Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BUENOSAIRES944
2006-04-26 21:43:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Buenos Aires
Cable title:  

ARGENTINA: RICARDO LOPEZ MURPHY LOSES CONTROL OF

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL AR 
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4311
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 5493
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 5295
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 0895
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ APR 4101
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO PRIORITY 5501
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 5090
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 000944 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/26/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: RICARDO LOPEZ MURPHY LOSES CONTROL OF
HIS OWN PARTY

REF: BUENOS AIRES 00857

Classified By: Ambassador Lino Gutierrez for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 000944

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/26/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: RICARDO LOPEZ MURPHY LOSES CONTROL OF
HIS OWN PARTY

REF: BUENOS AIRES 00857

Classified By: Ambassador Lino Gutierrez for Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: According to a Recrear political advisor,
Ricardo Lopez Murphy is asking for a leave of absence as
Recrear Party President and may leave the party following
contentious internal elections that left Lopez Murphy
isolated within his own party. Lopez Murphy's request for a
leave of absence has caused a crisis in the party leadership,
leading to resignations and setting the stage for future
conflict. Lopez Murphy reportedly plans on focusing on his
think tank while he waits for the party leaders to call him
back, but dissident leaders are reportedly in the process of
making their own deals with Mauricio Macri. The split within
Recrear can be seen as part of an ideological conflict within
the Republican Proposal (PRO) alliance, as Lopez Murphy and
his allies resist being tainted with Neuquen Governor Jorge
Sobisch's presidential campaign and Macri's rapprochement
with ex-Duhaldista Peronists. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Recrear political advisor Andy Rivas told Poloff on
April 26 that Ricardo Lopez Murphy is asking for a leave of
absence as Recrear Party President and may leave the party
following contentious internal elections that left Lopez
Murphy isolated within his own party. During the April 24
vote to elect the new members of Recrear's national committee
that runs the party, Lopez Murphy failed to get four of his
key associates elected to the committee, leaving Lopez Murphy
with only one close ally on the new 12-member committee.
Following the vote, Lopez Murphy asked for a leave of
absence, although Rivas said that party leaders were trying
to keep the conflict from leaking to the press or to the
general Recrear party membership.


3. (C) Lopez Murphy's request for a leave of absence has
caused a crisis in the party leadership, leading to
resignations and setting the stage for future conflict. It
was reported in the press on April 26 that long-time
associate Manuel Solanet -- one of Lopez Murphy's candidates
for the national committee -- has resigned from the party,

along with the ex Vice President of Recrear Buenos Aires,
Emilio Apud. Rivas said that more resignations from the
party will follow shortly. According to Rivas, Lopez Murphy
has asked many of his allies within Recrear to move with him
to his think tank, Fundacion Civico Republicana. Rivas also
said that Lopez Murphy planned to ask for the USD $1 million
that Fundacion Civico Republicana loaned to Recrear, possibly
setting in motion a financial conflict with Recrear leaders.


4. (C) Rivas said that Lopez Murphy plans on focusing on his
think tank while he waits for the party leaders to call him
back, but Rivas said that the dissident leaders are making
their own deals with Mauricio Macri. The leading members of
the dissident wing of Recrear, such as Tucuman's Pablo Walter
and National Diputado from Buenos Aires City, Esteban
Bullrich, are reportedly in discussions with Mauricio Macri
to form their own alliances with him. (NOTE: Lopez Murphy
is currently part of the PRO political front that includes
Macri an Neuquen Governor Jorge Sobisch. Lopez Murphy has
distanced himself within PRO because of his ongoing conflict
with Sobisch and Macri's discussions with the ex-Duhaldista
bloc opposed to Kirchner regarding an alliance. Lopez Murphy
recently told the Charge and Poloff that he would never
support a presidential ticket that included Sobisch (Reftel).
END NOTE.) Rivas said that the recent decision to exclude
the anti-Sobisch Recrear members from Neuquen from the
national committee was part of the effort by certain members
of Recrear to draw closer to Macri.


5. (C) COMMENT: If the internal conflict in Recrear is not
resolved, Lopez Murphy will have a difficult time achieving
his stated goal of winning a seat in Congress in 2007
(Reftel) without a party structure behind him. He is
increasingly isolated in PRO, as Macri is developing strong
ties with Peronists opposed to Kirchner and continuing to
support Sobisch in his national campaign. After his fifth
place showing in the October 2005 elections that left him
without a congressional seat and with mounting debts, Lopez
Murphy is in need of allies, and this party conflict only
adds to his predicament. He may see his recent warming
relations with Affirmation for an Egalitarian Republic (ARI)
leader Elisa Carrio and Radical Civic Union (UCR) President
Roberto Iglesias as the answer to his problems in PRO.


6. (C) The split within Recrear can be seen as part of an
ideological conflict within the Republican Proposal (PRO)
alliance, as Lopez Murphy and his allies resist being tainted
with Neuquen Governor Jorge Sobisch's presidential campaign
and Macri's rapprochement with ex-Duhaldista Peronists.
Rivas reported that Lopez Murphy is justifying his decision
to possibly leave the party to his followers as a means to
preserve himself for the future by avoiding association with
corrupt political figures like Sobisch and the
ex-Duhaldistas. Lopez Murphy reportedly recognizes that 2007
will be a difficult year for the opposition and that Sobisch
has little chance of beating Kirchner, and therefore Lopez
Murphy feels there is little reason to compromise himself now
and jeopardize his future political opportunities. END
COMMENT.

GUTIERREZ