Cablegate: Senator Specter Briefed On Counter-Drug Efforts,

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 001995

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR H (JCOOPER), WHA/CEN (MKOPOLOW)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL SNAR CS
SUBJECT: SENATOR SPECTER BRIEFED ON COUNTER-DRUG EFFORTS,
CANCER VACCINE TRIAL

REF: A. SAN JOSE 1904
B. SAN JOSE 1899

1. Summary: Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) visited the
Guanacaste Province of Northern Costa Rica from August 18-20.
The Charge and other Embassy Officers briefed the Senator in
advance of a meeting with the Director of Costa Rica's
Counter-Drug Police. On August 19, the Senator discussed
NIH-funded human trials of a vaccine for cervical cancer with
the project's director and reviewed efforts by the Papagayo
Resort to reduce the environmental impact of its tourism
project. End Summary.

2. Charge greeted Senator Specter upon his arrival at the
Liberia airport and provided an overview of Costa Rica's
political and economic situation during the drive to the
hotel. The Office of the Defense Representative and the
Embassy's Narcotics Affairs Officer participated in this
briefing and addressed the Senator's questions on
counter-narcotics efforts. At the hotel, the Senator met for
over an hour with the DEA Country Attache, Director of Costa
Rica's Counter Drug Police Allan Solano, and the Embassy's
Narcotics Affairs Officer. Senator Specter was briefed on
the level of U.S.-Costa Rican cooperation against
narco-traffickers, Costa Rican counter-narcotics law, the
bilateral maritime agreement (for drug interdiction), as well
as trafficking methods and trends.

3. On August 19, Project Guanacaste Director Dr. Rolando
Herrero visited the Senator. Project Guanacaste is a
large-scale clinical trial of a vaccine against human
papilomavirus which causes cervical cancer. The project is
being conducted in coordination with the U.S. National Cancer
Institute and with funding from the U.S. National Institutes
of Health. Dr. Herrero provided detailed information on the
scope of the trials, the various phases of the Project, and
the importance of the results obtained to date. Senator
Specter and his accompanying physician, Captain Ron Smith,
asked numerous detailed questions during the hour-long
meeting. Senator Specter then toured the sprawling Papagayo
Resort with the head of the resort's ecological development
consortium, Mr. Bernardino Rojas, who detailed the resort's
many efforts to reduce its environmental impact.
FRISBIE

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