Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04CARACAS3855
2004-12-15 20:19:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Caracas
Cable title:  

COPEI ON THE ROPES

Tags:  PGOV KDEM VE 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 003855 

SIPDIS


NSC FOR CBARTON
HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2014
TAGS: PGOV KDEM VE
SUBJECT: COPEI ON THE ROPES

Classified By: A/DCM ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR 1.4 (D)

-------
Summary
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C O N F I D E N T I A L CARACAS 003855

SIPDIS


NSC FOR CBARTON
HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2014
TAGS: PGOV KDEM VE
SUBJECT: COPEI ON THE ROPES

Classified By: A/DCM ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR 1.4 (D)

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Venezuela's Christian Democratic party (Copei)
agreed to restructure during party federal council and
general assembly meetings December 8-9. Frustrated with
Copei's refusal to cede leadership space at the national
level and failure to share funds, the leadership of the Copei
youth wing offered resignations and asked that the party
executive follow suit. Copei president Eduardo Fernandez
offered his resignation (refused by the party) in solidarity
with the movement. The agreement to reorganize appeased
Copei youth wing national secretary Raul Chirinos, although
Chirinos described the process as too slow. The youth
movement is prudent to worry about the future viability of
Copei, but neither its proposals nor the party leadership's
hand-wringing and foot-dragging will serve to prepare the
declining party for next year's legislative elections. End
summary.


2. (C) During party federal council and general assembly
meetings during December 8-9, Venezuela's Christian Democrats
(Copei) agreed to begin to reorganize the party and its
leadership. Copei announced that an executive board headed
by party president Eduardo Fernandez, secretary general Cesar
Perez Vivas, and nine other members would oversee the
restructuring. The party also agreed to name committees
charged with internal dialog, statutory reform, platform
revision, and political alliances. According to Copei
officials, the party will meet again in January-February to
discuss proposed changes. Copei national coordinator of
organization Luis Ignacio Planas told poloff the party is
also considering scrapping its dual president/secretary
general leadership structure in favor of a single, more
clearly defined leader. He mentioned that Fernandez enjoyed
the support of over 90 percent of the party, while less than
half the party backed Perez Vivas.

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Angry Youth
--------------


3. (C) Copei called the meetings partly at the behest of
the party's youth wing, whose leadership offered its
resignations as an example to the party executive to
surrender positions to those who better reflect the party
"base." A visibly angry Raul Chirinos, the national

secretary of the Copei youth, told poloff before the meetings

SIPDIS
that the party leadership benefited from his movement
politically but refused to reciprocate with either positions
or resources. Chirinos singled out former Miranda governor
and Coordinadora Democratica leader Enrique Mendoza for
failing to provide one million bolivars (approximately USD
500) that he had promised the youth wing. (NOTE: Mendoza
maintains distance from the Copei party structure.)


4. (C) Chirinos was not optimistic about his ability to
promote leadership change, saying the old guard probably
would not be willing to step down until after the 2005
legislative elections. He said the about 30,000 Copei youth
would consider walking if the party leadership was not
accommodating, although he downplayed the influence of the
youth movement in the party. Fernandez also offered his
resignation (rejected by the party) as an effort to promote
party restructuring, but Perez Vivas told the press that he
would not resign as secretary general because the party
"base" already trusted him. He added that he did not view
the "33- or 34-year old" Chirinos as the leader of Copei
youth.

--------------
New Urgency Confronts Old Apathy
--------------


5. (C) Chirinos told poloff on December 13 he remained
dissatisfied with the pace of change. According to press,
Chirinos advocates realignment with parties of similar
ideology, and he told poloff he hoped to bring former
President Rafael Caldera's family and former Governors
Henrique Salas Feo (Proyecto Venezuela) and Eduardo Lapi
(Convergencia) back into the Christian Democratic fold. The
youth leader avowed that an alternative to President Hugo

Chavez would emerge one way or another and would "run over"
the current opposition if it refused to change. During a
December 14 meeting with poloff, party executives--more
concerned with recounting the administration's abuses--seemed
unfazed about the prospect of being "overrun." Asked if they
had been talking with other opposition parties, the Copei
officials merely mentioned eating lunch recently with old
friends from Primero Justicia.

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Comment
--------------


6. (C) For the near term, an agreement to restructure and
to discuss proposed changes in February appears to have
appeased Chirinos, but the youth movement's concerns about
the party's uncertain future are warranted. With legislative
elections that could relegate Copei to Venezuelan electoral
history less than a year away, Copei can ill afford a lengthy
period of self-reflection. Now scrapping for funds, Copei is
a network of friends and families whose politicians lack
public support and whose political base has been gradually
emigrating from Venezuela. Digging up discredited fossils
such as former President Caldera and figures like Salas Feo,
however, would hardly offer life support to a party that
needs above all to shed its "oligarchic" image, which Chavez
so successfully exploits.
Brownfield


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2004CARACA03855 - CONFIDENTIAL