BENEFIT PACKAGE DEFUSES TALK OF POLICE STRIKE, BUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LIMA 004163 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2015 TAGS: PGOV PINS ASEC PE SUBJECT: BENEFIT PACKAGE DEFUSES TALK OF POLICE STRIKE, BUT UNREST REMAINS REF: A. LIMA 3735 ¶B. LIMA 3337 Classified By: Polcouns Alexander Margulies. Reason: 1.4(d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: President Alejandro Toledo, on 9/19, defused growing talk of a nationwide police strike by announcing a 284 million Soles (USD 86 million) package of back-pay, salary increases, benefits and operational funding. Police sources tell us that, while the immediate crisis has passed, unrest continues in the ranks and additional attention needs to be paid to police needs to ensure stability and address the country's "security deficit." Finance Minister Fernando Zavala has warned that other agencies will have to tighten their belts over the coming year as the GOP will raid their coffers to pay for the police increases. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) Presidential political advisor Juan de la Puente first raised concern over a possible strike by the National Police (PNP) during an 8/31 meeting with Polcouns. Over the following two weeks talk of a PNP nationwide work stoppage increased, spurred by threats from representatives of organizations of active-duty and retired officers' spouses and warnings from the National Federation of NCOs, Specialists and Civilian Employees of the PNP that it would support a strike starting on 9/30. The opposition APRA party added fuel to the fire when its Political Director (and Congresswoman) Mercedes Cabanillas met with police family members and expressed sympathy for their demands, although party leader Alan Garcia quickly declared that APRA opposed a police strike. ¶3. (C) National Security Advisor Gen.(R) Luis Arias Graziani, in a 9/14 conversation with Emboffs, acknowledged widespread unrest in police ranks, which he said was being exacerbated by extreme left-wing militants linked to one Celso Pastrana. Pastrana is a former police sergeant who led a three-day police strike in 1987, escaped from prison in 1992, obtained political asylum in Sweden, and returned to Peru in 2004 after passing through Cuba and Venezuela (though no/no direct link to either Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez has been uncovered to date). He is the founder/leader of the Nationalist Patriotic Front, a group reportedly made up chiefly of other veterans of the 1987 strike and their families. ¶4. (U) There is general agreement that PNP members have legitimate grievances. According to the weekly "Caretas," the GOP owes police personnel over 100 million Soles in unpaid vacation benefits (dating from as far back as 1998), 41 million Soles for TDY and moving expenses, and 207 million Soles for uniforms. In addition, the Military-Police Pension Fund is technically bankrupt due to massive embezzlement during the Fujimori regime and 1.1 billion Soles in unpaid GOP contributions. The take-home pay for an NCO is 690 Soles/month (USD 212). ¶5. (U) Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) postponed a planned trip to Washington for a week to work up an assistance package sufficient to head off the strike. This package was announced by President Toledo on 9/19, following the latter's return from the UNGA. It totals 284 million Soles (104 million Soles in 2005 and 180 million in 2006), which will include: -- 37 million Soles in back-vacation pay; -- a one-time 150 Soles bonus for each PNP member; -- a 110 Soles (USD 34) monthly pay increase in 2006 (60 Soles/month in January, another 50 Soles/month starting in July); and -- 47 million Soles for operational expenses (gasoline, TDY pay, lunch costs). ¶6. (U) Toledo's announcement effectively defused the threat of an immediate strike. Oscar Pedraza, head of the National Federation of NCOs, Specialists and Civilian Employees of the PNP, issued a communique on 9/22, which characterized the GOP's offer as inadequate, but nonetheless concluded that the organization had decided to "suspend the police strike and hope that the authorities honor their public commitment." ¶7. (C) NAS police contacts tell us that, while a PNP strike has been averted for the moment, serious unrest continues in the ranks. They point to dissatisfaction with the GOP's new program to enhance citizen security, a central point in both President Toledo's 7/28 State of the Nation speech (Ref B) and Prime Minister Kuczynski's presentation to Congress (Ref A). They explained that the rank-and-file are upset with limits that new Police Commander Gen. Luis Montoya has placed on police moonlighting after-hours, which significantly supplements officer's meager salaries, and rent-a-cop schemes, under which high-level officials pocket considerable sums for providing off-duty police to private companies. ¶8. (C) Vice Minister of the Interior Jose Luis Avilez, in a 9/23 meeting with DCM, stated that the danger of a strike had passed, and the GOP was now concentrating on finalizing and implementing its citizen security initiative. MinInt Intelligence Directorate (DIGIMIN) Chief Gen. Jorge Cardenas, in a 9/23 meeting with Deputy Polcouns, said that he did not see any possibility of a strike at this point. Active-duty officers on the whole are pleased with the salary increase, and most of the discontent has been coming from retired officers, through their wives' organization, who are concerned that their pensions will not increase in line with salary raises. Cardenas did not/not agree that officers are concerned that their outside employment will be done away with; everyone recognizes that this is a necessary evil, although there is agreement that it must be kept within reasonable bounds so that officers do not arrive for their shifts exhausted. Cardenas added that a lot of high-level consultation has gone into improving the PNP's lot. He has personally briefed Toledo and the PM and met with Finance Ministry representatives to find new ways to loosen up more money for the police. Cardenas believes that Toledo has bought into the premise that new training academies should be opened (mentioning Cajamarca and Huancavelica) to graduate 5000-6000 new officers annually so as to keep up with attrition and address the country's "security deficit." He concluded that the GOP also intends to address PNP social welfare issues, such as health and housing. ¶9. (SBU) COMMENT: Improving citizen security is the GOP's top domestic initiative for the remainder of Toledo's term. Prime Minister Kuczynski and new Interior Minister Romulo Pizarro have publicly laid their jobs on the line over this issue, vowing to demonstrate improvement over the next few months or accept the political responsibility for failure. The GOP's stance left it open to the counter from PNP proponents demanding back-pay, salary increases and other benefits. The Government has managed to cobble together a substantial package for the police, but, as Finance Minister Zavala has noted, the result will be felt by other government agencies, which will see their budgets cut to pay for the PNP increases. There is now a growing focus on the Armed Forces, whose defenders are already starting to ask when servicemembers will receive similar treatment. END COMMENT. POWERS