Cablegate: Demarche Delivered: Unodc Self-Assessment

VZCZCXRO8693
RR RUEHRG
DE RUEHBR #1261 2662010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 222010Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2489
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 7065
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 5806
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 6586
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 3949
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 7517
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 0581
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 8473
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 6626
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 2767

UNCLAS BRASILIA 001261

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/BSC AND INL/PC - CHRISTINE CLINE AND
SCOTT HARRIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL SNAR KCRM KJUS UN PG BR
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED: UNODC SELF-ASSESSMENT
CHECKLIST

REF: STATE 090304

1. (SBU) On September 16, PolCouns delivered reftel demarche
to the director of the Brazilian Ministry of External
Relations (Itamaraty) Office of Transnational Crimes,
Virginia Toniatti. Asked if Brazil would complete the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) self-assessment checklist,
which Brazil has partially done, Toniatti responded that
Brazil is fully committed to implementing the UN Convention
on Transnational Organized Crime. She added that, if the
UNODC is interested in the status of Brazil's response to the
checklist, UNODC should ask the GOB directly. When told that
we were asking many countries that have not yet filled out
the questionnaire about the status of their effort, Toniatti
responded that "Washington should not get gray hair worrying
about Brazil."

2. (SBU) Comment: Toniatti's response to this demarche did
not differ significantly in tone or substance from others we
have delivered to her. With a staff of three to four
diplomats at any given time, Toniatti's office is responsible
for all multilateral and bilateral counternarcotics,
counterterrorism, trafficking in persons, and other
transnational criminal matters, including the
US/Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina 3-plus-1 forum. In addition to
being hobbled by serious under-staffing issues, she will not
allow her staff to meet with us unless personally supervised
by her. She is among the most sensitive of our Itamaraty
counterparts to perceived U.S. intrusiveness into Brazilian
domestic affairs and is generally unreceptive to U.S.
requests for information or offers of cooperation or
assistance. Post continues to enjoy excellent working
relations with law enforcement agencies at a working level,
but contacts with Itamaraty diplomats are often characterized
by the kind of sensitivity displayed here.
KUBISKE

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