PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ANTONIO ALVAREZ DESANTI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SAN JOSE 002932

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/27/2015
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL ECON CS
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ANTONIO ALVAREZ DESANTI
STRUGGLING TO FIND HIS CONSTITUENCY


Classified By: Charge Russell Frisbie for reasons 1.4(b) and (d)

Summary
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1. (C) Presidential candidate Antonio Alvarez Desanti
promised, if elected, to bring strong leadership to Costa
Rica, focused first on education, health, infrastructure,
security, and housing (areas of broad agreement),and then on
the more controversial issue of dismantling state monopolies
"by going over the heads of union leaders and speaking
directly to the workers and the people." Alvarez Desanti
told Ambassador that he is a strong supporter of CAFTA-DR.
He said the party he founded in May, Union for Change, will
have some representation in the next Legislative Assembly,
and, if he loses the presidential election this time, he will
be back in 2010. End summary.

Election Campaign
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2. (SBU) On December 16, Ambassador paid a courtesy call on
Antonio Alvarez Desanti, candidate for president and founder
of a new political party, Union for Change. The meeting took
place in the corporate offices Alvarez shares with his wife
and uses to run their businesses in agricultural products,
financing, and real estate. Alvarez is running about fourth
in the polls in a field of 14 candidates. He served in the
Arias Administration (1986-1990) first as Minister of
Agriculture and then as Minister of Public Security. He was
elected to the Legislative Assembly to serve in the 1994-98
term, during part of which he was president of the Assembly.
A lifelong member of the National Liberation Party (PLN),
Alvarez broke away to form his own party in May after it had
become evident that Oscar Arias, not he, would be the PLN's
standard bearer.


3. (SBU) Alvarez told Ambassador that he had never seen an
election season in Costa Rica with the electorate so
uninterested. He blamed corruption scandals involving recent
past presidents which have caused the voters to equate
politics and corruption. Alvarez said he is responding to
this phenomenon by running a wholly positive campaign. His
strategy is not to attack Arias but to highlight differences
in both substance and style. Alvarez is a youthful-looking
47 while Arias appears older than his 65 years. Alvarez
plans to run ads featuring his attractive and politically
involved wife, along with their two daughters. Opponents
Arias and Guevara are divorced, and Solis's wife shuns the
limelight.

Need for Leadership
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4. (C) Costa Rica is desperate for leadership, Alvarez said.
President Pacheco had no vision of where he wanted to take
the country, and a fragmented Legislative Assembly did not
help matters. As a result, the country has been floundering.
Alvarez said in the first months of his administration he
would take action in the areas where there is already
consensus, e.g., education, health care, infrastructure,
security, and housing. Then the real work will begin, i.e.,
tackling the controversial issue of dismantling state
monopolies. Alvarez stressed that he does not necessarily
want state companies to be privatized or to disappear
altogether, but only that all sectors of the economy,
including energy, telecommunications, and insurance, be open
to private sector competition. This can be accomplished by a
strong and firm leader, Alvarez believes. The trick is to
minimize the power of public sector labor unions "by going
over the heads of union leaders and speaking directly to the
workers and the pople."


5. (C) Alvarez said that President Pacheco, by delivering a
constantly confusing and equivocating message, gave the
unions the upper hand. Union leaders manipulated information
to their own advantage. In fact, Alvarez said, the
experience of breaking up state monopolies in Costa Rica has
been good. In 1995 Costa Rica for the first time allowed
private banks to offer personal checking accounts.
Practically overnight service improved, costs went down, and
bank salaries increased. Most important, the state banks did
not go out of business.


6. (C) Alvarez told Ambassador that CAFTA-DR is an essential
part of the country's economic strategy. Costa Rica must
consolidate and improve access to its main export market. He
said part of the reason CAFTA-DR is so controversial in Costa
Rica is that President Pacheco failed to negotiate with rice
growers, public sector unions, and other affected sectors.
While it is impossible to eliminate opposition, it is
possible to dampen it.

Alliances in the next Assembly
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7. (C) Alvarez said that his Union for Change Party will be a
positive and cooperative force in the next Legislative
Assembly. He said he could work with the leftist Citizens'
Action Party (PAC) on education and other "social investment"
issues and with the Libertarians on free trade. Alvarez said
that if he does not win the presidential election this time,
he will be back as a candidate in 2010.
LANGDALE