US embassy cable - 05BOGOTA1070

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BOGOTA 001070 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USAID FOR ADMINISTRATOR NATSIOS/AMB JORDAN 
WHA FOR DAS SHAPIRO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2015 
TAGS: PREL, EAID, PHUM, CO 
SUBJECT: SCENESETTER FOR CARTAGENA DONORS CONFERENCE, 
FEBRUARY 2-4 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William B. Wood, Reason 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) Embassy Bogota welcomes the U.S. Delegation, led by 
USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios, to Cartagena for the Feb. 
2-4 follow-up conference to the London Declaration of July 
2003 on international support for Colombia.  This is a 
GOC-hosted meeting for the 24 London Declaration signatories 
plus several additional countries, and provides an 
opportunity for the USG to reinforce its message of strong 
support for Colombia and the Uribe Administration. 
 
The U.S. delegation's goals should be: 
 
-- Show support for the Uribe Administration by highlighting 
improvements in security and human rights; 
-- Adopt the G-24 declaration; and 
-- Press the Europeans and others to commit to support the 
GOC both politically and monetarily, especially with the 
paramilitary peace process. 
 
2. (U) Some 35 countries and multinational entities (e.g. EU, 
IADB) will send high-level delegations to the February 2-4 
Cartagena Donors' Conference, hosted by President Uribe.  The 
FMs of Argentina and Chile have confirmed attendance, and 
other donors will be represented at the Cooperation Minister 
or Vice Foreign Minister level.  The first day of the 
conference will be devoted to human rights issues as viewed 
by national and international NGOs.  Day two will include GOC 
presentations on its activities and record, with 
interventions by participating foreign delegations.  Day 
three will offer delegates the option of a daytrip visit to 
one of two international projects in Colombia -- the 
anti-narcotics forest rangers ("Guardabosques") program and 
an EU-funded "Peace Laboratory."  Both visits are targeted at 
securing additional European financial support. 
 
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HIGHLIGHTING DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL SUCCESSES 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
3. (C) The GOC will greet arriving delegations with a recent 
string of diplomatic and political achievements, including a 
likely resolution of the crisis with Venezuela, forward 
movement on the peace process with the ELN via Mexican 
facilitation, productive negotiations between the GOC and 
Senator Pardo's group on a draft law of truth, justice and 
reparations to deal with those guilty of serious crimes (a 
major stumbling block to increased EU support for 
paramilitary demobilization), and a tough but successful 
negotiation with the G-24 on a follow-up declaration to the 
London conference in which the GOC secured all its goals. 
Other issues and events likely to affect conference 
discussions include: human rights improvements (and those who 
disagree), counternarcotics efforts; and progress on 
alternative development and humanitarian assistance. 
 
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CLASH WITH VENEZUELA 
-------------------- 
 
4. (C) After three weeks of tension between Colombia and 
Venezuela over the capture of leading FARC "diplomat" Rodrigo 
Granda in Venezuela, the GOC issued a communiqu announcing a 
meeting between President Uribe and Chavez in Caracas and 
saying that, based on that agreement, "the incident is over." 
(Two days later, Chavez said a final resolution would depend 
on the outcome of the February 3 meeting in Caracas).  Uribe 
is universally perceived as having won the diplomatic 
standoff.  The Chavez statement that Uribe gave "sort of an 
apology" only reinforces that perception.  The episode served 
to demonstrate Venezuela's willingness to give safe haven to 
narco-terrorists, and Colombia's determination to protect 
itself. 
 
5. (C) The bilaterally agreed communique contains no apology. 
 The only slightly ambiguous sentence in it, reportedly 
drafted by Uribe personally, says that Colombia "will review 
the events with which everyone is familiar with the goal of 
ensuring that events which irritated the Venezuelan 
Government do not occur again."  President Uribe and Foreign 
Minister Barco will leave Cartagena prior to the 
intergovernmental segment of the conference on February 3 to 
meet with Chavez in Caracas.  One way to capitalize on this 
GOC success at Cartagena is to encourage all delegations to 
make statements for regional solidarity with international 
commitments against terrorism. 
 
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BREAKTHROUGH WITH THE ELN 
------------------------- 
 
6. (C) On January 28, on the margins of a meeting at the 
Ambassador's residence on demobilization issues with senior 
GOC officials, Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo told 
the Ambassador that the GOC and ELN had agreed to conditions 
allowing members of the COCE to travel to Mexico for face to 
face meetings with GOM facilitator Andres Valencia. 
According to Restrepo, the ELN has agreed to conduct no 
"offensive operations" during the time its negotiators are in 
Mexico (up to three weeks).  The GOC will reciprocate by 
taking no offensive actions against the ELN during this time. 
 Both sides retain the right to self-defense.  The agenda in 
Mexico would be limited to arriving at a formula for direct 
GOC-ELN negotiations and an extension and formalization of 
the unofficial cease-fire.  Restrepo said that the GOC would 
announce the breakthrough at the conference in Cartagena. 
Movement in negotiations with the ELN could eventually take 
combatants off the battlefield, isolate the FARC and, as a 
process with a terrorist group of the left, validate the GOC 
peace process with the so-called paramilitary self-defense 
forces on the right.  Details reported septel. 
 
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DEMOBILIZATION AND THE PEACE PROCESS 
------------------------------------ 
 
7. (SBU) In 2004 the GOC demobilized approximately 4,500 
former paramilitaries in collective demobilizations and has 
pledged to dismantle all paramilitary groups by the end of 
President Uribe's term in August 2006.  Demobilizing fighters 
surrendered approximately 2,000 weapons and other supplies. 
Lack of funding will contrain the peace process in 2005. Both 
European Union nations and the NGO community have said the 
Colombian Government must implement strict legal guarantees 
against impunity before they offer their support. 
 
8. (SBU) After months of deadlock and delay, the GOC has 
drafted a new version of a legal framework to govern 
demobilization and has begun negotiating seriously with a 
coalition of Senators from different parties, led by Rafael 
Pardo, which drafted its own legal framework that has won the 
support of national and international NGOs, including Human 
Rights Watch.  Pardo told the Ambassador on January 28 that 
negotiations are going well and should reach closure soon. 
The GOC plans to report on the status of these negotiations 
at Cartagena. 
 
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THE CARTAGENA DECLARATION 
------------------------- 
 
9. (C) The GOC and the G-24 Troika (Canada, Brazil and Spain) 
have been negotiating the text of a declaration for over a 
month.  The GOC negotiating team (with quiet U.S. backing) 
has been tougher than the G-24 expected, insisting that the 
new document reflect progress since the London Declaration of 
2003, describe the internal conflict as a war against 
terrorism, and characterize the humanitarian situation more 
accurately.  The final text will be approved by delegations 
on February 3. 
 
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HUMAN RIGHTS IMPROVEMENTS 
------------------------- 
 
10. (C) The Uribe Administration continues to make progress 
on human rights and will release a report on its efforts at 
Cartagena.  Homicides fell by 16 percent, kidnappings by 42 
percent, and forced displacements by 37 percent in 2004, 
building on 2003's trends.  The GOC increased its dialogue 
with NGOs, the UN, and foreign governments, hosting meetings 
with local and international human rights organizations that 
included over 40 hours of discussions on the UNHCHR's 27 
human rights recommendations. Human rights training is 
mandatory for all members of the military and police.  Less 
than 2 percent of human rights violations are attributable to 
government security forces, according to GOC statistics.  But 
recent violations by members of the armed forces, such as the 
murders in August 2004 of three trade unionists in the highly 
conflictive Arauca Department, demonstrate the need for 
further improvement.  Some prominent NGOs discount the 
statistical improvements and emphasize incidents such as the 
Arauca killings to claim the human rights situation has 
actually worsened.  The Colombia office of UNHCHR has hinted 
that its next human rights report on Colombia will assert 
that human rights violations by the security forces have 
increased.  Despite the ongoing dialogue, relations between 
the Government and many prominent local NGOs are strained. 
They can be expected to sharply criticize the GOC during 
their forum on the first day of the conference.  The GOC, UN 
and G-24 delegations will attend the NGO forum as observers. 
 
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COUNTERNARCOTICS EFFORTS 
------------------------ 
11. (U) Despite impressive progress against narco-trafficking 
in 2004 the year, Colombia remains a major producing country. 
 More than 325 tons of drugs were captured through the 
efforts of Colombia's police and military forces.  The 
U.S.-supported Anti-Narcotics Police Directorate (DIRAN) 
sprayed a record 136,555 hectares of coca and 3060 hectares 
of opium poppy during the year.  Manual eradication accounted 
for the destruction of an additional 2,306 hectares of coca 
and 795 hectares of opium poppy. The FARC and AUC use drugs 
as a major fund source. 
 
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ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
12. (SBU) Alternative development, humanitarian aid, and 
democracy programs are going well.  We have leveraged 
substantial private sector assistance to establish 270 square 
miles of legal agriculture benefiting 40,000 families.  U.S. 
aid has helped nearly 2 million internally displaced persons. 
 Colombia has the largest displaced population outside 
Africa. 
 
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CONFERENCE GOALS AND THEMES 
--------------------------- 
 
13. (C) Continued U.S. support at the highest levels will be 
critical to defeating narco-terrorism in Colombia.  The U.S. 
delegation should note the GOC's record on combating drug 
trafficking; promoting human rights, sound economic policies, 
justice reform, and transparency in government; and 
aggressive action to demobilize paramilitary forces and 
pursue an effective peace process.  Second, we should 
highlight significant human rights improvements under Uribe, 
and notable progress on goals established in the 2003 London 
Declaration.  Finally, the U.S. delegation should press 
European representatives to more actively support the GOC in 
the peace process, human rights and rule of law, humanitarian 
assistance, productive and alternative development, and 
forestry development. 
 
14. (U) The conference is an important opportunity for the 
donor community, especially European donors, to recognize GOC 
progress and pledge future support.  The Uribe Administration 
has focused on six thematic areas: (1) the demobilization of 
illegal combatants and the establish of a legal framework to 
address their situation; (2) human rights protections and 
transition to an accusatorial justice system; (3) 
humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced and 
vulnerable populations; (4) productive alternative 
development to establish sustainable crops and replace 
illicit economic activities; (5) forestry projects to combat 
narcotics cultivation; and (6) regional development programs 
to tackle rural poverty and establish a government presence. 
WOOD