US embassy cable - 05BOGOTA10055

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 010055 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, CO, EC 
SUBJECT: VICE PRESIDENT SANTOS ELATED ABOUT REELECTION; 
CONCERNED ABOUT CHAVEZ 
 
 
Classified By: DCM Milton Drucker; Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
 
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Summary 
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1. (C) Director of Andean Affairs Philip French and DCM 
Drucker called on Vice President Francisco Santos and MFA 
Acting Vice Minister for Bilateral Affairs Mauricio Gonzalez 
separately on October 19.  Santos, speaking minutes after the 
announcement that the Constitutional Court approved 
reelection, urged the United States to continue strong 
support for Colombia, saying that, with U.S. help, Colombia 
could be a different place in 2010, after Uribe's second term 
as President.  Santos said his goal was to work with the U.N. 
High Commissioner for Human Rights to create Colombian 
institutions capable of handling human rights issues on their 
own so that the U.N. presence could gradually be decreased. 
Santos also expressed concern about the growing influence of 
Chavez in the region.  Acting Vice Minister Gonzalez, who 
covers Latin American and Caribbean issues, focused on 
regional issues.  Gonzalez said a politically weak Defensor 
del Pueblo is the motivating force behind Ecuador's case 
against aerial spraying of coca crops at the Inter-American 
Court of Human Rights (IACHR).  Gonzalez said last week's 
Ibero-American Summit in Salamanca was more challenging than 
expected.  The GOC would have preferred to call the FARC, ELN 
and AUC "terrorist groups," but was satisfied with the 
decision to label them "illegal armed groups who commit 
terrorist acts8 in the final declaration. 
 
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Reelection: Colombia Has a Chance Now 
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2.  (C) Vice President Santos was elated by the news that the 
Constitutional Court approved reelection.  Minutes after the 
decision was announced, he urged the United States to 
continue its strong support for Colombia.  Santos said if 
Uribe is reelected, Colombia will be a different place in 
2010, but the United States would be essential in reaching 
that goal.  According to Santos, with a comparatively small 
investment of resources, the United States had the 
opportunity to help Colombia get on the right track for the 
foreseeable future. 
 
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Need for a New Plan to Counter 
Growing Chavez Influence in the Region 
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3.  (C) Santos said Chavez has &infiltrated8 many countries 
in both the Andean and Caribbean regions, demonstrating that 
the current containment policy is not effective.  Santos,s 
concerns were heightened after a recent meeting with the 
Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Antilles, who said Chavez 
is using both bribes and threats to infiltrate the political 
and labor arenas.  Santos urged the United States, Great 
Britain, Spain and the Netherlands ) parties who are 
concerned about the growth of Chavez,s influence ) to start 
thinking about a new, more aggressive approach to Chavez. 
WHA/AND Director French replied that Chavez feeds off any 
U.S. comments on Venezuela posturing and suggested the need 
for a Latin American-led effort against Chavez, to garner 
wider European support.  DCM Drucker agreed.  Santos did not 
reply. 
 
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Santos: U.N. Must Work With Colombia 
to Create Human Rights Institutions 
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4.  (C) Santos expressed frustration with the growing size of 
the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in 
Bogota.  He expressed frustration that little progress is 
being made in creating Colombian institutions capable of 
dealing with human rights issues while the U.N. mission 
continues to grow.  Santos said that the GOC knows that it 
must improve its human rights record and that it needs help. 
However, he believes that the U.N. does not work with 
Colombia on human rights issues so much as joins the chorus 
 
of NGO detractors.  Santos said he spoke to High Commissioner 
Louise Arbour frankly about these issues while in Europe last 
month.  He was disturbed that she did not know the situation 
in Colombia and was unfamiliar with important aspects of the 
Law of Justice and Peace.  Santos said the GOC plans to 
renegotiate the mandate of the office, which runs out in 
October 2006.  He noted that, as the GOC had invited the 
UNHCHR into the country ten years ago, a new mandate would 
not require approval by the Commission on Human Rights. 
Santos,s goal is to create an exit strategy for the office 
of the High Commissioner. 
 
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Meeting with MFA Acting Vice Minister 
Ecuador: IACHR Case is Motivated by Defensor del Pueblo 
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5. (C) According the Acting Vice Minister Gonzalez, the 
Ecuadorian complaint before the IAHCR about aerial spraying 
along the border is an emotional issue, colored by political 
instability in Ecuador and motivated by the Defensor del 
Pueblo.  He said the highest levels of the GOE understand 
that fumigation is critical to Colombia and that glyphosate 
is not harmful to human health.  He said the two sides have 
had numerous technical meetings on aerial spraying and that 
initial Ecuadorian reactions were positive.  He blamed the 
current IACHR case on an overzealous Defensor del Pueblo and 
not the GOE.  In his opinion, the questionable election of 
the Defensor has motivated him to bring the case before the 
IACHR to bolster his legitimacy. 
 
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Uribe,s Victory - of Sorts - in Salamanca 
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6.  (C) Turning to the topic of last week's Ibero-American 
Summit in Salamanca, Gonzalez said the Summit was very 
complicated and not the unmitigated success reported in the 
Colombian papers.  Colombia was surprised at opposition from 
other members of the Rio Group on the issue of calling 
illegal armed groups in Colombia &terrorists.8  He said the 
GOC was also surprised at the ambiguous position of the 
Spanish hosts, who had supported the &terrorist8 
designation after the four party (Colombia, Spain, Venezuela 
and Brazil) meeting on this issue in Ciudad Guyana, Venezuela 
earlier this year.  After much effort on the part of 
President Uribe, the Summit participants compromised, calling 
these groups &illegal armed groups that have committed 
terrorist acts8 in the final declaration.  Gonzalez said the 
GOC is satisfied with this result. 
 
7.  (U) This message has been cleared by WHA/AND Director 
Philip French. 
WOOD