VENEZUELA: BIOS OF SELECTED GOVERNORS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 CARACAS 000512

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NSC FOR CBARTON
HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2014
TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM VE
SUBJECT: VENEZUELA: BIOS OF SELECTED GOVERNORS

Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR 1.4 (D)

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Summary
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1. (C) Candidates backed by President Hugo Chavez won 20 of
22 gubernatorial races on October 31, 2004, in addition to
the Caracas mayoralty. Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement
(MVR) and allied parties picked up 7 states and lost only
one. The new governors' competence varies; some are career
politicians, others have managerial experience, and a few
have scant qualifications except for a long personal history
with Chavez. Nonetheless, all have in common a proven
loyalty to the President. Of the 20, nine are former
military, at least five played a direct role in Chavez's
attempted coup in 1992, and one, Barinas Governor Hugo de los
Reyes Chavez, is the President's father. Biographic data on
selected governors follows. End summary.

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Anzoategui: Tarek William Saab Halabi (MVR)
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2. (C) Called the "most fervent militant of the revolution"
by the opposition press, Tarek William Saab is a diehard
radical. A former human rights lawyer who has professed an
admiration for Cuba since age nine, Saab earned the
President's admiration when he visited Chavez in prison in

1992. Saab, of Lebanese Druse extraction, was denied a US
visa in 1997 because of his links to terrorist activities.
After violating the terms of a waiver he received in 2000 for
an official visit to Washington, he had the National Assembly
issue a decree exhorting the United States to review his visa
renewal petition. One of the administration's most
vociferous critics of the United States, Saab oversaw debate
about US "aggression" and "genocide" as chair of the National
Assembly's foreign policy committee and boasted that
Venezuela was the first country to overcome a CIA plot.
During April 2002, Saab was detained briefly for resisting
the Carmona government.


3. (U) Saab, nonetheless, has demonstrated a commitment to
improving the standard of living in his oil-rich state. Upon
running for governor on a platform of assisting the majority
poor and countering the former administration's waste, Saab
received 57 percent of the Anzoategui vote. He brought the
press into a dilapidated hospital immediately after taking
office to show the neglect his administration had inherited
from previous governors. Saab has chastised the state's
mayors for their poor track records and has singled out two
pro-Chavez mayors for trying to undermine his leadership.
Opposition members backing the mayor of an upscale Anzoategui
suburb told poloff, however, that Saab has signaled his
willingness to work with the opposition and has supported
local efforts to provide better security and infrastructure
repair.


4. (U) Saab was born in El Tigre, Anzoategui, in 1963.
Saab told the press he decided to study law because he was
unjustly detained as a minor. He entered Santa Maria
University (USM) and the Central University of Venezuela
(UCV),where he specialized in criminal law and human rights
law, respectively. Along with other administration notables
such as Caracas mayor Juan Barreto and CNE director Jorge
Rodriguez, Saab belonged to "Movimiento 80," a political
student movement at UCV that opposed traditional parties.
Saab headed the human rights office of the Caracas municipal
council's public security committee (1994-98). He served as
delegate to the constitutional convention (1999),in which he
headed the cultural and human rights committees. In the
National Assembly, he was vice president and then president
of the foreign policy committee (2000-04). Known as the
"poet of the revolution," Saab has published eight books. He
and his wife, Francis, have three children.

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Bolivar: Francisco Rangel Gomez (MVR)
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5. (C) Francisco Rangel Gomez was born on April 4, 1953. A
classmate of Chavez's in the Venezuelan Military Academy
(AMV),he graduated in 1975 with a degree in military arts
and sciences. In 1986, he received a degree from the Armed
Forces University Polytechnic Institute (IUPFAN) in systems
engineering. He earned a master's degree in information
systems from Andres Bello Catholic University (UCAB) in 1988
and a master's in national security studies and defense from
the Armed Forces Institute of High Defense Studies (IAEDEN)
in 1996. He also studied at the School of the Americas. As
an active duty officer, Rangel directed the AMV and served as
Chavez's Minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency from
1999-2000. After serving in the cabinet, he became president
of the Corporacion Venezolana de Guyana (CVG),a state-owned
mining and utilities parastatal until becoming governor in

2004. Both opposition and government contacts of the Embassy
have credited Rangel with being a successful manager at CVG.
Rangel is married with children.

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Carabobo: Luis Felipe Acosta Carles (MVR)
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6. (U) According to press reports, Chavez asked former
Brigadier General Acosta Carles to run for governor in 2004,
but Chavez himself has said Acosta surprised him by seeking
permission to hang up his uniform and seek election.
Acosta's colorful persona has become evident from his
relatively few public appearances to date. He is remembered
for burping in a televised confrontation with a Coca-Cola
distributor in December 2002 during the general strike. He
also received publicity for defending one of his
non-commissioned officers who struck a female anti-Chavez
protester and having officials detained for blocking workers
from their places of business during the strike. In one
pre-election interview, he listed unconventional means of
increasing employment, including hiring dwarfs to form a
"Snow White" theater act. In February 2004, he said on
Chavez's weekly "Alo Presidente" television and radio program
that he was "already the governor" because of his role in
providing new housing for the Carabobo poor. Campaigning
with the help of the national guard, Acosta harnessed the
support of poor residents to wrest Carabobo from opposition
Governor Henrique Salas Feo with 50.4 percent of the vote.
In his first months as governor, Acosta has faced media
criticism for rampant property invasions in his state, which
he has been unable, and unwilling, to control despite having
retained national guard officers on his staff.


7. (U) As a child, Acosta wanted to be a priest, but he
dropped out of seminary to join the National Guard Academy
(EFOFAC). He ascended to become head of the National Guard's
second regional command. Acosta's brother, who died in the
February 1989 riots over gasoline prices, was a classmate of
Chavez and a founding member of Chavez's five-person
clandestine military group Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement
200 (MBR-200). Acosta is married. He speaks broken English.


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Lara: Luis Reyes Reyes (MVR)
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8. (C) Former Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Luis Reyes Reyes
has strong, long-standing personal and political ties to
Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution. He attended the same
junior high school as Chavez and was a founding member of the
MVR. A US-trained F-16 pilot, Reyes Reyes became famous for
breaking the sound barrier over Caracas during Chavez's
attempted coup in 1992. He described the mission in a press
interview as an attempt "to frighten enemy forces." Some
Embassy opposition contacts describe Reyes Reyes as a
competent governor despite his promises to "deepen the
revolution." Upon his second inauguration, he said he
opposed the administration's plan for creating anticorruption
police, contending that each public official should have the
personal conviction to watch over public resources, according
to press.


9. (U) Reyes Reyes was born in Punta de Mata, Monagas on
June 11 1952. He joined the Venezuelan Air Force (FAV) in

1970. He received a bachelor's in military arts and sciences
from the Military Air Force Academy and a bachelor's in
public accounting from the Lisandro Alvarado University. He
also earned a bachelor's in aeronautical science and received
fighter pilot training in the United States. He served as an
assistant air attache to the United States and headed the
FAV's air acquisitions office in Dayton, Ohio, from which he
returned in late 1991 to begin plotting to overthrow then
President Carlos Andres Perez. According to his official
resume, Reyes Reyes was a member of the National
Constitutional Assembly in 1999. In Chavez's administration,
he concurrently headed the Transport and Commerce ministry
and the Ministry of Urban Development, which Chavez fused
into the Ministry of Infrastructure shortly before Reyes
Reyes became governor in 2000. He was elected to a second
term in October with 72 percent of the vote. Reyes Reyes
speaks fluent English.

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Merida: Florencio Antonio Porras Echezuria (MVR)
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10. (U) Former Army Major Florencio Porras participated in
Chavez's coup attempt in 1992 and was jailed for not
accepting the rule of Pedro Carmona during Chavez's 46-hour
ouster in April 2002. Porras's public works projects have
earned him praise from even some members of the opposition.
For example, his government is building a hydroelectric
complex, constructing the country's largest artificial lake
along with the Tachira government, and has established a
trolley bus system with Spanish Government and international
financial institution loans. Fancying himself a man of the
people, Porras prefers to talk with the peasants and ride
horses and burros in the Merida countryside. The Governor,
who says he only goes to the office for protocol and
administrative duties, spends five days a week talking to the
people and supervising public works, according to press.


11. (U) Porras was born in Guarenas, Miranda, in about

1962. He was a member of the National Constitutional
Assembly (1999). He has served as President of Corpoandes, a
local development parastatal. In 2000, Porras squeaked by
former Governor William Davila (AD)--who claimed fraud--to
become governor with only a plurality of votes. He won a
second term more handily, beating Davila with 59 percent of
the vote. Porras enjoys cartooning.

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Miranda: Diosdado Cabello Rondon (MVR)
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12. (U) Former Army Lieutenant Diosdado Cabello's
relationship with the President goes back to his student days
in the AMV, when Chavez played on his baseball team,
according to press reports. During the 1992 coup, Cabello
led four tanks to the Presidential palace. He joined
Chavez's presidential campaign early, while Chavez was still
low in the polls, press reports note. When Cabello was part
of the Chavez administration, the opposition accused him of
leading the Bolivarian circles, which he has defended as an
unarmed social movement.


13. (U) Named for the head of the Masons and then
Philippine President, Diosdado Macapagal, Cabello was born in
El Furrial, Monagas on April 15, 1963. He graduated from the
AMV in 1987 with honors. He has degrees in engineering
project management from UCAB and in systems engineering from
IUPFAN. He served as general director of the national
telecommunications commission (CONATEL) from 1999-2000.
Having held more positions in Chavez's cabinet than any other
official, Cabello has been Minister of the Secretariat of the
Presidency (2001-02),Vice President (2002),Acting President
(a few hours during the 2002 coup),Minister of Interior and
Justice (2002-03),and Minister of Infrastructure (2003-04).
Upon entering office as governor in 2004, he declared a state
of emergency in the Miranda health sector. He and his wife,
Marlene, have three children.

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Monagas: Jose Gregorio Briceno Torrealba
(MVR/MIGATO/PODEMOS)
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14. (U) Jose Gregorio Briceno is the popular governor of
the oil and gas-rich rich state of Monagas. Briceno left the
National Assembly in 2004 to defeat two-term opposition
governor Guillermo Call, whom the National Assembly was
investigating for corruption and human rights violations,
with 57 percent of the vote. Mauro Marcano, a journalist
known for exposing corrupt public officials before his
assassination in 2004, had also denounced Briceno for
favoring friends and family with PDVSA contracts as a
National Assembly deputy.


15. (U) Briceno studied law at USM, as did Tarek William
Saab. He became Latin America's youngest mayor at age 26,
when he won office in Monagas's Cedeno Municipality,
according to his official resume. He was reelected with the
third-highest percentage of votes in the country. Briceno
joined the Radical Cause (Causa R) party after leaving Accion
Democratica (AD) in 1991, accusing AD of impoverishing the
state. In 1997, his wing of the party splintered to form the
now pro-Chavez "Fatherland for All" (PPT) party. Briceno was
elected to the National Assembly in 1999. In 2001, Briceno,
nicknamed "El Gato," formed MIGATO, a party whose acronym
expands to translate "The Independent 'We All Win' Movement."


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Tachira: Ronald Blanco La Cruz (MVR)
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16. (C) Former Army Captain Ronald Blanco La Cruz is one of
Chavez,s closest allies. Blanco was one of the ideologues
behind the 1992 coup attempt. As governor, Blanco ordered
the controversial arrest of nine Tachirans--three of whom
remain in prison--for their alleged involvement in the events
surrounding Chavez's brief ouster in April 2002. Blanco,
however, privately disagrees with Chavez on the subject of
relations with the United States because he believes US
investment in Venezuela is necessary to alleviate poverty,
according to DAO. Blanco also told the DAO he fondly
remembers his time at the school of the Americas at Fort
Benning and thus is a proponent of US training for Venezuelan
officers. Blanco has become popular among Tachira residents
as a result of the many social projects he has implemented.
Blanco was reelected governor in 2004 with 57 percent of the
vote.


17. (U) Blanco was born in Caracas on April 12, 1959. He
received a master's in military arts and sciences from the
AMV in 1981. In addition to his studies at Fort Benning,
Blanco received a master's in international relations and
business management from Troy State University in Alabama.
The University of the Andes has named him a tenured
professor. Blanco chaired the border subcommittee of the
Constitutional Assembly in 1999. He was elected governor in

2000. He has a weekly television program, but unlike the
President, Blanco never talks for more than a few minutes on
his show. Blanco and his wife, Guadalupe, have three
children. He speaks fluent English.

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Vargas: Antonio Rodriguez San Juan (MVR)
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18. (U) Former National Guard Major Antonio Rodriguez was
born on April 12, 1957 in Zulia State. In 1979, he entered
the National Guard Officer Training Academy. He holds
bachelor's degrees in military arts and computer science.
Rodriguez left the Guard in 1992 and worked in the computer
industry until joining Chavez to help found the MBR-200 in

1994. He served as deputy to Congress for the state of
Vargas and delegate to the constitutional convention (1999).
He was elected governor in 2000 after the MVR decided to
withdraw its backing from the former PPT Governor. Rodriguez
and his wife, Yolanda Galvan de Rodriguez, have two
daughters.

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Zulia: Manuel Rosales (UNT/AD)
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19. (U) Opposition Governor Manuel Rosales has enjoyed high
approval ratings in Zulia state, opinion polls show. Zulia,
which has a reputation for having an independent streak among
Venezuelan states, elected Rosales for a second term with 55
percent of the vote. Rosales, a longtime AD member and one
of two current opposition governors, formed the "New Era"
(UNT) party in early 2000 when then-Governor Arias Cardenas
left office to run for President. AD and 20 other parties
and organizations supported Rosales's candidacy. The radical
pro-Chavez press has accused Rosales, the only governor to
have signed the "Carmona decree," which endorsed the 2002
coup against Chavez, of having plotted Chavez's overthrow,
his assassination, and Zulia's secession from the Republic.

20. (U) Rosales was born on 12 December 1952. According to
press, he did not complete a university degree for personal
reasons, but has broad educational experience in Venezuela
and abroad. He has participated in a number of courses and
seminars on administration and public service, including
representing Venezuela at a seminar at Kansas University,
according to his official resume. Rosales, who helped found
the local Universidad Sur del Lago, taught from 1975-79. He
served as internal auditor of the council in Colon
municipality (1973-74),town councilor (concejal) in Colon
(1979-82),principal deputy in the state legislature
(1983-94),and mayor of Maracaibo (1996-2000). Rosales is
married.

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Comment
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21. (C) Most governors, who share Chavez's radical
ideological streak, will move quickly to try to "deepen the
revolution" in their states. None will stray far from
Chavez's dictums, given state reliance on funding from the
federal government and the President's penchant for
marginalizing politicians viewed as disloyal. Even the
opposition governors of Zulia and Nueva Esparta have been
reluctant to show independence; both Governors have supported
the President's land reform initiative this year.
Nevertheless, the near sweep of the regional elections is a
mixed blessing for Chavez because his administration now
lacks the opposition to blame for state and local
governments' chronic failure to provide security, services,
and economic development.
Brownfield