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### Viewing cable 10BOGOTA201, DEPUTY SECRETARY STEINBERG'S JANUARY 12, 2010 MEETING WITH

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
10BOGOTA201 | 2010-02-09 19:07 | 2010-12-18 21:09 | SECRET//NOFORN | Embassy Bogota

`

    VZCZCXYZ0009
    OO RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHBO #0201/01 0401910
    ZNY SSSSS ZZH
    O R 091910Z FEB 10
    FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2679
    INFO RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
    RHMFISS/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
    RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
    RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0042
    RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
    RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
    RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS
    RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA
    RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO
    RUEHZP/AMEMBASSY PANAMA
    RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

` `

    S E C R E T BOGOTA 000201

    NOFORN
    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/09
    TAGS: PREL OVIP EAID KJUS PGOV PTER SNAR ETRD SENV CO VE
    EC
    SUBJECT: DEPUTY SECRETARY STEINBERG'S JANUARY 12, 2010 MEETING WITH
    COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE

    REF: 09 BOGOTA 2714

    CLASSIFIED BY: William R. Brownfield, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(B), (D)

    ¶1. (U) January 12, 2010; 10:00 AM; Monteria, Colombia.

    ¶2. (U) Participants:

    U.S.

    Deputy Secretary Steinberg

    Ambassador William Brownfield

    DAS Christopher McMullen, WHA

    DCM Brian Nichols

    USAID Mission Director Ken Yamashita

    Political Counselor Mark Wells (notetaker)

    NAS Director Dan Foote

    Economic Counselor Tim Stater

    D(S) Special Assistant Lourdes Cue

    Control Officer Marcos Mandojana

    COLOMBIA

    President Alvaro Uribe

    Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez

    Minister of Defense Gabriel Silva

    Minister of Commerce, Industry & Tourism Luis Guillermo Plata

    Ambassador to the United States Carolina Barco

    Accion Social (GOC development agency) Director Diego Molano

    High Commissioner for Peace and Reintegration Frank Pearl

    Vice Minister of Defense Jorge Mario Eastman

    MFA North America Desk Adriana Maldonado (notetaker)

    ¶3. (C) SUMMARY: Deputy Secretary Steinberg met with President
    Uribe and his key ministers for nearly three hours, discussing a
    range of bilateral and regional issues. Uribe detailed the
    advances in security, education, economic and social indicators,
    and trade during his administration but said that Colombia could
    not finish the job without continued strong U.S. support. He hoped
    to bring an end to the armed conflict in Colombia through
    demobilization and social programs, but judged that the
    Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would never negotiate
    as long as it enjoyed a safe haven in Venezuela coupled with a
    steady income from drug trafficking. Deputy Steinberg reassured
    Uribe that U.S. counter-narcotics efforts would remain a core
    element of assistance, noting that it was essential to address
    Colombia's broader problems. Uribe agreed on the need for prudence
    in dealing with the bellicose statements of President Hugo Chavez
    but asked for intelligence-sharing on Colombian terrorist groups
    hiding-out in Venezuela. Uribe said that coca cultivation results
    in the destruction of Colombian rainforests and thus climate
    change, and sought support for his Forest Ranger Family program to
    protect rainforests. The Deputy noted concerns about impunity and

    human rights. He reiterated U.S. support for moving forward with
    the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) at an appropriate
    time, and urged continued work on sensitive labor issues for when
    the U.S. Congress is ready to vote. END SUMMARY.

    -------------------

    Ending the Conflict

    -------------------

    ¶4. (C) After a 20-minute one-on-one meeting with President Uribe,
    the Deputy Secretary opened the larger meeting by praising the
    "great partnership" between the United States and Colombia. He
    cited Plan Colombia's "positive but incomplete" results, calling
    for more effort to consolidate Colombia's security gains through
    reduced poverty and more equitable income distribution. The Deputy
    asked Uribe his views for ending the 45-year-old conflict with the
    FARC and National Liberation Army (ELN).

    ¶5. (C) Uribe recounted his and his predecessors' attempts to
    initiate peace processes with both terrorist organizations. He
    cited the GOC's success in facilitating the demobilization of more
    than 52,000 guerrillas and paramilitaries during his presidency.
    He outlined the GOC's poverty-reduction and land restitution
    programs aimed at increasing social cohesion and thereby
    undermining the terrorists' appeal. Uribe lamented that the
    Constitution of 1991 prohibited amnesty for perpetrators of crimes
    against humanity, which he claimed greatly restricted the GOC's
    ability to negotiate a peace agreement like that reached with M-19
    in the late 1980s. He also lamented that the GOC had failed to
    prevent the assassination of the Governor of Caqueta by the FARC in
    December.

    ¶6. (C) Uribe concluded that the FARC and ELN's willingness to talk
    were hampered by the fountain of wealth from narco-trafficking
    (which makes them self-sufficient, unlike the past conflict in El
    Salvador) and the prospect of safe haven in Venezuela. Uribe said
    Chavez' support of the guerrillas had frustrated further GOC
    military progress against them. The President accepted that U.S.
    security assistance had decreased in recent years, but urged the
    United States not to back down in what was a "winnable battle."
    Deputy Steinberg reassured Uribe that U.S. counter-narcotics
    efforts would remain a core element of assistance, noting that it
    was essential to address Colombia's broader problems.

    ----------------------------

    Paramilitaries & Reparations

    ----------------------------

    ¶7. (C) Deputy Steinberg asked how the GOC was addressing the
    growing threat of criminal groups whose membership includes former
    paramilitaries. Uribe said the state had successfully recovered
    the monopolies on justice and security once held by the
    paramilitary and guerrilla groups, noting significant reductions in
    terrorist attacks, murders and kidnappings. Commissioner Pearl
    downplayed the role of paramilitaries in emerging criminal groups,
    citing a Colombian National Police (CNP) estimate that former
    paramilitaries comprised just 12% of the new groups' memberships.
    Pearl explained that this means there is a recidivism rate of only
    7.4% among the demobilized paramilitaries.

    ¶8. (C) Asked about the backlog of reparations for victims, Uribe
    declared that the most effective reparation was ending violence.
    Molano offered that the GOC budget for administrative reparations
    was increasing to $150 million in 2010 and would benefit 15,000 of
    the 275,000 victims currently registered under the Justice and
    Peace Law (JPL). Uribe reported that the GOC had just made a
    decision to confiscate more assets from former paramilitaries for
    use in reparations.

    -----------------

    Reducing Impunity

    -----------------

    ¶9. (C) Deputy Steinberg expressed concern over the persistently
    high rates of impunity, noting especially the release just days
    earlier of several soldiers accused of extrajudicial executions
    (EJEs, presenting murders by state security forces as deaths in
    combat). He also asked about a backlog of human rights cases
    waiting to be transferred from military to civilian courts. Uribe
    said the GOC had made the decision in 2005 to transfer
    automatically all human rights cases involving the military to the
    civilian justice system, where prosecutors decide whether to
    investigate the case further or refer it back to the military
    justice system. Minister of Defense Silva asserted that due to
    military reforms, EJE complaints had declined from 143 in 2006 to 2
    in 2009, according to a leading Colombian NGO. While Uribe assured
    the Deputy Secretary of his commitment to eliminate EJEs, he also
    vowed to defend the military against "false allegations" of
    wrongdoing. The Deputy Secretary urged Colombia to follow through
    on the Universal Performance Review initiated in 2008 at the UN
    Human Rights Council as a means of developing international and
    domestic confidence in its commitment to human rights.

    ----------------------

    Working with Neighbors

    ----------------------

    ¶10. (S/NF) Turning to Ecuador, the Deputy solicited ideas for how
    the United States could support further rapprochement between the
    two countries. Uribe raised the sensitivities caused by Ecuadorian
    legal indictments of former Minister of Defense Juan Manuel Santos
    and Colombian military commanders over the March 1, 2008, bombing
    of a FARC camp in Ecuador. Foreign Minister Bermudez said the GOC
    was trying to build confidence with Ecuador through social projects
    along the border. On Venezuela, Uribe advised "verbal prudence,"
    publicly ignoring Chavez to minimize the justification for his
    attacks. Uribe cautioned, however, that Chavez was "dangerous" in
    that he might seek to distract attention from Venezuela's growing
    social and economic problems by fighting with Colombia. Uribe
    thanked the United States for sharing intelligence on the
    activities of terrorist groups in Venezuela and urged continued
    cooperation.

    ¶11. (C) The Deputy Secretary commended Colombia for building
    security partnerships with Mexico and others in the region
    (reftel). He viewed this type of cooperation as an alternative to
    Venezuela's ALBA agreement and called for more positive
    opportunities for working with other like-minded countries in the
    region. He cited the Pathways to Prosperity initiative as a more
    hopeful model for cooperation.

    ---------------------------------

    Coca Cultivation & Climate Change

    ---------------------------------

    ¶12. (SBU) Echoing his statements at the UN General Assembly and the
    Copenhagen climate change summit, President Uribe linked cocaine
    production and drug trafficking with deforestation. Replacing
    rainforest with coca crops harms the environment, and
    narco-trafficking is not only a problem for Colombia but for its
    neighbors as well. Uribe highlighted Colombia's "Family Forest
    Warden" program, which pays approximately 90,000 families not to
    cultivate coca and to supervise the recuperation of destroyed
    forest. The President suggested that a variation of the program
    could be launched with U.S. cooperation and become an essential
    tool for protecting Colombia's jungles and forests.

    --------------------

    Free Trade Agreement

    --------------------

    ¶13. (C) Trade Minister Plata pressed the Deputy Secretary on
    passage of the FTA. He noted that several of Colombia's neighbors
    that produce the same types of products now enjoy FTAs (NAFTA,
    Chile, Peru) with the United States, placing Colombia at a
    disadvantage. Furthermore, he said non-passage of the
    U.S.-Colombia FTA had blocked completion of FTAs with Canada and
    the European Union because others were waiting to see how the
    sensitive labor and human rights issues would be resolved. Plata
    argued that the embargo imposed by Venezuela had already caused a
    30% drop in Colombian exports in 2009 and would probably deepen to
    50% in 2010. He concluded that Colombia cannot win with soldiers
    alone; Colombia needs economic opportunities to advance. Uribe
    added that many investors are awaiting FTA approval before
    committing to Colombia. He said in past years Colombia could
    afford to wait on the additional economic activity that the FTA
    would generate given the GOC budget surplus. He lamented that
    Colombia would have "much narrower fiscal room" in 2010.

    ¶14. (C) Deputy Steinberg responded that President Obama and the
    Secretary were aware of the need to pass the FTA, and further
    explained the problems posed by the U.S. Congress' legislative
    calendar and elections cycle. He noted that health care reform has
    taken longer than expected. He urged the GOC to continue working
    with the USG on labor violence issues and working conditions to
    "have everything lined up" when Congress is prepared to take up the
    FTA. He acknowledged that the goal should not be unanimous
    support, but that both governments must present the best case
    possible to maximize the chance for success.

    ¶15. (U) Deputy Secretary Steinberg cleared this cable.
    BROWNFIELD

`