US embassy cable - 05ASUNCION650

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASUNCION 000650 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC 
NSC FOR KIM BREIER 
TREASURY FOR OSIA MAUREEN WAFER 
TREASURY FOR OTA WARFIELD, VAN KOCH, MILLAR 
SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD DAN JOHNSON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, KCRM, PTER, PINR, PA 
SUBJECT: PARAGUAY: ATTORNEY GENERAL ON PUBLIC SECURITY 
CHALLENGES 
 
 
Classified By: Polcoun James P. Merz for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C)  Summary.  The Ambassador met with Attorney General 
Oscar Latorre to discuss U.S. assistance to Paraguay to 
address its security concerns.  Latorre lamented the scope of 
the problems Paraguay faces, particularly in terms of 
corruption within the police.  He was keen to win our backing 
for his plan to create a corps of 100 police working directly 
for his office in support of criminal investigations, but 
lukewarm about the conduct of a workshop sponsored by the 
U.S. Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS), perhaps 
out of concern it would auger ill for plans to augment his 
own office.  End Summary. 
 
U.S. Assistance Efforts 
----------------------- 
 
2.  (U)  On 5/9, the Ambassador briefed Latorre on U.S. plans 
to conduct an assessment 6/13-6/17 to lay the groundwork for 
follow-on anti-terrorist assistance (ATA) training in 
handling kidnapping cases as well as host a workshop for key 
GOP leaders to develop a plan to confront Paraguay's public 
security challenges.  Vice-President Castiglioni supports 
these initiatives and will be traveling to the U.S. to 
discuss the workshop CHDS will sponsor aiming to produce a 
more comprehensive, coordinated GOP security plan.  U.S. 
follow on support efforts would be considered based on the 
conclusions derived from the workshop. 
 
Latorre Decries GOP's Inability to Confront Challenges 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
3.  (C)  Latorre lamented at length the multiplicity of 
challenges Paraguay faces in terms of vision, organization, 
and capacity in confronting its security problems. 
 
-- No one in Paraguay was capable of diagnosing the facts of 
Paraguay's security problem, much less the causes.  The 
police dishonestly argue that crime is on the decline though 
this flies directly in the face of his office's experience in 
prosecuting crimes.  The police deny the existence of this 
problem to avoid corrective measures. 
 
-- Infighting amongst the Executive, Legislative, and 
Judicial branches of government was the norm, making it 
practically impossible to produce consensus on a plan of 
action. 
 
-- Widespread, endemic corruption within police ranks 
undermined prospects for implementing any coherent plan.  To 
illustrate, he maintained that police district chiefs are 
required to raise 500 million guarani/month (over USD 80,000) 
-- no questions asked -- for delivery to police headquarters 
lest they be reassigned to inhospitable areas.  Separately, 
he remarked that a hard-drive containing the building plans 
for the Public Ministry had disappeared calling into question 
the reliability of the police who are directly responsible 
for protecting such items. 
 
4.  (C)  Latorre linked Paraguay's kidnapping problem 
directly to Patria Libre, the leftist political party behind 
the  kidnapping and murder of Cecilia Cubas.  In response to 
the Ambassador's query, he qualified that only a "few" 
members of the party, and not its entire structure, were 
committed to kidnapping as a way to raise funds and send a 
political message.  Nonetheless, the links these members had 
with the FARC as evidenced by email traffic and personal 
meetings abroad was very worrying.  Paraguay had evidence of 
party members' involvement in a recent failed kidnapping 
attempt and plans for future kidnappings. 
 
5.  (C)  For lack of trust in the integrity and capacity of 
the police to investigate crimes, prosecutors essentially 
investigate their own cases rather than rely on the police. 
Latorre conjectured that Paraguay could well be better off 
destroying its entire police structure and starting from 
scratch but lacked the resources and the political will to 
take such a drastic course.  Instead, he advocated the 
creation of a special unit of police working within the 
Attorney General's office at the behest of prosecutors to 
investigate crimes.  Paraguay would solicit U.S. assistance 
in terms of vetting, internal controls, and better salaries. 
 
Latorre Cool on CHDS Workshop 
----------------------------- 
 
6.  (C)  Ambassador stressed the value the GOP could derive 
from a CHDS workshop aiming to produce a coordinated action 
plan based on a realistic assessment of the challenges 
Paraguay faces as well as its access to finite resources.  A 
comparable exercise in Panama and Peru had proven 
constructive and useful.  Latorre was not enthusiastic.  He 
worried that the exercise would produce a plan that was 
beyond Paraguay's ability to implement on a political and 
financial level.  He repeatedly returned to the need to 
create a special unit within his office to investigate 
crimes.  He only desisted in his negative take on the 
workshop once the Ambassador signaled support, in principle, 
for the utility of creating a corps of vetted investigators. 
 
7.  (C)  Comment: Latorre is pessimistic about the GOP's 
ability to meet its security challenges.  He considers 
creation of a corps of vetted police investigators working at 
the bidding of prosecutors as key to addressing serious 
concerns about police corruption.  His reluctance to a CHDS 
workshop appeared inspired by concern it would undermine 
prospects for creation of this corps. 
 
8.  (C)  It is worth recalling that Latorre's term expires in 
August.  Agreement to replacing him figured large in a recent 
pact between the ruling Colorado Party and several other 
political parties to gain a majority in the Senate.  We do 
not rule out that Paraguayan political machinations could 
rejuvenate Latorre's prospects for another five year term. 
Regardless of who the Attorney General is, however, 
overcoming the institutional distrust of the Attorney 
General's Office for the police and other law enforcement and 
investigative entities will prove essential for the effective 
implementation of any security plan .  End Comment. 
KEANE