Wikileaks Guatemala

Here are links to the other Wikileaks cables dealing with Guatemala .

CICIG Commissioner Discusses Progress and Challenges (March 2008)

Summary: In a March 14 meeting with the Ambassador and Pol/Econ Counselor, CICIG Commissioner Carlos Castresana discussed progress in establishing the CICIG office and beginning its first investigations. He outlined concerns over the extent to which some Guatemalan law enforcement organizations have been compromised by organized crime and corruption, and discussed the status of CICIG's current investigations, including progress in its investigation of the recent killings of bus drivers, organized crime rings within the police, and the high-profile February 2007 murder of three Salvadoran representatives of the Central American Parliament.

Castresana underscored the need to collaborate with the U.S. and other donor countries to provide reliable witness protection. Among other challenges, he cited the lack of coordination between the Ministry of Government and the Public Ministry, CICIG's lack of third-country security officers, and the lack of counter-surveillance expertise among Guatemalan security officers.

CICIG Commissioner Provides Update (May 2008). This cable relates to a briefing that Castresana gave to foreign ambassadors at a luncheon hosted by the Swiss Ambassador.

Relations between CICIG and the GOG - Castresana characterized them as good...

Castresana lauded Chile, Mexico and Uruguay for seconding professionals to work with CICIG. He hoped that the U.S. and Colombia could also provide personnel. CICIG was still very much in need of criminal investigators. Also important would be establishment of a winess protection program outside of Guatemala for Guatemalan witnesses.

Castresana said that law enforcement in Guatemala is essentially non existent and CICIG is in a sense doing an autopsy of collapsed institutions...

Castresana noted that the murder rate in Guatemala is decreasing. He attributed it to a drop in extra-judicial killings after Adela Torrebiarte took over the Ministry of Gobernacion in March 2007. Castresana estimated that at that time almost 6,000 people were being murdered in Guatemala every year; 25 percent of that total were extra-judicial executions. Comment: While the murder rate is declining, it is not clear to us that this is due to a decline in extra-judicial killings nor that previously 25 percent of all murders were extra-judicial.

Under Narco Threat, Rule of Law Collapsing in Coban (February 2009)

Summary: Confronted by the threat from three narcotrafficking groups, including recently arrived "Zetas" from Mexico, the local Rule of Law (ROL) apparatus in the northern city of Coban is no longer capable of dealing with the most serious kinds of crime. What is happening there is typical of many rural areas of Guatemala. Sources tell us that Coban's police are corrupt and allied with traffickers, and sometimes even provide them escort. Some judges and prosecutors are too frightened to do their jobs properly; others are in league with the traffickers. Asserting that security is not his job, the mayor is turning a blind eye to the narco-violence in Coban's streets. Wholesale restructuring of the ROL apparatus -- not mere personnel changes -- would be required for the state to adequately reassert its authority.

And here's part of Ambassador McFarland's final comment:

The process of loss of state control now underway in Coban has already occurred in other parts of the country, including Zacapa and Izabal Departments, as well as parts of Jutiapa, Chiquimula, San Marcos, and Peten Departments. Without outside intervention, Coban will join the growing list of areas lost to narcotraffickers.

With Encouragement from the Ambassador and CICIG, President Colom Approves Judicial Reforms (September 2009)

On September 2, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom signed into law two important pieces of criminal legislation that had been supported by the international community. The two laws, one for plea-bargaining and one for &high-impact8 courts with additional security measures, would create new tools to help prosecutors successfully try and convict criminals. Colom had hesitated to approve the measures due to strong opposition from his General Counsel, Carlos Larios Ochaita. However, a last minute meeting on September 2 with the Ambassador and CICIG Commissioner Carlos Castresana convinced Colom to sign the reform bills into law. The entire episode speaks poorly of Congressional-Executive coordination. That said, the approval of the laws continues progress on judicial reform.

Former President Portillo Captured, Refuses Extradition (January 2010)

Summary: Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo, indicted in the U.S. on money laundering charges and a fugitive from justice, was captured Jan. 26 as he was about to flee to Belize. The capture was the result of a joint operation involving CICIG, the Attorney General's Office, the Army, and the Police. The NAS helicopters provided critical support by ensuring that Portillo was brought before a judge in the capital within the six-hour constitutional limit. CICIG told Portillo he had the option of accepting an expedited proceeding that would lead to his quick extradition to safety in the U.S. Portillo refused, saying he preferred to face justice in Guatemala. Portillo's arrest is a powerful message for Guatemalans that no one is above the law.

And here are two quick reports from El Periodico and Siglo XXI.

A few comments.

In the March 2008 cable, Castresana said that bus companies were hiring gang members as security chiefs in order to protect them from other gangs extorting them. and in the May 2008 cable, there seems to be some confusion as to whether 25% of the country's 6,000 murders were the result of extrajudicial killings.

Castresana appears to have been shocked by the corruption and the absence of the rule of law, but there's no indication that he was overly frustrated with the international community or Guatemalan government's support for CICIG's work. Obviously, he wanted more assistance but there's no signs of desperation or frustration as related in US Embassy cables. In September 2009, we was frustrated with the inability of the executive and legislative branches to work more closely together, but so far there's little to indicate that he's contemplating resigning, which he does in June 2010.

The dominant theme in each of the cables is the concern for the absolute lack of a rule of law in Guatemala. Some judges, prosecutors, police and mayors are clearly intimidated by drug traffickers, organized crime and gangs. Others are in cahoots with those groups (it's unclear whether their relationship is simply based upon their interest in surviving or its their preference).

A source close to former President Alfonso Portillo gave CICIG and Guatemalan authorities the intelligence needed to nab Portillo shortly before he made his escape into Belize and shortly after a leak from "a state source" led him to evade authorities a day earlier. Castresana thought that members of the La Cofradia "might seek to murder him in order to ensure he does not collaborate with Guatemalan or U.S. authorities."

Castresana also said that Colom had been helpful throughout the investigation even though he thought that Portillo had helped to fund Colom's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2003. It's good to know that Castresana and Ambassador McFarland thought that Colom was being helpful at this time.

In Guatemala, people liked to say that when you win the presidency in your third attempt, you not only owe the people who helped you in the last campaign, but you also owe all those who funded your first two losing campaigns. Colom was going to spend the rest of his life paying people off.