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Viewing cable 08BUENOSAIRES322, ARGENTINA DISCUSSES SHIFT IN POLICY TOWARD ILLICIT

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08BUENOSAIRES322 2008-03-13 17:30 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Buenos Aires
VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0322/01 0731730
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131730Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0447
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 6828
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ MAR 5110
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 2252
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO PRIORITY 7025
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 1053
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHLP/DEA LA PAZ BL PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/DIRJIATF SOUTH J2  PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA PRIORITY 0181
UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000322 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KJUS PGOV PREL AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA DISCUSSES SHIFT IN POLICY TOWARD ILLICIT 
DRUG USE 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Minister of Justice Anibal Fernandez 
announced this week that the GoA intends to redirect its 
counternarcotics efforts away from the pursuit of drug users 
in order to make more resources available for investigating 
and prosecuting drug traffickers.  He argues that Argentina's 
courts and prisons are overwhelmed and overflowing with drug 
users.  Although Fernandez's thinking on the initiative 
appears well advanced, sources in his Ministry note that this 
is still a work in progress and that such a shift, likely 
implying legislative changes, will not happen immediately. 
Some press reports indicate that not all elements of the 
Government support the proposal.  The Minister, in clarifying 
remarks to the local press following his speech in Vienna, 
has stressed he is not proposing the legalization of drugs 
and that his proposed policy shift is intended to improve, 
not weaken, GOA counter-narcotics efforts.  End Summary. 
 
TREATMENT NOT PRISON FOR ADDICTS 
 
2. (SBU) GOA Minister of Justice, Security, and Human Rights 
Anibal Fernandez announced in Vienna at the 51st session of 
the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) that the GoA is 
contemplating a shift in emphasis in its treatment of illicit 
drug users.  Fernandez contends that current policies are 
overwhelming Argentina's courts and flooding its prisons, at 
great cost to the GOA.  He notes that between 70 to 80 
percent of cases in the courts are related to drug use, and 
that only 2.8 percent result in convictions.  The 
criminalization of drug use in Argentina, he states, inhibits 
users from getting the treatment they need and has been a 
drain on counternarcotics resources that could be put to 
better use in pursuing traffickers.  Fernandez made similar 
remarks during a working lunch in Buenos Aires on March 6 
with visiting FBI official Thomas Fuentes and the Ambassador. 
 In that conversation, and from the information reported from 
other Ministry sources, it is clear that the emphasis of this 
policy shift is  on giving lower priority to arresting and 
convicting individual users and putting more emphasis on 
breaking up trafficking rings and on creating a health and 
social services network to treat addicts and other illicit 
drug users.  Fernandez and sources in the Ministry claim that 
this proposed shift in the treatment of illicit drug users 
would bring Argentina into line with countries like Brazil 
and Uruguay in the region and Spain, Switzerland, and the 
Netherlands in Europe. 
 
MISUSE OF RESOURCES 
 
3. (SBU) In his discussion with the Ambassador and Tom 
Fuentes on March 6, Fernandez relayed how expensive it was to 
incarcerate users -- US$ 1,500 per month -- and that only 2-3 
percent are ever convicted.  He noted the costs and the large 
backlogs caused by the thousands of cases in the federal 
court system.  (Most Argentine provincial legislatures have 
not authorized provincial jurisdiction/prosecution in drug 
cases, leaving them to be prosecuted in federal court.)  He 
argued that it would be more effective to concentrate on 
dealers and trafficking networks and getting convictions for 
these traffickers.  Fernandez explained that federal law 
enforcement had seized more marijuana last year than the year 
before, most of it coming from Paraguay.  He also said that 
Peru is the largest source of cocaine coming to and through 
Argentina, followed by Bolivia.  He explained that much of 
his forces' current efforts are focused on going after the 
big Peruvian networks and that he feels he has more support 
for his counternarcotics efforts from President Fernandez de 
Kirchner than he had previously. 
 
RECOGNIZING WHAT ALREADY EXISTS 
 
4. (SBU) Daily newspaper La Nacion, often critical of 
Kirchner administration policies, reported in a front page 
article March 12 that not everyone in the Government supports 
decriminalization.  Most prominently, the paper cited 
opposition from the head of the Argentine drug policy agency 
SEDRONAR, Jose Granero, and claimed that the President 
herself has a "more conservative position" on the matter. 
However, Minister Fernandez, in his public statements and in 
comments to the Ambassador, noted that he has the President's 
(general) support on counternarcotics issues.  Granero, who 
was in Vienna at the CND, was reportedly surprised by 
Fernandez's announcement of the proposed policy change.  A 
number of political opposition figures and the Catholic 
Church have spoken out against the proposed shift as well. 
The article also quotes several judges who assert that de 
facto decriminalization is already the case.  According to 
the article, most federal judges oppose prosecuting drug 
users for possession of small quantities.  Emboff heard a 
similar comment from an Argentine police officer. 
 
CORRECTING FAILED POLICIES 
 
5. (SBU) Fernandez offered his personal assessment that 
Argentina's counternarcotics efforts have been a failure. 
During the March 6 encounter, he said that "in my country, 
since the (1989) drug law was sanctioned until last year, 
there hadn't been a single conviction for money laundering 
and that in 2006 only two drug cases were brought to oral 
trial."  A large part of the problem of prison overcrowding 
with drug users and small-time dealers and the relative 
ineffectiveness of the police reflects shortcomings in the 
current penal code.  Under the Argentine judicial system, 
judges are responsible for and direct investigations. 
Prosecutors and judges are unable to decide which cases to 
pursue -- they must, by law, investigate and prosecute all 
cases that come before them.  Prosecutors are unable to offer 
plea bargains.  Testimony of paid informants is not allowed. 
Undercover agents are allowed in drug investigations but 
rarely used.  Most of these shortcomings are addressed in 
ongoing efforts to modify the criminal procedural code, but 
until that occurs, decriminalizing drug use will not 
necessarily result in more effective use of law enforcement 
agencies or the courts. 
 
6. (SBU) Fernandez formed a scientific advisory committee 
last year to help inform his policy decision.  While the 
press reports that the committee generally supports the 
decriminalization of drug usage, its work continues.  It is 
analyzing an extensive survey on illicit drug usage 
commissioned by the committee involving some 50,000 
households.  The Minister's thinking on this policy is 
evidently well advanced, but many of the particulars of the 
proposed policy shift remain to be worked out, and could 
include legislative changes and budget reallocations.  An 
unattributed federal government source is cited by La Nacion 
as saying that decriminalization is an issue to be debated 
and reviewed, that the Government has "nothing concrete," and 
that much remains before sending anything to Congress.  As 
noted earlier, Minister Fernandez has now claimed that he is 
not proposing decriminalization. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment:  Polls consistently report that Argentines' 
number one concern is public security.  The public links its 
high feelings of insecurity with reports of growing drug use 
in the impoverished shanty towns surrounding Buenos Aires and 
other major urban centers.  The new government seems more 
focused on the issue than the previous regime did -- 
something that Fernandez himself has told us.  He seems to 
sincerely believe that lowering the law enforcement priority 
(and perhaps penalties) given to possession for personal use 
will help make the GOA anti-crime effort more effective, 
freeing law enforcement and court resources to go after 
traffickers.  He believes that the current approach catches 
lots of little fish, but allows the big ones to slip away. 
 
8.  (SBU) But there are risks in the new approach. 
Experience shows that to get to the big fish you often need 
to start with the little ones.  Moreover, a government policy 
that could be interpreted as overly lenient on illicit drug 
use could engender some public pushback given the 
narcotics-street crime link.  We have an excellent and 
long-standing relationship with Fernandez and his advisers. 
As he moves forward with his policy, the Embassy will work 
with him to try and limit unintended, negative impacts on our 
bilateral and regional counternarcotics efforts.  The main 
impediments to more effective counternarcotics remain 
Argentina's outdated penal code -- limiting the judicial 
tools available to law enforcement and prosecutors -- and the 
inefficient courts. 
WAYNE