US embassy cable - 03GUATEMALA955

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 GUATEMALA 000955 
 
SIPDIS 
 
HARARE FOR BRUCE WHARTON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/10/2013 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PHUM, SNAR, CU, GT, UNCHR-1 
SUBJECT: EMBASSY CALLS ON RULING PARTY TO URGE PORTILLO TO 
SUPPORT CUBA CHR RESOLUTION 
 
 
Classified By: PolCouns David Lindwall for reason 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (U) On April 9, the Guatemalan Congress passed an 
unscheduled resolution calling on President Portillo to 
abstain in the upcoming UNCHR resolution on Cuba.  Only one 
independent congressman, Emilio Saca, voted against the 
measure, saying that the Government of Cuba should be 
censured for its deplorable human rights situation. 
 
2. (SBU) On instruction from the Ambassador, PolCouns met on 
April 10 with the Congressional leadership of the ruling 
party (the FRG - Frente Republicano Guatemalteco) to express 
our disappointment with the Congressional resolution and to 
urge them to take a principled position in support of the 
jailed human rights activists, journalists, labor leaders and 
other dissidents in Cuba.  Present for the FRG were First 
Vice President of Congress Carlos Hernandez, Third Vice 
President Jorge Arevalo and Majority Leader Aristides Crespo. 
 PolCouns relayed the details of the recent arrest and 
summary trial of the dissidents, noted by name many of the 
dissidents who are personally known to Ambassador Hamilton, 
and argued that these individuals deserved the support of all 
freedom-loving Latin Americans.  They had been arrested and 
summarily tried in kangaroo courts for exercising the most 
basic human rights that all Guatemalans enjoy and that are 
strongly defended in Guatemala by the FRG.  It was 
unconscionable that only Guatemalan labor leaders had spoken 
out in the defense of the dissidents, and an abstention on 
the UNCHR resolution on Cuba would only convince the GOC that 
it had friends that were prepared to support it irrespective 
of its deplorable behavior.  PolCouns asked them how the FRG 
viewed the arrest of the dissidents. 
 
3. (SBU) Aristides Crespo responded that the arrest appeared 
to be an injustice, but said that counter-narcotics 
decertification of Guatemala by the USG was also viewed as an 
injustice by them.  He said that many believed that it had 
been done expressly to hurt the FRG in the upcoming 
elections, and that the FRG believed that decertification was 
unmerited.  He argued that if the USG wanted greater 
cooperation on drugs from a poor country like Guatemala, it 
needed to provide greater financial support to the effort. 
PolCouns noted that since decertification the GOG had 
accomplished several significant successes in the war on 
drugs, in cooperation with us, but without new resources.  We 
are pleased with the increase in counter-narcotics 
cooperation and are prepared to continue providing all the 
support possible.  However, the issue of supporting the Cuban 
dissidents should be an issue of principle, not of bilateral 
differences with us.  The FRG is known as a party of strong 
principles, and we know that they support the principles of 
free speech and free association for which the Cuban 
dissidents were arrested and sentenced to long terms.  Surely 
the FRG would find these principles much closer to their own 
than the principles employed by the Cuban Government in 
arresting these people. 
 
4. (SBU) PolCouns asked if they had seen the draft Cuba 
resolution tabled in Geneva by Costa Rica, Uruguay and Peru. 
When they acknowledged they had not, PolCouns gave them a 
copy and noted that it simply called for Cuba to allow the 
visit of the UNCHR's Special Representative.  The UNCHR has 
sent Special Representatives to Guatemala many times, and the 
GOG has always welcomed them.  It is difficult for us to 
understand why an FRG government would not vote in favor of 
this resolution, as Guatemala certainly believes that all 
governments should meet the same human rights standards that 
have been applied here. 
 
5. (SBU) Crespo noted that, despite the Congressional 
resolution, the decision on the Cuba vote is entirely the 
Executive's.  When pressed, he acknowledged that they did 
have some influence on the vote, and said they would relay 
our request to the senior party leadership (i.e. President of 
Congress Rios Montt). 
 
6. (C) Comment:  The Congressional vote of April 9 may well 
have been a face-saving move by the FRG to give Portillo 
cover with the Cubans to abstain on the vote, vice the "no" 
vote the Cubans had hoped for.  The linkage between not 
supporting us on Cuba and the recent decertification of 
Guatemala for counter-narcotics cooperation, naked as it is, 
has been made to us repeatedly by MFA interlocutors.  The 
Ambassador's continuing efforts to portray support for the 
Cuban dissidents as an issue of principle is a hard one for 
the Guatemalans to argue against, and is beginning to crack 
Guatemalan determination to "pass us the bill" for 
decertifying Guatemala.  We will continue to press this issue 
publicly and privately on all fronts in the lead-up to the 
vote. 
HAMILTON