Reunión multilateral

ID DOC: 190189

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FECHA: 2009-03-02 00:00:00

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FUENTE: Embassy Panama

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PRIVACIDAD: CONFIDENTIAL

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REFERENCIA: VZCZCXYZ0000RR RUEHWEBDE RUEHZP #0097/01 0341505ZNY CCCCC ZZHR 031505Z FEB 09FM AMEMBASSY PANAMATO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2936INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 2759RUEHGT/AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA 0774RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 3778RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE 1

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C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000097



SIPDIS



E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2019

TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PM

SUBJECT: PANAMA: MEXICAN TAKE ON QUADRILATERAL MEETING



REF: PANAMA 00084



Classified By: Ambassador Barbara J. Stephenson for reasons

1.4 (b) and (d)



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Mexico Pleased, But Somewhat Frustrated

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1. (C) While Mexico was pleased with the results of the

January 16 Colombia-Guatemala-Mexico-Panama quadrilateral

security talks, the Mexican delegation had also been very

frustrated with the GOP's simplistic tendency to blame all

its internal criminal problems on the presence of Colombians

and Mexicans, without taking any responsibility for events

themselves, Mexico's Ambassador Yanerit Morgan told

Ambassador on January 29. She said Panama's biggest concern

in the meetings had been getting Mexico and Colombia to

accept rapid deportation of their citizens who were suspected

of drug trafficking and other crimes. Morgan said that Mexico

was prepared to cooperate with Panama on this because Mexican

prosecutors did have cases against almost all the suspects

the GOP wanted to arrest and send to Mexico. She said that

despite Panama's impressive achievement of pulling this

meeting together on short notice, the meeting was very

improvised and seemed to be driven by a GOP desire to achieve

results in May-June 2009, after local Panamanian elections

would be concluded on May 3 but before President Torrijos

leaves office. She contrasted the Panamanian position with

President Uribe's intervention, which described Colombia's

success through the social recovery of territory and the

development of a partnership between the people and the

government to renew the moral authority of the state. She

said she had found Uribe's vision to be more compelling than

the GOP's simplistic approach.



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Mexico Ambassador Confirms Agenda

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2. (C) Morgan said the quadrilateral meeting had focused on

four specific areas to increase cooperation in the fight

against organized crime and drug trafficking: (A) Creation of

a new juridical instrument, either a treaty or administrative

agreements, to increase judicial cooperation and especially

streamlined extraditions; (B) Increased sharing of

intelligence information, specifically by allowing the other

three countries access to Mexico's Plataforma Mexico data

base; (C) Closer cooperation on immigration issues, both to

keep tabs on transnational criminals, and to fight against

trafficking in persons; and (D) Increase judicial and police

cooperation in order to build up stronger cases against

suspected organized crime figures, including joint training

of security forces.



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Comment

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3. (C) Morgan's description of the GOP's simplistic

analysis of the crime problem in Panama is quite accurate.

The GOP tends to the simplistic solution, in large part

because it does not have the government bandwidth to deal

with issues on a more sophisticated level. Her calculus that

the plans laid at this meeting should come to fruition in

May-June are very interesting. It reinforces the idea that

President Torrijos is not actively supporting Herrera's

campaign, and that he is instead orienting government

programs, such as this one, to try to reshape his image in

preparation for an eventual bid for a second term in 2014

(this would require a constitutional change, but rumors are

that just such a proposal is begin prepared). Torrijos will

end his term as one of the most popular presidents in

Panama's 20 years of renewed democracy. The only real chink

in his armor is the increasingly popular idea that he has

overseen a dramatic deterioration in security in Panama,

especially in the last year. Torrijos has six months to

develop a counter-narrative, and the quadrilateral meeting is

one of theQools he is using to do that.

STEPHENSON