PARAGUAY AND VENEZUELA: MORE ON CHAVEZ ACTIVITIES

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 ASUNCION 001222 SIPDIS NOFORN STATE PASS TO USAID LAC/AA NSC FOR SUE CRONIN SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD DAN JOHNSON E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2015 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PINR MARR ETRD PA VE SUBJECT: PARAGUAY AND VENEZUELA: MORE ON CHAVEZ ACTIVITIES IN THE REGION REF: A. ASUNCION 01186 ¶B. ASUNCION 01162 ¶C. ASUNCION 01154 AND PRECEDING ¶D. ASUNCION 01076 ¶E. ASUNCION 01025 ¶F. TD-314/46316-05 (02 AUG 05) ¶G. ASUNCION 00807 ¶H. STATE 116522 ¶I. ASUNCION 00487 AND PRECEDING ¶J. STATE 43965 ¶K. TD-314/12121-05 (28 FEB 05) Classified By: PolOff Mark A. Stamilio, reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (U) The following information responds to Department's action request in ref H and supplements information previously reported in ref I. ¶2. (S/NF) SUMMARY: Post has no new information regarding campesino trips to Venezuela funded by the GOV for ""special indoctrination training."" The website www.congresobolivariano.org and recent sensitive reporting list several Paraguayan social, political and religious organizations that belong to the Paraguay Chapter of the Bolivarian People's Congress. Sensitive reporting indicates that Venezuelan and Cuban officials are systematically organizing activities of leftist organizations in Paraguay. The GOP continues to maintain lukewarm relations with the GOV. The GOP and GOV reportedly are discussing a new oil purchase agreement, and possible GOV investment in a Paraguayan oil refinery and idle Paraguayan vegetable oil factories. Paraguay's mainstream media continue to focus on issues other than Venezuela, Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution. However, Chavez could be behind the spread of blatantly false rumors of U.S. plans to build a base in Paraguay, deploy 400 troops to Paraguay to protect oil and natural gas reserves in Bolivia, and steal the region's fresh water supplies from the Guarani Aquifer. END SUMMARY. ¶3. (S/NF) CAMPESINO TRIPS: Post has no new information to report regarding campesino trips to Venezuela funded by the GOV for ""special indoctrination training"" (refs H and I). But see ref K, regarding travel by members of the leftist Patria Libre Party from Paraguay through Venezuela to Colombia for FARC training. ¶4. (S/NF) BOLIVARIAN ACTIVITIES: Post directs Department's attention to the website www.congresobolivariano.org and ref F for information regarding the Paraguay Chapter of the Bolivarian People's Congress (Congreso Bolivariano de los Pueblos). An August 16 website entry entitled ""Get Out of Paraguay, Yankees"" (""Fuera Yanquis de Paraguay"") and a September 12 entry entitled ""Third People's Summit Opens in Paraguay"" (""Lanzamiento de la III Cumbre de los Pueblos en Paraguay"") list several Paraguayan social, political and religious organizations that purportedly belong to the Congress's Paraguay Chapter. (NOTE: The organizations include at least two campesino movements, the Paraguayan Campesino Movement (MCP) and the National Front for the Struggle for Sovereignty and Life (FNLSV),and Senate President Carlos Filizzola's Country in Solidarity Movement (Movimiento Pais Solidario). END NOTE.) Various articles opposing the recent SECDEF visit to Paraguay (ref C),the presence of U.S. troops in Paraguay for joint exercises, immunities for those troops, erroneous reports of U.S. intentions to establish a military base in Paraguay, and plans to establish an FBI (LEGATT) office in Asuncion are posted to the Paraguay Chapter's page of the website. ¶5. (C) VENEZUELAN EMBASSY ACTIVITIES: Sensitive reporting indicates that Venezuelan and Cuban officials are systematically organizing activities of leftist organizations in Paraguay. For example, on July 12 the Cuban embassy in Asuncion sponsored a public rally on ""Terrorism and the Struggle for Peace."" The Cuban ambassador and a representative of the Venezuelan embassy attended the rally. The main themes of the rally were ""U.S. Imperialism"" and ""USG Responsibility for Operation Condor."" ¶6. (C) GOP-GOV RELATIONS: The GOP continues to maintain lukewarm relations with the GOV (refs D and I). Following the recent SECDEF visit, President Duarte did his best to strike a neutral pose. In the face of claims by Brazil and Argentina that Paraguay was cozying up to the U.S. and distancing itself from its Mercosur trading partners, Duarte defended Paraguay's sovereign right to maintain relations with any country of its choosing. At the same time, seeking to play down SECDEF's statements that Venezuela and Cuba were attempting to destabilize the region, Duarte emphasized that the GOP would continue to maintain normal relations with those two countries. The following day, MOD Gonzalez issued a press release that criticized countries whose foreign policies sought to ""satanize"" the U.S. At the same time, the MOD's press release commended the GOV for providing economic assistance to Paraguay, and the GOC for providing scholarships for Paraguayan students to study in Cuba. (NOTE: Venezuelan Ambassador to Paraguay Jose Huerta Castillo retorted on a local radio program that the U.S. was attempting to destabilize democratic governments in Latin America, and that the GOV was winning hearts and minds in Paraguay. END NOTE.) Oscar Rodriguez Kennedy, who is a member of President Duarte's Colorado Party but makes no secret of his disdain for Duarte, recently told PolCouns that he had been informed that Duarte recently passed a letter to Paraguay's ambassador to Venezuela -- without FM Rachid's knowledge -- for delivery to Chavez, assuring him that nothing had changed in terms of Paraguay's relationship with Venezuela notwithstanding the SECDEF visit. (COMMENT: Rodriguez is notorious for rumor mongering Post has no secondary verification. END COMMENT.) ¶7. (C) COMMERCIAL TIES: Paraguay's state-owned oil company, Petropar, reportedly will sign a new oil purchase agreement with Venezuela in October, similar to the agreement the two countries signed in November 2004 (refs G and I). According to source at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, no oil was ever purchased under the old agreement. Additionally, Venezuelan Petroleum S.A. (PDVSA) reportedly seeks to enter an agreement with Petropar to conduct an economic and engineering study of the Petropar oil refinery, with an eye toward future investment by PDVSA (ref E). There are similar reports that the GOV seeks to invest money to reactivate several idle vegetable oil factories in Paraguay, with an eye toward creating jobs and eventually transferring ownership of the factories to employees (ref E). (COMMENT: Esso's country director told Econ Chief that, with the major oil companies closing much larger refineries elsewhere, it is hard to conceive of any commercial justification for investing in Petropar's refinery. Similarly, the President of Paraguay's National Development Bank dismissed the vegetable oil proposal as ""fantasy,"" since most of the factories that were left to the Bank have already been sold. END COMMENT.) ¶8. (C) MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Paraguay's mainstream media continue to focus on issues other than Venezuela, Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution (ref I). This held true during the recent SECDEF visit. Rather than focusing on SECDEF's statements that Venezuela and Cuba were attempting to destabilize the region, or Venezuela's retort that the U.S. was attempting to do the same, mainstream media focused on the ""secrecy"" surrounding the SECDEF visit (his agenda was kept very close hold and there were no press conferences during the visit) and speculation about the ""real reasons"" for the visit (many commentators challenged official USG/GOP explanations that it was a courtesy visit and asserted that there must have been a hidden agenda). (COMMENT: However, speculation about the ""real reasons"" for the visit centered primarily on the same themes carried on the web page for the Paraguay Chapter of the Bolivarian People's Congress, discussed above -- i.e., the debate over the presence of U.S. troops in Paraguay for joint exercises, immunities for those troops, erroneous reports of U.S. intentions to establish a military base in Paraguay, and plans to establish an FBI (LEGATT) office in Asuncion. END COMMENT.) In the wake of the SECDEF visit, mainstream media focused on Brazil and Argentina's claims that Paraguay was cozying up to the U.S. and distancing itself from its Mercosur trading partners, claims that raised the ire of many Paraguayans (ref A and C). ¶9. (C) On August 23, one week after the SECDEF visit, an editorial entitled ""Pigs Preaching about Hygiene"" (""Los Chanchos Hablando de Higiene"") appeared in Paraguay's leading local daily, ABC Color, in response to Chavez's statements at a medical school graduation ceremony in Cuba that U.S. joint military exercises with countries such as Paraguay were part of the U.S.'s alleged attempt to destabilize the region. The editorial was highly critical of Chavez and Castro, asserting that neither leader had any moral authority. The author criticized Castro for being ""the oldest, most blood-thirsty tyrant on the planet,"" and Chavez for being ""Latin America's new populist authoritarian."" The author added that Chavez was ""not much better than Castro,"" since each uses his respective military to silence dissent and advance his political agenda, and surrounds himself with a political elite that enjoys special privileges while the masses live in poverty. The author concluded by encouraging Paraguay's leaders to look to other nations that recently achieved prosperity and freedom as models for Paraguay to follow, rather than the model espoused by the ""new Bolivars."" ¶10. (C) COMMENT: While it is possible that there is merely a concurrence of opinion between Chavistas and Paraguay's more radical left, it is also entirely possible that Bolivarian groups are behind the spread of blatantly false rumors of U.S. plans to build a base in Paraguay, deploy 400 troops to Paraguay to protect oil and natural gas reserves in Bolivia, and steal the region's fresh water supplies from the Guarani Aquifer (refs B and C). In addition to appearing on the web page for the Paraguay Chapter of the Bolivarian People's Congress, a consistent set of anti-U.S. themes -- namely, opposition to the presence of U.S. troops in Paraguay for joint exercises, immunities for those troops, and erroneous reports of U.S. intentions to establish a military base in Paraguay -- have arisen repeatedly in the context of recent student protests, campesino demonstrations, and various news reports out of Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Chile. It is unlikely that a misinformation campaign with such a consistent message would emerge spontaneously from such a wide range of sources. It is now clear that someone is orchestrating it. KEANE