The Foreign Service Journal - January/February 2018

44 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL course, FreedomHouse came through with the money as prom- ised. Subsequent orders of newsprint were purchased in Norway and shipped by rail to Bulgaria. The herculean efforts of the RPO staff contributed considerably to the election of Zhelyu Zhelev, the first non-communist official elected to any leading position in the country in more than 40 years. During a trip to Sofia, President Zhelev expressed his enthu- siastic thanks for all of the help the RPO staff had provided. The presence and efforts of diplomatic employees made a tangible and lasting difference in Eastern Europe. Bob Powers is a retired Senior Foreign Service officer who served in nine countries during a 35-year career. “ Essa Mulher ” and the Counternarcotics Partnership Brazil, 1992 • Norma V. Reyes A Foreign Service narcotics affairs officer, I left Washington, D.C., in January 1992 to head the narcotics affairs section at U.S. Embassy Brasilia. I had been the Bureau of International Narcot- ics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) program officer for Brazil and the Southern Cone (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile) for more than a year. INL funded the Southern Cone countries’ riverine or port projects, which were overseen by U.S. Coast Guard attachés. As they were part of my portfolio, I attended quarterly meet- ings on riverine and coastal projects hosted by General George Jowlan, commander of the U.S. military’s Southern Command in Panama. And as a member of the Riverine Steering Group, I became acquainted with the U.S. Naval Small Craft Instruction & Technical Training School (NAVSCIATTS), headed by Captain Harry Stanbridge. At that time counternarcotics funding to Brazil averaged $4.5 million per year. Of that, about $700,000 was used by Brazil’s Federal Police Narcotics Division (DPF/DRE) annually to finance engine repairs by several Brazilian companies on 10 Boston Whaler fast boats and two Long John boats. Training members of the boat units in maintenance and effective boat handling could cut these repair costs significantly, freeing the money to be used elsewhere. After arriving in Brazil, I contacted Capt. Stanbridge and informed him that I wanted his team to provide training for the Brazilian DPF/DRE boat units, but that it might take a while. I had several obstacles to overcome. The first was reluctance by the head of the narotics division to work with “ essa mulher ”— that woman. He lamented loudly that the embassy couldn’t assign a man to work with him, then assigned his third-in-com- mand to deal with me. But that was just one problem. The Brazilian military was not permitted to work in counternarcotics, so there were sensitivi- ties about permitting U.S. military personnel to do so, much less to work on a domestic, non-military police project. Capt. Stanbridge assured me his team could travel on commercial flights, wear civilian clothes and report to me instead of our embassy military attachés. The military group commander, who had helped me liaise with the Southern Command, would be the emergency contact. The next step was to get permission from the Brazilian government for the training project. Since my predecessors had worked only with the deputy minister of foreign affairs, I was directed to contact her. In our meeting, I emphasized the condi- Norma Reyes, standing third from left, with members of the DPF/DRE boat units and the U.S. Navy training team. COURTESYOFNORMAREYES