VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB
DE RUEHME #0886/01 0881950
ZNY SSSSS ZZH (CCY TEXT ADX: 767D28 MSI6994 600)
P 281950Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1092
INFO RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS PRIORITY
RUEAHLA/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PRIORITY
S E C R E T MEXICO 000886
SIPDIS
NOFORN SIPDIS
C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (ADDING CAPTION)
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/28/2018
TAGS: PREL PTER KCRM PINR SNAR MX
SUBJECT: THE FARC IN mexico Classified By: POL Officer Frank Penirian. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (U) Summary. The death of at least four Mexican nationals during the recent Colombian attack on a Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerilla camp in Ecuador caused again a brief stir in mexico over FARC activity here. Media
focus on the four nationals killed in Ecuador raised questions as to whether the terrorist organization was maintaining
troubling ties to the Mexican far left and narcotics cartels. While an affinity between members of the organization and
the far left in mexico no doubt remains strong and provides a draw for fellow travelers to enroll in FARC's cause in one
fashion or another, Embassy law enforcement and security elements have seen nothing to indicate that the organization
has broadened its presence in mexico significantly in recent years. Similarly, despite longstanding FARC commercial ties
to the cartels, principally as a steady supplier of cocaine, there is no evidence that members of the organization have
an established criminal presence in mexico. End Summary.
2. (U) Five Mexican nationals were present at the FARC camp in Ecuador where the organization's number two Raul Reyes
was killed by Colombian forces 3/1. Four Mexicans are confirmed to have been killed in the attack, three of them
students at the Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM). Lucia Morett Alvarez, who completed her studies at UNAM
in 2005, also was present in the camp but survived. According to press reports, Morett Alvarez headed a Mexican
delegation that traveled to Quito, Ecuador to attend a "Bolivarian Congress" of Latin American leftist groups and that
five of them then decided to go to the rebel camp on the Colombian border. Morett Alvarez' family insist that she is not
a guerilla but was working on an academic paper on leftist movements. Unsubstantiated press reports alleged that she was
the main contact between the FARC and its supporters in mexico and that at least eight Mexican students are training
with the FARC in Colombia and Ecuador. FARC's Political Presence in mexico
3. (C) Given FARC's historical presence in mexico, questions about its current political activities are reasonable.
mexico invited the organization to set up a political office in mexico City in 1992. The move was consistent with the
GOM's relatively benign regard for the organization back then, as well as its traditional interest in playing a
mediating role in regional conflicts, including Colombia's. mexico allowed the FARC to run a quasi-diplomatic operation
and press office in the belief that it might be useful in pursuit of a peace settlement in Colombia -- and on the
condition that the organization not meddle in mexico's internal politics. So long as successive Colombian governments
engaged in efforts to negotiate with the FARC through the late 1990s and into 2002, they tolerated an "official" FARC
presence in mexico. After 2001, battle lines hardened and then President Andres Pastrana asked mexico to close the
office shortly after he broke off peace talks with the FARC in 2002.
4. (U) The office's principal reportedly relocated to Cuba but maintained ties to members of mexico's hard left.
According to Mexican academic Raul Benitez, FARC intermediaries at times also delivered messages to senior GOM
officials. In 2003, Colombia's Ambassador to mexico publicly voiced concern over FARC's continued activities here,
asserting that the organization worked through fellow travelers in UNAM's philosophy department, but he provided few
details. Charges have also surfaced over the years that the organization has links to various indigenous guerilla
groups, including the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR).
5. (S/NF) CISEN officials, however, have discounted such links and in particular say they have ruled out a FARC
connection to the recent bombings carried out by the EPR. Media have highlighted two videos showing FARC training camps,
one allegedly passed among UNAM students, another purportedly showing Morett at a camp in military attire. The number of
miltary recruits among the Mexican student body, as opposed to sympathizers, is not likely to be large, however. Most of
the students attending the Bolivarian Congress in Quito shortly before the attack on the FARC camp were clearly
political tourists. One Mexican law enforcement official expressed concern that some radical students have indeed taken
up arms for the FARC without saying how many. This official thought it conceivable that some might come back and enlist
as soldiers in the Mexican armed left, but said the GOM had no evidence that any have yet done so. FARC Drug Ties
"Transactional"
6. (C) ICE, ATF and DEA do not have any open cases involving the FARC in mexico. Organization members have been tied
loosely to several Mexican drug trafficking organizations in the past in drugs for guns deals according to DEA. In 2001,
Colombian Carlos Ariel Charry Guzman was arrested in mexico for acting as an intermediary for a drugs and weapons deal
with the Arellano Felix Cartel. According to the DEA, he was a doctor for the FARC and came to mexico to buy medical
supplies to take back to the camps of the FARC. At the time, mexico's Attorney General publicly denounced the link
between the FARC and the Tijuana-based organization. DEA also reported that in October 2007 a plane piloted by known
Mexican narcotraffickers ran large quantities of cocaine between Ecuador's border region (near a FARC stronghold in
Colombia) and mexico. After the killing of Reyes on March 1, media carried an unsubstantiated report that one of the
computers seized at the site contained information relating to a February 18, 2008, shipment of drugs to a cartel in
mexico. According to ATF, there is no evidence that the FARC is supplying guns or ordnance to Mexican drug cartels, the
EPR or any other groups in mexico. On March 12 Attorney General Medina Mora sought to clarify the issue when he said
that the FARC maintains only "transactional" ties with Mexican drug cartels, meaning they have no fixed presence in
mexico, nor any interest in formally grafting on to local crime organizations. Embassy law enforcement officials say no
evidence exists to contradict this assertion.
7. (C) Comment. Initially, the Mexican public expressed outrage at the killing of Mexican nationals in Colombia's raid
on the guerilla camp in Ecuador. Progressively, however, attention has shifted to FARC's presence in mexico. Publicly,
President Calderon has walked a careful line discretely rejecting Colombia's attack but devoting more time to promoting
reconciliation between the two sides. While there is evidence of sporadic FARC "transactional" activity trafficking
drugs and weapons, it would appear at this juncture its primary focus is on conducting discreet ideological activities
to its student base in UNAM. Many Mexicans maintain a relatively benign regard for the FARC. Indeed one senior SRE
official told Poloff this week that the organization springs from the legitimate left in South America and "there is an
historical basis for its existence." These sentiments notwithstanding, President Calderon has evinced concern enough to
task his own intelligence forces to look more closely into FARC activities here. End Comment.