Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05QUITO534
2005-03-08 21:58:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Quito
Cable title:  

A DEFENSIVE GUTIERREZ BLASTS CRITICS

Tags:  PGOV PREL EC 
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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 SECTION 01 OF 02 QUITO 000534 

SIPDIS

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (PARAS RENUMBERED)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/07/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL EC
SUBJECT: A DEFENSIVE GUTIERREZ BLASTS CRITICS

REF: A. QUITO 467


B. QUITO 418

Classified By: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, Reasons 1.4 (b)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 QUITO 000534

SIPDIS

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (PARAS RENUMBERED)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/07/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL EC
SUBJECT: A DEFENSIVE GUTIERREZ BLASTS CRITICS

REF: A. QUITO 467


B. QUITO 418

Classified By: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, Reasons 1.4 (b)


1. (C) SUMMARY: President Lucio Gutierrez feels justified
in criticizing Ecuador's political opposition, calling his
public rebuttals valid tit-for-tat. "If I don't respond to
their allegations," he told the Ambassador March 7, "the
people will believe them." Gutierrez attributed opposition
elites' virulence to policies he had implemented to reduce
their allegedly corrupt influence. He deplored the wave of
low-level political violence and harassment currently
enveloping the capital, however. On the current Supreme
Court impasse, the president acknowledged his proposed
referendum was overly complex and needed rework;
optimistically, he claimed political ally (but referendum
opponent) Alvaro Noboa was warming to the idea of a Court
swap. Gutierrez hinted at additional Cabinet changes,
lamenting his newly-named government minister's poor health
and questioning whether the Embassy "had anything" on
Administration Secretary Oscar Ayerve.


2. (C) In strongest terms, the Ambassador urged the
president to desist from further confrontation and engage the
opposition in real dialogue. "Ecuador elected you because
you were different from old-style politicians," she
emphasized; waging wars with the media and opposition would
only shrink his stature. Embassy support for Ecuadorian
democracy and its institutions was firm -- we would continue
to encourage dialogue on all sides. She warned the president
not to confuse U.S. neutrality with passivity, however.
Should GoE elements continue their clumsy attempts to muzzle
the opposition, with or without Gutierrez approval, the
Embassy was prepared to air its concerns publicly. END
SUMMARY.

--------------
Referendum To Go Forward?
--------------


3. (SBU) Travel delays due to inclement weather and a case
of food poisoning (the president's) had turned the
Ambassador's March 7 breakfast with Gutierrez into a late
working lunch. The GoE leader opened with his pet project:
a referendum designed to resolve the current Supreme Court
controversy. The president realized the current proposal,

as-is, had little chance of clearing Congress. "Too many
questions," he acknowledged, and "too much opposition" from
the legislature's numerous voting blocs. Staff were working
to reduced the dozen-item consultation to a single question
for the electorate. Gutierrez was confident the revised
referendum would enjoy broader support. Specifically, he
claimed PRIAN leader and former presidential candidate Alvaro
Noboa no longer opposed a second Court change. "He finally
realizes this Court is no better than the last," Gutierrez
offered.

--------------
Fighting: No End In Sight
--------------


4. (SBU) Turning to Quito's superheated political
environment, an exasperated Gutierrez claimed he had never
seen such verbal aggression against a sitting president. The
corrupt elites despised him for his military background and
leadership style. Once they became aware of his
determination to wrest back control over state and parastatal
institutions, they counter-attacked, exploiting their control
over Ecuadorian media. Even the Church was against him; on
Sunday, Gutierrez revealed, a prominent priest had called
presidential abode Carondelet Palace a "stable, inhabited by
animals." Were he not to respond in kind to these ad hominem
attacks, he argued, Ecuador's masses would accept the
opposition diatribe as true.


5. (C) The Ambassador disagreed. Answering accusations with
insults was petty and non-presidential, she admonished.
Where was the dialogue he and his followers had promised?
Where was the legislative agenda? Key bills, including
energy sector reform, the civil aviation law, and anti-TIP
legislation, languished in Congress, victims of the
nonsensical posturing between government loyalists and
opposition. Things had to change.


6. (C) Ecuador's rank-and-file had chosen the president
based on his outsider status and determination to tackle
corruption, the Ambassador reminded. Yet Gutierrez's
behavior was no different than that of career politicians he
earlier lambasted. Others shared the view; she recounted her
recent trip to Esmeraldas, where marginalized
Afro-Ecuadorians, once among Gutierrez's strongest
supporters, had derided the president's focus on politics
over governance.


7. (C) Worse, political violence appeared on the upswing.
The Ambassador recounted the hours-earlier confrontation
between members of Zero Corruption (ZC),a pro-GoE
organization that supported the current Court, and Citizen
Participation (PC),a USAID-financed electoral NGO. ZC
members had attempted to infiltrate PC's offices early March
7, spray-painting ugly graffiti and threatening staff
(Septel) before police arrived 30 minutes later. In
addition, she understood that unidentified thugs two days
earlier had fired on the vehicle of Congressional Deputy
Enrique Ayala. The Ambassador laid no blame on the GoE for
the incidents. Yet the GoE tolerated two similarly clumsy
attempts to muzzle prominent critics the Jesuit Order and
retired General Jorge Gallardo (Reftels). Taken together,
the actions fueled perceptions of a GoE campaign to
intimidate its critics.

--------------
USG Support Tied To Good Governance
--------------


8. (C) The Embassy message would remain constant, the
Ambassador asserted, focusing on support for Ecuador's
constitution, separation of powers, and government-opposition
dialogue. Yet there were lines in the sand. She was
prepared to go public with criticism of any Ecuadorian
institution, the presidency included, should circumstances
merit. Defending democracy was the USG's overriding priority
in Ecuador.


9. (SBU) Gutierrez swore his forces were not behind the
Ayala attack. In fact, earlier he had expressed condolences
in a telephone call to the Socialist deputy, promising him
personal protection. "No one has more to lose than me" from
the wave of harassment and violence in Quito, the president
asserted. He would ensure the police investigated all leads.

--------------
Another Cabinet "Re-oxygenation" Soon?
--------------


10. (C) Changing gears, the president hinted at additional
Cabinet turnover. Minister of Government Xavier Ledesma, who
recently traveled to the United States for emergency glaucoma
surgery, was in bad shape; Gutierrez hoped he would return
soon. Recent appointee Oscar Ayerve also was on the
president's mind. Gutierrez attributed much of the
controversy surrounding his new administration secretary
general to bad blood between Ayerve and former Cabinet
official Patricio Acosta. Nonetheless, he asked whether the
Embassy had incriminating information on the embattled
official.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


11. (C) Taking a page from modern child rearing, both the
GoE and opposition could use a "time out" from their constant
bickering. Regrettably, no such parental authority exists
here, and the silliness will likely continue. Yet the
violent turn worries us. Should convincing proof of
administration involvement surface, it would mandate a strong
USG protest. The aforementioned incidents don't yet
constitute evidence of GoE complicity, however. The attack
on Ayala might prove opposition-spawned, since his Socialist
Party's opportunistic flip-flopping has annoyed both sides to
the Court debate. And while the assault on PC headquarters
was not the opposition's work, it seems too clumsy to have
earned the president's chop. Regardless, the government must
do a better job investigating these attacks and preventing
others.


12. (C) Administration insiders reveal Gutierrez continues
to heed Embassy recommendations and counsel. We have reason
to hope he heard loud and clear our private admonitions to
turn down the vitriol and swear off political violence. If
not, we're prepared to make our views public. END COMMENT.
KENNEY