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DE RUEHBU #0107/01 0551930
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FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0628
INFO MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RHEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUCNFB/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC
RUEANQT/FINCEN VIENNA VA
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 000107 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 2035/02/24 
TAGS: ECON EFIN PREL PGOV KJUS KCRM KTFN PTER SNAR EC AR
SUBJECT: Argentina Fires Financial Action Task Force Representative 
 
REF: BUENOS AIRES 79 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Tom Kelly, DCM; REASON: 1.4(B), (D) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary: The GOA fired its Financial Action Task Force 
(FATF) Coordinator over the weekend, reportedly in response to 
Ecuadorian criticism of Argentina's vote to blacklist Ecuador at 
the recent Abu Dhabi Plenary.  Argentina is under the gun itself in 
an ongoing peer assessment that seems likely to find them, at best, 
partially compliant with FATF recommendations.   Argentina will 
have to move quickly to replace the coordinator with someone 
knowledgeable as it navigates the ongoing review.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
FATF Coordinator Axed 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) In a surprise announcement, the GOA dismissed Financial 
Action Task Force (FATF) Representative and Anti-money Laundering 
and Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT) Coordinator Alejandro 
Strega over the weekend.  The news broke from the Rio Group Summit 
in Cancun where, according to press reports, the Government of 
Ecuador criticized the FATF decision to blacklist them for 
non-compliance with AML/CFT recommendations at the February 17 -19 
Abu Dhabi Plenary.  The Ecuadorian Government asked Argentine 
Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana to account for the GOA's vote to 
place them on the list of non-compliant countries at last week's 
meeting.  Taiana reportedly replied to his Ecuadorian counterpart 
on Saturday evening that Strega had been dismissed from office, 
effective immediately, for taking a vote that "was not pursuant to 
law." 
 
 
 
¶3.  (C) According to Strega's predecessor as Coordinator, Juan 
Felix Marteau (please protect), Strega made the extremely sensitive 
decision to vote to blacklist Ecuador unilaterally, without 
consulting other GOA officials.  Marteau said that when Taiana was 
confronted about the vote in Cancun, he reportedly confessed that 
he knew nothing about it.  According to Marteau, Taiana called 
Justice Minister Julio Alak, who was also unaware that Strega had 
voted against Ecuador.  When Alak learned what Strega had done, he 
summarily dismissed him from office.  Marteau commented that it was 
characteristic of Strega's lack of discipline that he would make a 
delicate foreign policy decision without consultation or 
coordination. 
 
 
 
Just the Latest Victim 
 
 
 
¶4.  (C) Press reports have noted that Strega is only the most 
recent (Ref. A) in a string of fired AML/CFT officials.  In early 
January, Minister Alak dismissed the Chief and the Deputy of the 
Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) and subsequently replaced the 
board of advisors.  The GOA filled the UIF vacancies largely with 
politically connected AML/CFT neophytes.  It will likely move 
quickly to fill Strega's position to deal with the ongoing FATF 
peer assessment of Argentina. 
 
 
 
FATF Review on Horizon 
 
 
 
¶5.  (C) According to Fabio Contini, the Italian Embassy Financial 
AttachC) who headed the FATF technical assessment team, the draft 
report goes to the GOA, most likely in April, affording them an 
opportunity to comment on or dispute elements of the team's 
findings.  The FATF Coordinator manages the comment process and 
then meets the technical review team to discuss areas of 
disagreement.  According to Contini, the follow-up meeting is not 
yet scheduled.  It is evident, however, that a new Coordinator will 
be hard pressed to defend Argentina's record with little time to 
prepare and study the issues.  The FATF Plenary will debate and 
issue a final public report on Argentina's performance before the 
 
end of the year. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (C) Contini said that the FATF review will likely be critical 
of Argentina.  Even with either Strega or someone more politically 
nimble than Strega at the helm, Argentina faces a challenge in 
mitigating the peer review's negative comments.  Contini said that 
Argentina's chief handicap for successfully completing the review 
is that the FATF coordinator has no authority to coordinate.  He 
noted that when he asked Strega why he had not called all 
interested elements of the GOA together in an effort to 
systematically address some of Argentina's AML/CFT inadequacies, 
Strega replied that, as Coordinator, he lacked authority to compel 
parties to sit down together. Contini, like many other Embassy 
contacts (Ref. B), thinks that Argentina's major AML/CFT 
shortcomings are the absence of political will and failure to 
integrate all the pieces of the system. 
 
 
 
¶7.  (C) Comment: Strega's departure is not surprising, and not just 
because of his vote in Abu Dhabi.   However, the GoA's approach to 
the entire FATF matter has been reactive and improvised, and not 
designed to deal seriously with the long-term issues plaguing its 
AML/CFT enforcement.  It remains to be seen whether the GOA will 
replace Strega with someone with more experience and political 
clout; the GoA's track record to date suggests otherwise. 
MARTINEZ