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Cablegate: Brazilians Agree to Parameters for Security

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

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 002452

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

STATE FOR WHA/BSC
STATE FOR EB/TRA/OTP - BMATTINGLEY
HOMELAND SECURITY PASS TO TSA VICKI REEDER
BUENOS AIRES FOR TSA
USCG FOR MARIO MERCADO
FAA FOR AGC-330
USDOC FOR 4332/ITA/MAC/WH/OLAC/JANDERSEN/ADRISCOLL/MWAR D
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USCS/OIO/WH/RD/DDEVITO/DANDERSON/EOL SON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EWWT EAIR KREC
SUBJECT: BRAZILIANS AGREE TO PARAMETERS FOR SECURITY
ASSESSMENTS BY TSA AND COAST GUARD

1. (SBU) Summary. Recently Post and the Brazilian Foreign
Ministry have agreed upon parameters for reciprocal visits to
maritime ports and airports to assess security procedures.
This accord allows the Transportation Security Administration
and the U.S. Coast Guard to continue with their scheduled
assessment visits, which the Foreign Ministry had placed on
hold pending review. The Foreign Ministry's principal reason
for seeking this review was its concern that the appropriate
talking points be ready in case either the Brazilian press or
Congress began to ask questions about whether such visits were
violating "Brazilian sovereignty." Although the issue of TSA
and USCG access has now been resolved, and the Foreign Ministry
was impressively engaged, we still see some turbulence ahead on
questions such as Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS)
data. End Summary.

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2. (SBU) Both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) have been seeking for a number
of months to conduct visits to certain Brazilian airports and
maritime ports, respectively, in order to conduct security
assessments. Although the visits are referred to in official
communications as "technical visits" and "exchanges of
information," they are essentially U.S. mandated inspections.
Both TSA and the USCG have historically had good working
relationship with their GOB counterparts. However, as security
requirements have been much greater since 9/11, this has placed
greater demands on the GOB agencies; both TSA and USCG had
their visits canceled or postponed by the Brazilians several
times during the past year. Although Coast Guard had scheduled
with their counterparts to visit a list of maritime ports from
September 12 to 23, and TSA had scheduled with its counterparts
to visit the Guarulhos airport in Sao Paulo from September 27
to October 10, in late August the Foreign Ministry refused to
allow these trips to move forward until after a bilateral
meeting to discuss the parameters and purposes of these visits.

3. (U) On September 2, the Foreign Ministry and the Embassy
met to initiate such a bilateral review. DCM Phil Chicola
led the U.S. side of the meeting, which included EmbOffs,
TSA Americas Director Vicki Reeder, TSA Regional

SIPDIS
Representative Joe Ochoa (based on Buenos Aires), and USCG
Regional Representative Mario Mercado. The Brazilian side
was led by Under Secretary for Latin America, Ambassador
Jose Eduardo Felicio, joined by diplomats from Office for
Combat Against Illicit Transnational Activities (COCIT), the
U.S. desk, and the maritime office.

4. (SBU) During the meeting, the DCM discussed the
importance of continued cooperation on these security
visits. Ambassador Felicio stated that under the current
political circumstances, until the Foreign Ministry
understood the programs better, neither TSA nor the USCG
should come to Brazil under what may be easily interpreted
as a unilateral inspection by the USG. When the DCM
clarified that the visits programs are entirely reciprocal
in nature and that the Brazilians were welcome to visit both
U.S. airports and maritime ports, the Foreign Ministry
officials became much more responsive.

5. (SBU) On September 6, the DCM, EmbOff, and TSA and USCG
reps met again with Ambassador Felicio to discuss TSA and
USCG visits. During this follow-up meeting, the officials
responsible for security issues at the Brazilian Department
of Civil Aviation (DAC) and Infraero were present, as well
as a number of members from the Brazilian National
Commission for Safety in Ports, Terminals and Navigation
Channels (CONPORTOS). None of the GOB interlocutors
expressed substantive disagreements on the technical aspects
of the visits, and the Foreign Ministry did not appear
interested in the details. Instead, the two sides walked
through some proposed guidelines for the visits that would
be applicable to both TSA and USCG. The guidelines were
outlined not as a legally binding document that either party
would sign, but rather as an assurance that both governments
were on the same page -- and as "talking points" for the
Brazilians in case either the press or Congress made
inquiries about whether such visits were violating
"Brazilian sovereignty." Ambassador Felicio clearly saw the
value in the visits and was quite frank in admitting that
they just needed to make sure that they had the "story"
right. (A translation of the guidelines is included at the
end of the cable.)

6. (SBU) Comment. The GOB appears to have taken the
reciprocity offer seriously: CONPORTOS is scheduling with
the DHS office in Brasilia for a visit to U.S ports during
the first two weeks of December. We are mindful that not
all of our transportation security issues covered by COCIT
will be as easily resolved. For example, another TSA
mandated data sharing requirement (APIS+) enters into effect
on October 04. We anticipate that APIS+ will encounter at
least the same resistance (both technical and political) we
faced during discussions earlier this year regarding
Personal Name Record (PNR) data-sharing. We anticipate that
Brazil will request an extension of the deadline. Although
we foresee some choppy waters ahead, we hope our future
discussions with the GOB will be similarly pragmatic and
results-oriented. End Comment.

7. (U) An unofficial translation of the guidelines follows.

Begin text.

GUIDELINES FOR RECIPROCAL VISITS OF GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES
FROM BRAZIL AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO PORTS AND
AIRPORTS TO ASSESS SECURITY PROCEDURES, AGREED TO IN A
COORDINATION MEETING BETWEEN THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN
RELATIONS (SGAS, COCIT, DEUC, DMAE, DSF), CONPORTOS,
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AVIATION, INFRAERO AND REPRESENTATIVES
FROM THE U.S. GOVERNMENT (U.S. EMBASSY, TSA AND COAST GUARD)
- SEPTEMBER 6, 2005

I. CONDITIONS OF RECIPROCITY
Visits by Brazilian and U.S. authorities to ports and/or
airports of the United States of America and Brazil will
occur with strict observance of the principle of
reciprocity. Authorities from both countries will have
access to the same information and areas of ports and/or
airports, in the two countries, during the visits.

II. REQUESTING VISITS
Requests for visits should be sent to the host country, by
the visiting country, at least three months in advance. The
request must include: name of the ports and/or airports to
be visited, length of the visit and other pertinent
technical details.

III. CONTACTS WITH EMPLOYEES OF PORT AND/OR AIRPORT
FACILITIES
All visits to ports and/or airport facilities must be
coordinated with federal representatives of the host
government. Federal representatives of the host government
will accompany representatives of the visiting country and
participate in the dialogue with employees at the ports
and/or airports visited. Prior to and following the visit,
representatives of the visiting country should address any
questions and/or comments to federal representatives of the
host government.

IV. CONTACTS WITH THE PRESS
Representatives of the visiting country should not directly
address the press of the country being visited, rather they
should transmit their observations and/or comments to an
employee designated by host country authorities.

V. NON-DISCLOSURE COMMITMENT
Any information obtained as a result of visits to ports
and/or airports, or reports generated by the visiting
country should be carefully protected, and not divulged or
supplied to any other country or agency without previous
consent by the competent authorities of the country visited.

VI. TECHNICAL COOPERATION
Using observations gleaned as a result of the reciprocal
visits, both countries can establish programs for
cooperation, training and other related activities for the
purpose of improving security at their ports and/or
airports.

VII. PARAMETERS OF THE VISITS
In terms of the realization of reciprocal visits, both
countries will observe existing bilateral understandings and
multilateral commitments assumed before competent international
organizations: International Maritime Organization (IMO) and
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Visits will
likewise be conducted respecting the ascribed authority of the
designated governmental agencies of the two countries.

End text.

CHICOLA

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