MORE ON OLLANTA HUMALA'S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 004271

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/28/2015
TAGS: PGOV PINS PREL PE VE
SUBJECT: MORE ON OLLANTA HUMALA'S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY
AND LINKS TO CHAVEZ

Classified By: Political Counselor Alexander Margulies. ...

id: 41759
date: 9/30/2005 17:29
refid: 05LIMA4271
origin: Embassy Lima
classification: CONFIDENTIAL
destination:
header:
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.



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C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 004271

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/28/2015
TAGS: PGOV PINS PREL PE VE
SUBJECT: MORE ON OLLANTA HUMALA'S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY
AND LINKS TO CHAVEZ

Classified By: Political Counselor Alexander Margulies. Reason: 1.4(d
).


1. (C) Sociologist Jaime Antesana, an expert in cocalero
politics working for a USAID contractor, during a 9/21
meeting with Emboffs said that the cocalero movement appears
to be coalescing in support of ultra-nationalist Ollanta
Humala's presidential candidacy. Antesana added that he met
with Humala recently, and the latter showed him the results
of a poll by an international company, which Humala said was
funded by the Government of Venezuela, that gave him 10
percent of the vote nationwide.


2. (C) In a 9/28 meeting with Deputy Polcouns,
congressional advisor Julio Schiappa, who also teaches a
graduate school seminar, said that he met with Humala
recently through one of his students, who coordinates
Humala's party membership drive. Schiappa said that Humala
acknowledged having a hard time obtaining the 128,000
signatures needed to register his party, and that he would
probably just have to "buy" one of the mini-parties that has
already registered (29 parties are currently registered for
the 2006 election).


3. (C) According to Schiappa, in subsequent conversations
his student confided that Humala is receiving money from
Chavez, but did not/not provide specifics. Schiappa also
stated that Linda Lema, an advisor to First Lady Eliane Karp,
has told him that she was romantically involved with Chavez
when she was a student in Venezuela in the 1980s, that Chavez
is providing funds to Humala through retired Army General
Emilio Bobbio and retired Army Captain Eloy Villacrez, and
that the Venezuelan Government is paying for a survey in Peru
of Humala's electoral prospects.


4. (C) COMMENT: We have found both Antesana and Schiappa
to be reliable sources in the past. While Schiappa's
evidence on Humala's links to Chavez are all hearsay, Lema's
alleged claim of GOV funding for polls jibes with what
Antesana said he heard from Humala himself. We also note
that General Bobbio has been linked with Humala by the press
and other Embassy sources, although Bobbio has denied any
current ties in conversations with DAO. END COMMENT.
STRUBLE

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