US embassy cable - 04GUATEMALA3270

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 003270 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN AND H 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC, EAID, OREP, PREL, SMIG, CVIS, MASS, GT, MX, CA 
SUBJECT: GUATEMALA/MEXICO BORDER ISSUES, STAFFDEL MEACHAM 
 
REF: MEXICO 9362 
 
1. Summary:  SFRC Staffdel Meacham visited Guatemala to 
discuss a broader North American security architecture and 
Guatemala's role as the southern border state of that area. 
Based on meetings with the country team, Ministry of Foreign 
Relations, Migration, and the Ministry of Defense, Staffdel 
Meacham and embassy staff undertook a broader review of the 
current role of Guatemala as a "buffer" between Central/South 
America and the NAFTA space and how that role can be expanded 
to improve U.S. security.  End Summary. 
 
2. Following his trip to Mexico (reftel), Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee Latin American specialist Carl Meacham 
visited Guatemala December 9-11 as part of a study on common 
security measures with the United States, Mexico, and Canada. 
 Unlike relationships with North American Free Trade 
Agreement (NAFTA) partners, no formal security arrangements 
exist with Central American nations.  Guatemalan 
interlocutors stressed that Guatemala played a significant 
role in Mexican border security and, by extension, that of 
all of North America.  A senior Ministry of Defense official 
noted that the length of the Mexico-Guatemala border and the 
terrain which it traverses make a strictly defensive posture 
by Mexican security agencies untenable.  A senior Immigration 
official added that security demands increased cooperation 
both between the relevant security agencies in Guatemala and 
between those agencies and their Mexican and United States 
counterparts. 
 
3. In particular, the visit to a Guatemala/Mexico border 
crossing point illustrated the openness of Mexico's southern 
border.  In open view of the two governments' officials, 
goods and people were transported by raft across the river in 
a highly-organized and heavily-used pattern.  Officials on 
both sides of the border told us that they had no formal 
information-sharing practices and little official or 
unofficial contact. 
 
People, Practices, and Equipment 
-------------------------------- 
 
4. All GOG representatives stressed the lack of resources to 
combat smuggling of persons and goods into and through 
Guatemalan territory, specifically citing the lack of 
transportation and communications equipment.  Nonetheless, 
upon further discussion, each GOG representative noted that 
human capital was the most critical component to assure 
border security.  Each service -- including Immigration, the 
armed forces, and the National Civilian Police (PNC) -- 
labors under the task of recruiting and retraining quality 
employees to undertake their basic missions and to combat 
corruption within their ranks.  Each of these services need 
resources to expand recruitment and training in order to 
increase the number and the efficacy of their operations. 
 
5. In addition to the need to expand the operations of the 
different services, GOG representatives noted the need to 
increase cooperation between the services, and between the 
operational services and the judicial system.  According to 
these representatives, Immigration and the PNC currently only 
focus on immediate cases at hand.  They are not trained to 
interview and investigate in a manner that could obtain 
useful evidence for prosecution by the Attorney General's 
office, nor are they trained to develop intelligence to 
attack organized crime on a systemic level.  One 
representative specifically noted the lack of wiretap 
authority to generate intelligence. 
 
6. The previously mentioned transportation and communications 
equipment is critical to the operational aspects of border 
security (Guatemala has only one helicopter and five pick-up 
trucks to patrol the entire border with Mexico).  In 
addition, Guatemala's Immigration Service lacks the equipment 
to keep accurate and retrievable records.  Computers and 
database archives are particularly necessary in order to 
manage formal migration.  An illustration of the equipment 
needs is to be seen in deportations of Central Americans from 
the U.S.  Upon arrival in Guatemala, no photographic or 
biometric information is collected that could be used either 
to prevent their reentry into the U.S. or to aid future law 
enforcement efforts locally. 
 
Vetting Human Assets, Reorientation of Military 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
7. Several of the GOG interlocutors stressed the need to 
maximize regional security by developing specific vetted 
cadres within the relevant services.  Furthermore, they 
noted, many of the relevant tasks can currently only be 
undertaken by the Guatemalan armed forces.  Rather than a 
military expansion -- precisely the opposite of the current 
government's objectives -- they discussed a possible 
reorientation of its missions and priorities, and inquired 
about U.S.-funded assets to help achieve them.  That the 
armed forces currently join patrols with the PNC in certain 
high-crime areas is an example of the reorientation of the 
standard military mission. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
8. In the immediate term, the NAFTA partners need to engage 
Central America in general and Guatemala in particular to 
institutionalize border security arrangements, particularly 
between the specific agencies operating border control 
points.  As a valuable buffer zone, it is in the United 
States' national interest to help Guatemalan security 
agencies develop human capacity to improve border security, 
in addition to the provision of transportation, 
communications, and information systems equipment such as 
biometric recording, database archives, and wiretap equipment 
(should wiretap authority be granted legally).  In the longer 
term, we need to continue our MPP objectives of developing a 
liberal democratic society, including respect for the rule of 
law and an end of impunity in regard to corruption.  End 
comment. 
 
9. Meacham did not have the opportunity to clear this message 
before departing Guatemala. 
 
 
HAMILTON