Reunión multilateral

ID DOC: 190189FECHA: 2009-03-02 00:00:00FUENTE: Embassy PanamaPRIVACIDAD: CONFIDENTIALREFERENCIA: 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 C O N F I D E N T I A L PANAMA 000097 SIPDIS E.

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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) --------------------------------------- Mexico Pleased, But Somewhat Frustrated --------------------------------------- 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.

--------------------------------- Mexico Ambassador Confirms Agenda --------------------------------- 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.

------- Comment ------- 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