-UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 ACTION WHA-00 INFO LOG-00 EEB-00 AID-00 A-00 ACQ-00 CIAE-00 CTME-00 INL-00 DODE-00 EXIM-01 E-00 VCI-00 DIAS-00 FRB-00 H-00 TEDE-00 INR-00 10-00 ITC-01 L-00 ARMY-00 MOFM-00 MOF-00 VCIE-00 NSAE-00 ISN-00 NSCE-00 OIC-00 OMB-00 PA-00 PM-00 PRS-00 P-00 ISNE-00 SP-00 SSO-00 SS-00 STR-00 TRSE-00 T-00 BBG-00 IIP-00 PMB-00 PRM-00 DRL-00 G-00 SAS-00 FA-00 002W -----------------OD3E3A 140636Z 25 R 122235Z JAN 10 RELEASED IN PART FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO 1 4 B B1 B7 E 1 4 D TO SECSTATE WASHDC 0028 INFO ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC CDR USNORTHCOM PETERSON AFB CO CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC FBI WASHINGTON DC DECONTROLLED DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC CONFIDENTIALMEXIOO000045 SIPDIS E O 12958 DECL 2020 01 12 TAGS PREL PGOV PHUM SNAR ECON KCRM MX SUBJECT Tijuana Bilateral Assessment REF TIJUANA 1275 MEXICO 3468 CLASSIFIED BY Carlos Pascual Ambassador DOS EXEC REASON 1 4 B D 1 SBU SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS One of the early fruits of the new security policy coordination mechanism with Mexico has been an agreement to focus our joint efforts on the border cities where the most violence occurs and where the DTOs have carved out the greatest operating space As part of this effort an unprecedented joint team representing all U S and Mexican law enforcement agencies traveled to Tijuana and San Diego to conduct an assessment of security and review opportunities for increased bilateral cooperation In its two-day visit the team came away with the following key judgments -- Presidential focus The joint assessment and increased cooperation on the border is greatly helped by the express support of President Calderon -- Mexican interagency coordination is improving both in Tijuana and the DF yet it is still too tied to personalities and under-institutionalized Classified by DAS A GIS DoS on 10117 2013 - Class CONFIDENTIAL Reason 01 4 B 1 4 D - Declassify on 01 11 2020 REVIEW AUTHORITY Adolph Eisner Senior Reviewer UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 -- Judicial prosecutions lagging Frustration in Tijuana is rising over the inability of the federal judiciary to produce convictions -- Social fabric strained The recession ineffective schools and the transient nature ofTijuana's population work in the DTOs' favor The GOM is not certain how to integrate Pillar IV Build Strong and Resilient Communities into its broader drug strategy and is still uncomfortable with NGOs --Assistance requests modest Mexican interlocutors identified discrete areas where they believe the USG can help some technology lots of intelligence sharing limited equipment armored cars ballistic vests training aimed at managing police forces rather than how to do operations and support to vetting processes State and local -- State and local forces are criticall law enforcement know their beat better than federal counterparts and must be included in the equation if public security is to improve The are rich in manpowe J -- Task force model The San Diego meeting drove home the utility of the task force approach to investigations The GOM will be receptive to exchanges and visits on this key model -- and perhaps also to detail more staff to task forces stateside -- Centrality of Control de Confianza The importance of vetting and internal controls was made clear by U S entities and GOM officials accepted this premise -- Strategic communications Both sides agreed that there is a crying need to change the perception of the outside world with regards to Tijuana and to change the perception of the citizens of Tijuana about law and order Public diplomacy efforts have been weak to date and must be a key part of any program 2 SBU NEXT STEPS We will wait to see what comes out of the assessment of Ciudad Juarez El Paso and then develop an interim program to support the needs of the GOM in taking back the Tijuana and Juarez DTO corridors We will have a preliminary joint plan to present to the Policy Coordination Group in late January and a more focused plan to present to the High Level Group in February NAS and AID will conduct more detailed assessments by Training Judicial Civil Society IT and Control de Confianza program coordinators once the Juarez El Paso assessment is completed and begin to look at specific programs which could be quickly implemented A critical first step will be to place a full-time program coordinator in each city to manage the emerging programs END SUMMARY BILATERAL TEAM CONCEPT 3 SBU High-level bilateral discussions over the past several UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 UNCLASSIFIED 'U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10121 2013 months have produced agreement to focus on targeted cooperation in frontline Mexican border cities We have agreed to pilot new cooperative strategies initially in Tijuana San Diego and Ciudad Juarez El Paso Our joint objective is to demonstrably degrade drug trafficking organizations DTOs decrease violence recognize and disseminate current best practices and build models readily applicable elsewhere in Mexico The GOM has insisted that we approach the assessments in a balanced fashion with issues on both sides of the border acknowledged and factored in as we develop new programs 4 SBU A GOM-USG bilateral assessment team chaired by the Ambassador and CISEN Director General Valdes traveled to Tijuana December 3 and San Diego December 4 The Mexican delegation was comprised of high-ranking representatives from The U S delegation included In both locations we focused on law enforcement in the morning and civil society in the afternoon In setting the scene for the team the Ambassador asked for particular focus on sharing best practice relationships between the military and the three levels of government and seeking ways to better use real-time intelligence to guide operations Valdes emphasized co-responsibility in confronting a transnational threat running from Colombia to the U S noted the southbound flow of arms and cash and underscored the direct interest of President Calderon in the endeavor 1 4 D 131 B7 E TIJUANA SECURITY IMPROVING BUT FRAGILE 5 SBU Baja California Norte Governor Jose Osuna Milian hosted the bilateral team December 3 in Tijuana SEDENA and SEMAR regional commanders state SSP state PGR Tijuana Public Security Secretary Julian Leyzaola and representatives from the Governor's office participated in the discussions The Governor's technical secretary led with a briefing on the situation on the ground Baja California Norte beats the Mexican average on education employment and GDP per capita but as a migrant entry point and an industrial city of working parents its social fabric is strained The proximate cause of the spike in violence was Mexican success against leaders of the Arellano Felix Organization AFO which splintered and saw Sinaloan rivals move in sparking a fight to control border crossing routes After a terrible 2008 violence in Baja California Norte state subsided somewhat in 2009 with Tijuana's share of Mexico's total killings dropping from 11 % to 4% High impact crimes including kidnapping car theft and homicide are down significantly Yet the turnaround is not complete and 40 police had died statewide through early November close to the 49 officers lost in 2008 NOTE Just after the bilateral team visit a truce between elements of the AFO disintegrated unleashing a new wave of killings ref A END NOTE 6 SBU Governor Osuna said Mexican forces had launched an offensive against the DTOs via the Baja California Coordination UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10121 2013 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 Group state and federal SSP state preventative police PEP CISEN SEDENA SEMAR state and federal PGR He said his main effort was building up state government institutions Control de confianza measures coupled with firings of corrupt cops were cleaning up the police corporations with 83% of state and local operational police forces now vetted frith a continuous review process there is less room for impunity and responsive performance overtime is gaining public confidence 7 SBU A single academy Osuna said now trains state and local police 7 000 applicants applied in the last ear but orL gained entrance The Governor thanked USAID for support to the state's justice reforms and noted that he had signed cooperation agreements with 14 U S state attorneys general under a USAID-funded program to increase cooperation between Mexican and U S states Baja California Norte he said will begin the 1 4 B 1 4 D B1 B1 1 4 B 1 4 D transition from inquisitorial to accusatory trials in 2010 in the Mexicali judicial district Other districts will follow afterthe appropriate training 8 SBU Further briefings were offered by the State Security Director Municipal Security Chief Leyzaola and SEDENA General Alfonso Duarte who oversees overall interagency coordination between the military and federal state and local forces The GOM shifted a planned meeting away from the Unidad de Inteligencia Tactica Operativa UNITO a fusion center concept the GOM is implementing in multiple regions either because the center is not yet up and running or for simple lack of space B1 1 4 D REQUIREMENTS AND REQUESTS 9 SBU State-level SSP presented proposals to improve the performance of Mexican forces better coordination of operations and information-sharing between Mexican agencies and cross-border a more robust security force presence and better equipment for all forces more drug treatment centers on both sides of the border advance warning of repatriation to Mexico of prisoners freed from U S prisons and U S notification of border incidents to the Mexican C4 Command Control Communications and Coordination system in time for the Mexicans to react The key ask from Municipal Dirctor Leyzaola was for equipment primarily vests and armored cars and training in professionalism and leadership 10 SBU The Governor made limited appeals for USG assistance He noted he had asked California Governor Schwarzenegger in an October meeting to share biometric data of prisoners being released and repatriated to Mexico and for coordination at the point of UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 2112013 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 repatriation on the border He suggested a road along the southern side of the border fence to facilitate patrols and positive control of the borderline He spoke positively of a culture of legality in the U S and noted that the drug fight is not just about confronting the cartels but must include programs to prevent addiction in schools Finally he asked for help turning around Mexico and Tijuana's perception problem stating that Brazil is more violent than Mexico Detroit is more violent than Tijuana and California plays more narcocorridos than Mexican radio stations He asserted that USG travel alerts that warn U S citizens not to visit Baja California severely damage tourism and the economy A weak economy creates a fertile recruiting ground for the cartels He asked for our help in turning around the image of Tijuana as a violent and unapproachable place C-4 CENTER A GLORIFIED CALL CENTER 11 SBU The team visited Tijuana's C-4 center later in the day The C-4 is primarily a call center for emergency calls and does not have a strong analytical component It handles city 911 calls 5 200 per day and includes federal police and military liaison officers with links to the SSP's countrywide Plataforma Mexico data base A filtering overlay has reduced hoax calls from 50% to 30% of total volume and a center in Mexicali fields state-wide anonymous tip denuncia calls The 911 and denuncia numbers both receive calls regularly from U S -based callers which as of mid-2009 can be made from the U S toll-free An SMS text message-based add-on interface is planned for 2010 SAN DIEGO LAW ENFORCEMENT SESSION 12 SBU Acting U S Attorney Kevin Kelly hosted the December 4 meeting in San Diego with participation by San Diego-based ICE FBI CBP Border Patrol DEA ATF San Diego Police Department SDPD Chula Vista Police Department San Diego Sheriffs Department Los Angeles Sheriffs Department LASD Joint Task Force-North and the Mexican Consulate The meeting moved thematically from U S federal interagency coordination to state and local law enforcement cross-border coordination intelligence architecture and cross-border information sharing cross border investigations and ICE's Border Enforcement Security Task Force BEST DG Valdes remarked he had never seen such a profusion of USG partners for Mexican efforts nor a cross-border law enforcement gathering on this scale U S Federal Interagency Coordination 13 SBU Kelly began with an outline of the Southern California region he represents 141 miles of border 6 Ports of Entry with many interstate transportation links 7% of the U S -Mexico border but fully 60% of the border population Drug caseloads Kelly said UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 are up 60% in fiscal year 2009 and the district sees more drug cases than California's three other districts combined A well-situated crossroads for trade the San Diego area is also suffering cartel creep as pressure in Mexico pushes DTO leaders and operations north across the border In response agencies in the area have created numerous task forces to facilitate the collection analysis and dissemination of information across jurisdictions agencies and borders 14 SBU Agencies also assign officers as border liaisons to work with Mexican counte arts B7 E State and Local Law Enforcement Cross-Border Coordination 15 SBU SDPD briefed on programs to train local police in Tijuana Rosarito and Ensenada using a train-the-trainer approach This kind of training on culture of lawfulness community policing and intel-led operations creates channels for information-sharing between SDPD and Mexican counterpart forces SDPD reps also attend the funerals of slain Tijuana police to build trust and show support for their colleagues The Los Angeles Police Department LAPD runs one of the largest international police training sites in the U S In addition to the skills imparted these programs too are a huge boost to trust and inter-operability Intelligence Architecture and Cross-Border Intel Sharing 16 C 131 1 4 D B7 E U S D participants agreed this is key but added a note of caution that intelligence alone will not turn things around Intelligence is an input -- it does not direct operations and it does not reform institutions Cross-Border Investigations 17 SBU The FBI field office described its approach cross-border violence cases primarily kidnapainos J UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 B7 E UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 B7 E 18 SBU Border Enforcement Security Task Force The Mexican delegation specifically requested a briefing on ICE's Border Enforcement Security Task Force BEST BEST is the only task force in San Diego with an embedded Mexican official a promising approach also in use at EPIC Closing Comments 19 C The Ambassador closed by drawing out a few key lessons To address these law enforcement challenges requires multiple agencies with multiple talents Task forces as cross-cutting entities bridge jurisdictions and build trust Intelligence and information collection function on several levels In a rough cut he laid out a continuum community tips and information drawn from beat cops tactical information derived from for example humint and judicial wiretaps information on high value targets and both intelligence and analysis on the operations of DTOs Establishing such a framework on intelligence could also inform the architecture for sharing intelligence Different aspects of intelligence sharing would require different protocols for sharing disseminating and protecting information He underscored that the issues covered in the day's discussion would only bear fruit when brought back to specific cases The imperative to solve a case drives USG and the GOM to cooperate across the border and successful case establishes goodwill durable communications channels and an example for use in subsequent actions CIVIL SOCIETY SESSIONS OPEN A DOOR 20 SBU The team met with academics and non-governmental organizations NGOs in separate meetings at the Autonomous University of Baja California UABC and the University of California-San Diego UCSD In Tijuana the GOM organizers did not seem to understand the focus of Pillar IV They brought in three academics working on immigration issues who stressed that deportees are cannon fodder for the cartels and described GOM support to deportees They said that unemployment in the state has tripled from two percent to seven percent in the economic downturn and is providing a boon to DTO recruiters but did not have suggestions on how to turn the situation around 21 SBU Former U S Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow presided UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 21 2013 at the UCSD session which was a much more varied and comprehensive exchange with NGO business and academic leaders California NGOs and non-profits described their activities south of the border and speakers urged the GOM to strengthen NGOs rather than mistrust them DG Valdes remarked that in the late 1990s he was tasked with analyzing the threat from NGOs and came away with a strong appreciation for their ability to strengthen civil society The Chamber of Commerce explained their efforts for several years have been on the Tijuana-San Diego metro area as one economic block Chamber members include business people from both sides of the border and their investment trade promotion trips also represent both cities 22 SBU COMMENT This part of our evolving strategy has been the most uncomfortable forthe GOM Civil society organizations are often vocal in their criticism of the federal government including the security strategy What the GOM saw in San Diego was a strong and uniform support for Mexico Academics business city and civil society leaders all echoed their interest in expanding cooperation in all sectors to the benefit of both sides The message was do not fear us but let us be part of the solution to our common problems END COMMENT PASCUAL PASCUAL NNNN UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No F-2010-07760 Doc No C05288068 Date 10 2112013 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu