INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: Update and Action Request On Abadia Extradition

Published: Mon 28 Jul 2008 11:35 AM
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OO RUEHWEB
DE RUEHBR #1035 2101135
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 281135Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2183
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
INFO RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHDC IMMEDIATE
C O N F I D E N T I A L BRASILIA 001035
SIPDIS
STATE FOR L JOHNSON AND L/LEI, WHA/BSC, WHA/CHRIS MCMULLEN,
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FOR SWARTZ AND OIA, DRUG ENFORCEMENT
ADMINISTRATION FOR OGC JOHN WALLACE, DEA REGION DIRECTOR US
EMBASSY LA PAZ PATRICK STANKEMP
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2018
TAGS: KJUS KCRM CJAN PREL CVIS SNAR BR
SUBJECT: UPDATE AND ACTION REQUEST ON ABADIA EXTRADITION
REF: A. STATE 079928
B. BRASILIA 000999
C. STATE 76939
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Lisa Kubiske for reason 1.5 (d)
1. (C) As a follow up to ref a instructions, Post, on July
24, 2008, once again contacted Ministry of Justice Legal
Advisor, Rafael Tomaz Favetti regarding the expulsion of Juan
Carlos Ramirez Abadia (Chupeta). Favetti advised Post that
he had encountered stiffer opposition within the Ministry
than he expected and now doubts that the order of expulsion
can occur at all. Moreover, Favetti explained that there are
three obstacles from the U.S. perspective should the
expulsion be ordered: (1) expulsion would take effect only
after Abadia serves his 30 year Brazilian sentence; (2)
expulsion would be to the country of origin; and (3) most
importantly, he confided that he had discussed the issue with
Minister Genro, who noted to Favetti that if the United
States wanted the expulsion, any consequences are "on the
Americans". In other words, if the expulsion caused
problems for the Lula administration, whether from the
judiciary and the press, the United States will take the
blame as the Minister of Justice will deflect any negative
repercussions at America's door. Post expended large amounts
of political, intelligence, and judiciary equities in running
this extradition request to ground. In the short term,
Washington needs to decide whether to provide the assurances
in order to extradite Abadia or allow the subject to remain
in Brazil without any hope of being removed to the United
States; in the long run, Post highly recommends that the
DOJ/OIA and State/L send representatives to Brasilia to take
part in future extradition dialogues with the GOB in order to
resolve the assurances issue.
2. (C) Action request: As a result of this new conversation,
it is now clear that Brazil will not provide any cover to the
United States in its pursuit of the expulsion of Abadia.
Continuing to pursue the expulsion option will leave the
United States in an extremely vulnerable political position
and jeopardize any future extraditions and law enforcement
intelligence cooperation. As this point, we see no other
course of action to assure Abadia's removal from Brazilian
territory than to provide the assurances the Brazilian
Supreme Court has demanded.
3. (C) Post urgently request immediate instructions.
KUBISKE
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