Panamá dentro de la reunión multilateral

ID DOC: 189388

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FECHA: 0000-00-00 00:00:00

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FUENTE: Embassy Panama

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PRIVACIDAD: SECRET

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REFERENCIA: VZCZCXYZ0000 RR RUEHWEB DE RUEHZP #0084/01 0291241 ZNY SSSSS ZZH R 291241Z JAN 09 FM AMEMBASSY PANAMA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2915 INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 2754 RUEHGT/AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA 0771 RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 3775 RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE 1

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S E C R E T PANAMA 000084

 

NOFORN

SIPDIS

 

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2019

TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PM

SUBJECT: PANAMA: INSIDE SCOOP ON THE QUADRILATERAL SECURITY

MEETINGS

 

Classified By: Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson for reasons 1.4 (b) and

 (d)

 

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Summary

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1.  (C)  The aim of the recent quadrilateral meeting of the

presidents of Panama, Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala was to

establish the means to quickly extradite Colombian and

Mexican drug traffickers from Panama to their native

countries, Panamanian National Security Advisor Marcel

Salamin told POLOFF January 20. He said the meeting was a

Panamanian initiative, after U.S. officials informed the GOP

that the U.S. could not accept suspected traffickers who did

not have indictments pending in the U.S. Salamin said the key

to the agreement was the development of a quick and simple

mechanism for turning suspected drug traffickers over to

their host countries, since Panama did not have the capacity

to hold high level criminals in its prisons. He said that

once agreement was reached on such a legal mechanism the four

countries would move on to joint targeting of suspects, and

operational planning. The agreement also calls for greater

information sharing from national data bases. Salamin said he

would chair a group to look into how the initiative might be

linked into the Merida Initiative in the future. End Summary.

 

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Trying to Move Out the Colombians and Mexicans

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2.  (S//NF)  Marcel Salamin, President Torrijos' National

Security Advisor, told POLOFF January 20 that President

Torrijos had asked him to organize the meeting on security

with President Calderon of Mexico, and President Uribe of

Colombia. He said Guatemala had been a later addition. He

said the main focus of the meeting had been to try to develop

mechanisms to quickly transfer high-level drug trafficking

suspects from Panama to Mexico or Colombia.  He said the

effort was based on President Torrijos' belief that the

current crime wave in Panama was linked to the presence of

representatives of the Colombian and Mexican drug trafficking

cartels in Panama. Salamin said that after Embassy officials

explained to GOP officials that the U.S. could not accept

suspects who were not under indictment in the U.S., the GOP

began to plan this initiative. He said Panama wanted to

cooperate fully with Colombia and Mexico to arrest these

criminals, but needed a very fast judicial mechanism to get

them out of the country because it did not have the high

security prison capacity to hold them for even relatively

short periods of time.  Salamin asserted that the cartels

sent representatives to Panama because drug shipments changed

possession in Panama from the originating cartels in Colombia

to Mexican cartels that transport the drugs to the U.S. He

said Panama was particularly worried about Mexican drug

trafficking cartels bringing more people into Panama by

taking advantage of a "wave of immigration" from Mexico to

Panama, as a result of the economic crisis in the U.S.

Salamin said Guatemala had been an add-on, and that it had

been more trouble than it was worth to bring them into the

process, due to the fact that President Colom did not have

any loyal intelligence service upon which he could rely,

noting that the Army and Police were both penetrated by drug

traffickers and not very loyal to President Colom.

 

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Quickie Extraditions

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3.  (C)  Salamin said the meeting had revealed a legal vacuum

that had to be dealt with before Panama could deliver

suspects to Mexico and Colombia. He said Panamanian law had a

procedure known as "simple and conditioned deliveries"

(entregas simples y condicionadas)  that allowed the GOP to

turn over dangerous suspects in Panamanian custody to foreign

governments that have more serious charges against them.

Salamin asserted that the procedure was very fast and not

subject to judicial appeal. He said it was originally

designed to allow Panama to quickly move dangerous drug

trafficking suspects that Panama could not hold to the U.S.

for prosecution. Salamin said Colombian and Mexican law did

not recognize this procedure, greatly restricting Panama's

ability to persue Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers,

since Panama did not have the capacity to hold them in

custody for long periods while a traditional extradition made

its way through the courts. Salamin said that Colombia had

been "assigned" the task, following the meeting, of reviewing

all the existing extradition and legal assistance agreements

and treaties among the four countries, and then presenting

one unified document that all four could adopt that would

bring all the agreements together. Salamin said the idea was

that this document would contain an acceptable mechanism for

the rapid transfer of suspects to Mexico and Colombia.

 

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Joint Targeting

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4.  (C)  Salamin said the four presidents ordered another

group to follow up after the meeting as well. This group

would be made up of one or two personal representatives of

each president, discuss specific information on possible drug

trafficking targets, and plan operations to arrest them. For

Panama, the representative to this meeting would be the

Director of the National Intelligence and Security Service

(SENIS) Erik Espinosa and possibly Salamin as well. Salamin

said no actual operations would take place until a mechanism

had been worked out to allow them to quickly be turned over

to their native country. Salamin told POLOFF on January 27

that he had given Colombian officials a list of 60 Colombians

that the GOP suspected of drug trafficking and were ready to

arrest and turn over to Colombia once a mechanism had been

found, and assuming Colombia had judicial cases against them.

He said Panama had identified 500 Colombians, Mexicans and

Guatemalans it was prepared to move against eventually.

 

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Intel Sharing

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5.  (C)  Salamin said that the presidents had also agreed to

greater information sharing from national databases. He said

Colombia would give Panama access to its criminal and civil

databases (not intel data bases), so that Panama could

quickly and easily identify Colombian suspects in Panama.

Colombia would also provide Panama real-time access to a

finger print database that would allow Panama to fingerprint

Colombians and check the results against Colombia's records.

At present, Panama did not have real-time access. He said

Mexico was sending people down next week to look into ways to

allow Panama to connect its database on suspected drug

traffickers with Mexico's larger "Plataforma Mexico"

database. Salamin said he had proposed the creation of a

program like the USG program for visa waiver countries,

whereby visitors had to provide their personal data to

immigration officials on-line before they could get on the

plane. He said this type of program would give them time to

run the names and identify suspicious individuals.

 

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Comment

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6.  (C)  Last November, First Vice President and Foreign

Minister Samuel Lewis approached the Ambassador and asked

that the USG do more to remove dangerous drug trafficking

suspects from Panama, due to the GOP's fear that Colombian

and Mexican drug trafficking organizations were increasing

their activities in Panama and contributing to an increase in

crime. National Intelligence and Security Service (SENIS)

members later approached Embassy DEA officers with a list of

prisoners in Panamanian jails who they said President

Torrijos considered too dangerous to keep in custody, due to

the risk they would bribe or shoot their way out of jail, and

asked that the USG quickly take them out of the country for

prosecution. While some were under indictment in the U.S.,

others on this list had no cases pending in the U.S., and no

real prospects of being indicted. DEA officers explained that

the USG could not act against anyone if there were no charges

against them in the U.S. The quadrilateral meeting seems to

have been a direct consequence of the GOP's discovery that

the USG could not take all the drug traffickers in Panama out

of the country. The agreement worked out among the three

(Guatemala does not seem to have played an important part,

and Salamin did not seem excited about the idea of adding

more Central American countries to the initiative) is a

win-win proposition. Panama will work closely with Mexico and

Colombia to track down wanted drug traffickers in Panama and

arrest them, as long as a mechanism can be found to allow

them to be sent home rapidly and easily. Panama is not/not

willing or able to hold these prisoners in Panama. For Mexico

and Colombia, the agreement offers the chance to weaken the

cartels, while Panama becomes a much less hospitable place

for them to operate in. The GOP's ability to put this meeting

together so quickly, and to get such good press out of it is

very impressive, and shows what the GOP is capable of when it

sees its interests being served by regional cooperation.

Salamin indicated he would look at how the Merida Initiative

might plug into this quadrilateral initiative in the future.

STEPHENSON