AMBASSADOR'S CAPTOR FIRST TO BOLT PT PARTY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 003323

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR WHA/BSC

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR BR
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S CAPTOR FIRST TO BOLT PT PARTY

REF: A. BRASILIA 3125

B. BRASILIA 2655


1. (SBU) SUMMARY. Fernando Gabeira, a Brazilian Federal
Deputy whose original claim to fame was as a revolutionary
who kidnapped the US Ambassador in 1969, has become the first
national figure to leave Lula's Workers' Party (PT) of his
own volition since Lula took office. Over the years, Gabeira
has been an outspoken environmentalist, and his break with
the PT was triggered by Lula's recent decision to legalize
genetically-modified soybeans (ref A). Gabeira's departure,
along with the likelihood that three other Deputies will be
expelled from the party for voting against a key reform bill,
illustrates how the Workers' Party has changed in recent
months and years. Policy decisions, even on bedrock
substantive issues, are no longer made after discussion and
consensus-building within the party. Instead, the Lula
government is making decisions animated by the practical
necessities of leading a country and a fractious coalition.
These compromises are at odds with some of the PT's
traditional positions and are unpalatable to many of the more
determined leftists in the party, though no others seem
inclined to leave the PT at present. END SUMMARY.

WHAT'S UP, COMRADE?
--------------

2. (U) Fernando Gabeira was a journalist who joined a small
Brazilian revolutionary group called MR-8 that gained
notoriety in 1969 when it kidnapped U.S. Ambassador to Brazil
Charles Elbrick. The events were brought back to life in the
1997 movie "Four Days in September" --based on Gabeira's
novel about the kidnapping, "O Que E Isso, Companheiro?"
("What's Up, Comrade?"). Elbrick was freed in exchange for
the Brazilian regime releasing fifteen political prisoners
and sending them into exile. Among the fifteen was Jose
Dirceu, a Sao Paulo student leader who returned from exile in
1979 and co-founded the PT party with Lula the next year.
Dirceu is now President Lula's Chief of Staff and
most-trusted advisor.


3. (SBU) Gabeira was shot and captured during the Elbrick
kidnapping, but himself was later freed and sent into exile
in exchange for the release of the kidnapped German
ambassador. Like Dirceu, he returned to Brazil with the 1979
amnesty. In addition to his journalism, Gabeira became
active in human rights and environmental causes, co-founding
the Green Party (PV) in 1986. In 1994, he became the Green
Party's first Federal Deputy, winning a seat from Rio de
Janeiro. He moved to the PT party in 2001 and was reelected
to his third four-year term in 2002. Gabeira, now 62, serves
on three Chamber committees: Environment, Human Rights, and
the Ad Hoc Committee on FTAA negotiations. He is active in
debates on biotechnology and free trade, being an outspoken
skeptic of both.

BIOTECH SOY CAUSES PT'S FIRST DEFECTION
--------------

4. (SBU) The PT is one of the few Brazilian political parties
that requires some discipline of its members and frowns on
party-switching. There have been 140 party changes in the
Chamber in the past nine months, none involving the PT. Thus
it is significant when a PT member decides to leave the party
over a point of principle. Three Deputies are nearly certain
to be expelled from the Workers' Party in November for voting
against Lula's pension reform bill (ref B),and Gabeira's
departure comes against the soul-searching engendered by that
mini-crisis. But Gabeira is seen as a respected voice who
has earned his leftist stripes through the years. In the
words of one columnist, "Fernando Gabeira can't be accused of
being a radical, furious, a political opportunist, nutty,
undervalued, or hysterical" like some of the other PT rebels.


5. (SBU) Gabeira announced his intention to leave the PT on
October 6, charging that Lula was no longer listening to the
rank-and-file on key issues. He was incensed by the recent
issuance of a presidential decree legalizing the upcoming
crop of biotech soybeans (ref A). Many in the PT's
environmental factions, including Environment Minister Marina
Silva, were deeply troubled by the decree, and in particular
by the fact that Lula made the decision without consulting
the party. Historically, the PT developed policy positions
through long debates at party congresses. In interviews,
Gabeira also complained that Lula recently met with Castro in
CUBA without denouncing his human rights record.


6. (SBU) Last week, the PT scrambled to try to keep Gabeira
in the party and there were rumors that he alone would be
allowed to vote against the Biotechnology bill when it comes
to the floor. Jose Dirceu invited him to an October 10
meeting at the presidential palace to be joined by Marina
Silva and party president Jose Genoino. But Dirceu was an
hour late to the meeting )-trapped in Congress mediating a
coalition dispute-- and a clearly-deflated Gabeira walked out
before Dirceu arrived, grumbling to the press about Dirceu's
"inelegance". Gabeira told the press that he will continue
to vote for Lula's initiatives when he can, but will remain
"without party" for the time being. It seems likely that he
will eventually rejoin the Green Party and its six Federal
Deputies, as long as the Greens do not vote to legalize
biotech crops.

COMMENT - "PT PRAGMATIC"
--------------

7. (SBU) If Lula has evolved from the old fire-breathing
union leader into "Lula Lite", then the Workers' Party has
similarly evolved into "PT Pragmatic". In his first few
months in office, Lula established a dozen "councils"
designed to forge consensus in nearly every policy sphere.
But the councils seem nearly forgotten now. Increasingly,
decisions are made by a small group including Lula, Dirceu,
Finance Minister Palocci, and a handful of other PT insiders.
The resulting policies --from fiscal austerity at the
expense of social programs to pension reform to legalizing
biotech soybeans-- are pragmatic and centrist, but are often
sharply at odds with historical positions of the Workers'
Party. Both the policies and the policy-making style are
alienating to the party's leftists, who charge the
administration with "incoherence", a Brazilian term roughly
meaning "lack of continuity", suggesting Lula has turned his
back on both his constituents and his past. In the wake of
Gabeira's decision, even PT President Genoino, a moderate and
a Lula insider, is calling for a review of the
administration's decision-making style. "The government", he
says, "needs to be more sensitive. The party has a tradition
and an agenda. It has historical banners that can't be
forgotten".


8. (SBU) With Gabeira's departure and the expulsion of the
three rebels, the PT's Chamber caucus will slip to 90 members
--it will remain the largest party in the Chamber by fifteen
seats. In truth, those leaving the PT will move to parties
farther on the left that are firmly in the PT-led coalition,
so while they will be free to vote against the administration
on any given bill, they will not really damage the
government's already fractious coalition. Instead, the
departures serve to underline the distance that the PT has
traveled towards the center over the past year. This is an
evolution of choice, Lula and Dirceu and the inner circle
have made the conscious decision to jettison some of their
leftist ideology in the name of governability.
HRINAK