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INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 3566
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 6844
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 9602
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SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PE CO
SUBJECT: PERU-COLOMBIA RELATIONS -- WHY WE EXPECT AN ERA OF
CLOSE COOPERATION AHEAD
Classified By: Ambassador Curtis Struble for Reason 1.4 (B, D)
1. (SBU) A significant consequence of Alan Garcia's victory
in the 6/4 presidential election here is the potential for
strategic cooperation between Peru and Colombia on issues
such as counternarcotics, anti-terrorism, and regional
economic development, and the opportunity this provides to
the USG to coordinate relevant initiatives with both
countries. Given the history of Garcia's APRA Party,
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will be holding some
important high cards in the relationship with the incoming
Peruvian administration.
2. (U) Colombia has over the years done several
much-appreciated and well-remembered good turns for APRA.
Beginning in January 1949, APRA's founder Victor Raul Haya de
la Torre spent five years of political asylum inside the
Colombian Embassy in Lima, during which time the Colombians
went to bat for Haya by defending his rights in a protracted
legal proceeding before the International Court of Justice.
After a contradictory ruling by the Court on Haya's
eligibility for asylum, the GOC negotiated an agreement with
Peru which allowed Haya to be symbolically turned over to the
Peruvian Minister of Justice, but then be banished from the
country and put on a plane to Mexico within an hour.
3. (SBU) When Alan Garcia left office unpopular and
discredited at the end of his first term in 1990, the
Colombian Government made an important gesture by giving him
one of Colombia's highest awards in a highly public ceremony
in Bogota. Like Haya de la Torre before him, Garcia also
enjoyed Colombian hospitality for a time after former
President Fujimori attempted to arrest him as a consequence
of the auto-coup of 1992. After escaping over roof-tops,
Garcia eventually made his way to safety in Colombia, and
finally from there to France. In sum, Colombia has been a
constant friend to APRA when it was down, and Ambassador
Struble has heard APRA party stalwarts comment that they
think it fitting and proper for President Uribe to collect on
the debt that Colombia is owed.
4. (C) COMMENT: Peru has been Colombia's most reliable
friend in South America during the Toledo Administration. We
expect this to continue to be the case. It is also likely to
be the case that this cooperation will be managed in
intel-to-intel, mil-to-mil and President-to-President
channels, rather than between the Foreign Ministries. Our
view is that the Colombians have staffed their Embassy in
Lima with individuals who received an overseas posting as a
reward for political support for Uribe -- the Colombian
Mission here is more oriented towards the social dimensions
of diplomacy rather than advocacy or building
government-to-government ties.
STRUBLE
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