US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA1635

C O N F I D E N T I A L GUATEMALA 001635 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS TO NP/RA, T, L, AND WHA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2014 
TAGS: KNNP, MNUC, PARM, PREL, GT 
SUBJECT: POST SUGGESTS POSTPONING PROPOSED VISIT ON PSI 
SHIP BOARDING AGREEMENT 
 
REF: A. A. GUATEMALA 985 
 
     B. B. SECSTATE 141034 
 
Classified By: PolOff Nicole Otallah for reasons 1.4, a,b,d 
 
1.  (C) While Post fully supports the establishment of a 
Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) ship boarding 
agreement with Guatemala, we wish to avoid overloading the 
MFA and Congress while other sensitive bilateral issues are 
on the boiler.  The MFA has recently indicated that pushing a 
PSI ship boarding agreement at this time could risk diverting 
attention from Article 98, still pending Congressional 
approval (Ref A), and generate a misperception in the GOG of 
overwhelming demands from the USG.  Therefore, Post suggests 
postponing the proposed visit by interagency PSI negotiating 
team (Ref B) until October or November, following hopeful 
passage of Article 98. 
 
2.  (C)  In the past year, Post has successfully lobbied for 
GOG and Congressional approval for the Maritime Agreement, 
Mayan Jaguar (giving permission to the US military to 
participate in joint anti-drug air interdiction operations), 
and Article 98 (supported by the Executive, but still pending 
Congressional approval).  Additionally, while not a USG 
initiative, we have strongly supported Congressional passage 
of a UN Commission to Investigate Clandestine Groups 
(CICIACS), which is hugely controversial.  Following these 
initiatives, Post believes that it would be prudent to wait 
until October/ November before presenting the MFA with 
another major agreement, on PSI, in order to avoid 
overloading the MFA. 
 
HAMILTON