanted to arrest and send to Mexico. She said that 
despite Panama's impressive achievement of pulling this 
meeting together on short notice, the meeting was very 
improvised and seemed to be driven by a GOP desire to achieve 
results in May-June 2009, after local Panamanian elections 
would be concluded on May 3 but before President Torrijos 
leaves office. She contrasted the Panamanian position with 
President Uribe's intervention, which described Colombia's 
success through the social recovery of territory and the 
development of a partnership between the people and the 
government to renew the moral authority of the state. She 
said she had found Uribe's vision to be more compelling than 
the GOP's simplistic approach. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Mexico Ambassador Confirms Agenda 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C)  Morgan said the quadrilateral meeting had focused on 
four specific areas to increase cooperation in the fight 
against organized crime and drug trafficking: (A) Creation of 
a new juridical instrument, either a treaty or administrative 
agreements, to increase judicial cooperation and especially 
streamlined extraditions; (B) Increased sharing of 
intelligence information, specifically by allowing the other 
three countries access to Mexico's Plataforma Mexico data 
base; (C) Closer cooperation on immigration issues, both to 
keep tabs on transnational criminals, and to fight against 
trafficking in persons; and (D) Increase judicial and police 
cooperation in order to build up stronger cases against 
suspected organized crime figures, including joint training 
of security forces. 
 
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Comment 
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¶3.  (C)  Morgan's description of the GOP's simplistic 
analysis of the crime problem in Panama is quite accurate. 
The GOP tends to the simplistic solution, in large part 
because it does not have the government bandwidth to deal 
with issues on a more sophisticated level. Her calculus that 
the plans laid at this meeting should come to fruition in 
May-June are very interesting. It reinforces the idea that 
President Torrijos is not actively supporting Herrera's 
campaign, and that he is instead orienting government 
programs, such as this one, to try to reshape his image in 
preparation for an eventual bid for a second term in 2014 
(this would require a constitutional change, but rumors are 
that just such a proposal is begin prepared). Torrijos will 
end his term as one of the most popular presidents in 
Panama's 20 years of renewed democracy. The only real chink 
in his armor is the increasingly popular idea that he has 
overseen a dramatic deterioration in security in Panama, 
especially in the last year. Torrijos has six months to 
develop a counter-narrative, and the quadrilateral meeting is 
one of theQools he is using to do that. 
STEPHENSON