US embassy cable - 05BRASILIA64

UNCLAS BRASILIA 000064 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER, ASEC, PREL, BR, Domestic Security & Crime 
SUBJECT: BRAZIL WILL SEEK RATIFICATION OF LAST THREE 
COUNTERRORISM CONVENTIONS 
 
REF: 04 STATE 269653 
 
1.  (SBU)  Poloff delivered talking points to Ministry of 
External Relations, Transnational Crimes Office Chief Marcus 
Pinta Gama.  According to Pinta Gama, the GOB hopes to ratify 
the last three outstanding international counterterrorism 
accords this year.  Of the three, the most urgent 
ratification, he explained, was the Convention for the 
Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.  Although a 2004 
Congressional hearing on the Convention was postponed, 
following his own discussions with key Deputados, Pinta Gama 
believed Congressional passage was feasible during the "first 
semester" of 2005. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Regarding the Safety of Maritime Navigation 
Convention and the Protocol on Fixed Platforms, Pinta Gama 
noted that the GOB did not intend to push these two through 
Congress as strongly as the Terrorism Financing Convention. 
However, he felt that both could be ratified by the second 
half of 2005. 
 
3.  (SBU)  In Pinta Gama's view, the most critical 
legislative step Brazil needed to take on the topic of 
terrorism was revision of Brazil's military regime era 
National Security Law.  While the 1978 law provided the tools 
to punish terrorists and terrorist financiers, Pinta Gama was 
uncertain Brazilian judges would allow the law, if put to the 
test, to be applied since it preceded Brazil's 1988 
Constitution.  A Working Group, he added, had been proposed 
to develop a national policy and structure for more effective 
counterterrorism, including review of existing legislation. 
The new legislation, as Pinta Gama perceived it, thus could 
be crafted to be in conformity with the Inter-American 
Convention against Terrorism. 
 
Danilovich