Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jan 2003
Source: Washington Times (DC)
Copyright: 2003 News World Communications, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.washingtontimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/492
Author: Catherine Elton

GUATEMALA SEEKS TO AVERT FUNDS CUTOFF

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemala is hoping to avoid a cutoff of U.S. foreign aid 
with the anticipated censure by U.S. authorities over shipments of cocaine 
that have soared since President Alfonso Portillo took office three years 
ago. Top Stories

The tiny Central American nation, which only recently emerged from a long 
civil war, received about $53 million in foreign aid from the United States 
last year, including $3.5 million tied to the war on drugs.

Lately, however, U.S. officials here and in Washington have harshly 
criticized the current government's record on narcotics interdiction.

Officials here, as well as U.S. officials in Washington, expect the Bush 
administration to include Guatemala among the list of countries that 
"failed demonstrably to make substantial efforts" to combat narcotics 
trafficking. The commonly used terminology in the U.S. law is "decertified."

But they also expect that Washington will invoke a clause that allows it to 
waive sanctions for national security reasons.

While a national security exemption by Washington wouldn't save Guatemala 
from a stiff dose of shame, it would allow the flow of foreign aid to 
continue and prevent the United States from using its veto of loans from 
the World Bank and other international-lending institutions.

Guatemala doesn't produce cocaine and produces an insignificant amount of 
opium, which is used to make heroin.

But this nation has become a major trans-shipment point for drugs coming 
from South America en route to the United States.

"Drug interdiction has dropped significantly even though intelligence tells 
us that the same amount of drugs are arriving in Guatemala," said a U.S. 
Embassy official, who asked not to be named. "The primary problem is the 
corruption within the anti-narcotics police."

The embassy official declined to comment on whether Guatemala will be 
decertified, but sources here say it is a done deal with an announcement 
expected shortly.

"The U.S. government has been making a case in Guatemala for the past six 
months. There is no question that Guatemala is in the State Department's 
eye and it is very likely that they will decertify.

"My impression is that that is definitely the case," said Manuel Orozco, 
the Central America project director for the private Inter- American 
Dialogue in Washington.

Gabriel Aguilera, Guatemala's vice minister of foreign relations, said that 
the Guatemalan government has been making efforts to prevent and combat 
drug trafficking within the country's territory, with some big successes.

But he also said "the problem is so great that the government hasn't yet 
achieved a control of the criminal organizations that are behind these 
illegal activities."

U.S. authorities believe that the decline reflects far more than 
inefficient police work. In 1998 Guatemalan authorities seized 10 tons of 
cocaine and 11 tons in 1999.

After Mr. Portillo became president in 2000, drug seizures plunged to about 
2 tons per year despite a doubling of both the staff and budget for the 
nation's narcotics police.

In Washington last October, Otto Reich, who was undersecretary of state for 
the Western Hemisphere, told Congress that drug traffickers have "have very 
close ties to the highest levels of government" in Guatemala.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom