US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA2114

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 002114 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, GT, KCOR, KCRM, MARR, PGOV, PREL, SMIG, SNAR 
SUBJECT: STAFFDEL SHANK'S VISIT TO GUATEMALA 
 
1.  Sensitive But Unclassified - entire text. 
 
2.  Summary:  Staffdel Shank,s three-day visit to Guatemala 
gave the Congressional visitors an updated picture of the 
Guatemalan reality, through meetings with key GOG and private 
sector interlocutors.  The GOG representatives emphasized the 
Berger Administration,s accomplishments in the areas of 
military downsizing/modernization, anti-corruption, and tax 
reform.  Human rights activists were less positive about 
changes in the Guatemala military but conceded the goodwill 
of the Berger Administration.  Site visits to an Air Force 
base, a high-crime area, and a police station gave the 
visitors a first-hand look at the lack of resources that 
constrain Guatemalan counternarcotics and public security 
programs.  The message about resource constraints was 
reinforced in an Embassy briefing on counternarcotics/alien 
smuggling and in a meeting with the Guatemalan Minister of 
Government.  End Summary. 
 
3.  House Appropriations Committee, Foreign Operations 
Subcommittee (HACFO) Majority Clerk John Shank, HACFO 
Minority Staffer Mark Murray, and H Legislative Management 
Officer Steve Marchese visited Guatemala on August 10-12 to 
review U.S. assistance programs and meet with Guatemalan 
government and private sector representatives.  Staffdel 
Shank,s program included a Country Team briefing, reception 
with civil and private Sector figures, respective meetings 
with the Guatemalan Vice President (which featured a 10 
minute conversation with President Berger), Minister of 
Defense, and Minister of Government (Interior), and lunch 
with human rights activists.  Meetings with the Guatemalan 
Transparency Coalition and Congressional leadership ) along 
with in-house briefings on AID, counternarcotics and 
trafficking programs - rounded out the Staffdel program. 
 
4.  Following a meeting with the Embassy Country Team, the 
Staffdel traveled to the Presidential Palace, where Vice 
President Stein told the staffers that military downsizing 
was complete.  Repeating points made by Ambassador Hamilton 
in the Country Team meeting, the Vice President noted that: 
a) the reduction of the military budget to .033 percent of 
GDP was twice the .066 figure stipulated in the peace 
accords; the size of the military had been reduced by 66 
percent since 1997 ) twice the 33 percent reduction mandated 
by the peace accords; and that the new military doctrine had 
been developed through a process that included widespread and 
in-depth consultations with the Guatemalan civil sector. 
Stein also mentioned efforts to investigate military 
corruption and promote transparency, citing as an example the 
Attorney General,s sequestration of all military accounting 
records from the past four years. 
 
5.  In discussing assistance for the military, the Vice 
President was enthusiastic about the possibilities of taking 
advantage of the Excess Defense Article (EDA) program and 
told the staffers that Guatemala intended to seek access to 
EDA.  He also made a heartfelt pitch for release of old MAP 
funds.  Stein reiterated that the GOG was committed to 
CICIACS (the international commission to investigate 
clandestine groups) and was optimistic about gaining UN 
support for a redrafted agreement, although he was less 
confident about Congressional prospects.  At the end of the 
meeting, Stein led the meeting participants in brief drop by 
on President Berger, who was extremely cordial. 
 
6.  In their first meeting on Day 2 of the visit, the 
staffers traveled to Aurora International Airport for a 
briefing by the Defense Minister and walk-through inspection 
of military aviation assets.  Defense Minister General Mendez 
began with a presentation that detailed the downsizing of the 
armed forces over the past seven years, including tables of 
personnel strengths, and maps of unit deployments, during 
this time frame.  Mendez also explained how the Guatemalan 
military had shifted from a territorial deployment structure 
(consisting of military regions and detachments that covered 
the entire country) to one based on a functional structure 
(of regional infantry brigades with a pending rapid 
deployment capability).  After describing ongoing reforms in 
military administration and the military personnel system, 
General Mendez noted the various measures taken by the 
military, and the Guatemalan government in general, to assist 
demobilized personnel, and stated that the demobilization had 
been voluntary (i.e. with sufficient candidates to avoid the 
need for involuntary separations). 
 
7.  Air Force Commander General Santamarina led the visitors 
on an inspection of Guatemalan Air Force assets, including 
UH-1 helicopters, A-37 attack aircraft, and turboprop C-47 
and King Air transport aircraft.  The staffers learned that 
all A-37s were grounded due to damaged (crystallized) 
windscreens.  Almost all of the helicopters, and the majority 
of the remaining aircraft, were also grounded.  General 
Santamarina presented several anecdotes that described how 
resource constraints hindered military effectiveness in 
supporting counternarcotics police units. 
 
8.  The staffers, second site visit occurred in Villa Nueva, 
a poor, gang and crime-infested neighborhood in the northern 
part of the capital, and the location of an AID-funded 
justice center and a NAS-funded police investigators center. 
The staffers toured a local police precinct station, 
obtaining a first-hand look at the dismal state of police 
readiness and equipment given the size of the community. 
 
9.  A lunch with several prominent human rights activists 
(including Helen Mack) focused on issues of importance for 
the activists, namely transparency in the military budget, 
the need for long-term planning with respect to military 
downsizing and justice sector reform, the need for 
substantive government action on human rights cases, and the 
need for land reform to address inequalities in wealth 
distribution.  Mario Polanco of the Mutual Support Group 
(GAM) revealed that the military had turned over thousands of 
documents from the files of the dismantled Estado Mayor 
Presidencial.  The PDH had in turn sought staff support for 
the GAM to photocopy the files.  This work had been going on 
for seven months and &hundreds of thousands of pages8 had 
been photocopied so far, Polanco said, but no analytical work 
on the documents had yet been conducted. 
 
10.  CICIACS was one of the principal themes in the meeting 
with Transparency Commissioner Fuentes and other 
representatives from the Transparency Coalition.  In the wake 
of the Constitutional Court decision that struck down several 
of its key provisions, Fuentes announced that the GOG planned 
to analyze the agreement and then negotiate with the UN to 
reach agreement on an acceptable substitute.  Transparency 
Commission representatives then discussed the roles of their 
various organizations, and Fuentes explained that the Supreme 
Court received a large number of anonymous reports about 
misconduct by members of the government.  All of the reports 
were investigated, Fuentes said.  Of these, he claimed that 
70 percent were verified and 30 percent were found to be 
groundless. 
 
11.  Newly-appointed Minister of Government Vielmann gave the 
visitors a discourse on the problems of the police and 
justice sector, much of the blame for which he laid on the 
previous government.  Vielmann sketched out several goals, 
most notably improvement of the Police Academy curriculum and 
training as part of a general enhancement of police 
professionalism, strengthening of the administrative capacity 
of the police, and fighting corruption within the ranks of 
the police.  The Minister averred that Guatemala faced 
serious threats from organized crime, drug trafficking, 
international terrorism, and other forms of transnational 
crime.  He wanted to avoid a &Colombianization8 of 
Guatemala, pledged to work closely with the Embassy in 
combating drug and people trafficking, and welcomed any 
possible assistance from the U.S. Government. 
 
12.  During an informal dinner at the DCM,s residence, law 
enforcement and military members of the Country Team 
described Guatemalan counternarcotics and anti-trafficking 
efforts, with emphasis on the cooperation of GOG authorities 
in repatriation of third country illegal aliens intercepted 
on the high seas.  The staffers were also briefed on the 
nature of drug transits through Guatemala, a phenomenon that 
has left graveyards of wrecked and abandoned smuggling 
aircraft throughout the Peten region.  Country Team members 
also informed the staffers about the extensive maritime alien 
smuggling pipeline from Ecuador to Guatemala and highlighted 
Embassy concerns about the vulnerability to exploitation of 
this and other channels by Special Interest Aliens. 
 
13.  At a breakfast with congressional leadership hosted by 
the Ambassador, staffers heard concerns from the left (ANN 
congresswoman Nineth Montenegro) and the right (FRG 
congressman Antonio Arenales) about how Guatemala could best 
deal with its crime problem.  Congressional leader Jorge 
Mendez (GANA party) spoke about how inexperienced and divided 
the Congress was and how difficult that made passage of 
important legislation.  National Defense Committee Chairman 
Armando Paniagua spoke about the pressing need to improve 
Guatemala,s capabilities to act against international crime, 
including drug traffickers and alien smugglers. 
 
14.  The Staffdel did not have the opportunity to see this 
report before departing Guatemala. 
 
HAMILTON