Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06CARACAS1174
2006-05-03 20:31:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Caracas
Cable title:  

TAKING THE BAIT: CHAVEZ CREATES ANOTHER

Tags:  PGOV PREL VE 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3232
PP RUEHAG
DE RUEHCV #1174/01 1232031
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 032031Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY CARACAS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4299
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 6390
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 5423
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ PRIORITY 1944
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 0168
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 2023
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 3724
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0686
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 1174
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 3475
RUEHMU/AMEMBASSY MANAGUA PRIORITY 1173
RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO PRIORITY 0149
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 0647
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO PRIORITY 0839
RUEHAO/AMCONSUL CURACAO PRIORITY 0777
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0144
RUEHMI/USOFFICE FRC FT LAUDERDALE PRIORITY 3040
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA PRIORITY 0674
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CARACAS 001174 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
FOR FRC LAMBERT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/03/2026
TAGS: PGOV PREL VE
SUBJECT: TAKING THE BAIT: CHAVEZ CREATES ANOTHER
INTERNATIONAL ROW

REF: LIMA 001681

CARACAS 00001174 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT R. DOWNES FOR 1.4 (D)

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CARACAS 001174

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
FOR FRC LAMBERT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/03/2026
TAGS: PGOV PREL VE
SUBJECT: TAKING THE BAIT: CHAVEZ CREATES ANOTHER
INTERNATIONAL ROW

REF: LIMA 001681

CARACAS 00001174 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT R. DOWNES FOR 1.4 (D)

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez started a
diplomatic row with the Peruvian Government after Peruvian
presidential candidate Alan Garcia questioned Chavez'
"Bolivarian" credentials in late April. Chavez called Garcia
a corrupt thief on April 28, adding that Garcia and Peruvian
President Alejandro Toledo were "two birds of a feather."
Chavez vowed to cut off relations with Lima if Garcia were
elected. On April 29, the Peruvian Government recalled its
Ambassador to Venezuela. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry
responded in a communique that blamed the GOP for many of the
GOV's own faults. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez,
however, told Venezuela's Ambassador to Peru to stay in Lima,
according to press reports. On May 1, BRV Communications
Minister William Lara labeled President Toledo an "office
boy" and "talking puppet" of President Bush. As he has in
other diplomatic incidents, Chavez is overreacting, claiming
sovereignty violations, and blaming the United States. END
SUMMARY.

--------------
Hitting Chavez Where It Hurts
--------------


2. (SBU) Left-wing Peruvian presidential candidate Alan
Garcia called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's withdrawal
from the Community of Andean Nations (CAN) "antibolivarian"
on 21 April, according to pro-Chavez press reports. Garcia
said Chavez' action represented the second time Venezuela had
broken with Simon Bolivar's desire for Latin American unity.
He compared Chavez with first Venezuelan President Jose
Antonio Paez--also known as "the drunk"--who withdrew
Venezuela from Gran Colombia. (Embassy Note: The fact that
General Paez died in exile in New York may have made the
comparison with Paez' later career more unbearable for
Chavez.) On April 27, Garcia upped the ante. He contrasted
Venezuela's sale of "all" (sic) its oil to the United States
with Chavez' demands for Peru and Colombia to stop trade
deals with the USG. "Don't be a scoundrel (sinverguenza),"

Garcia lectured Chavez.


3. (SBU) Chavez walked right into Garcia's clever trap,
responding with an extended rant against Garcia on April 28
during a ceremony commemorating workers at a major Caracas
theater. He called Garcia a corrupt thief. He said that if
"by the work of the devil" Alan Garcia became president, he
would withdraw his ambassador. "With a president like that,
Venezuelan is not going to have relations with Peru," he
vowed. Chavez noted the following day in Cuba that Garcia
and Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo were "two of a kind."
He said that since Lourdes Flores, the Peruvian presidential
"candidate of the empire" did not win, "surely (the U.S.
empire) read to him from the imperial book and said, the
first thing you do is attack Chavez, (Bolivian President) Evo
(Morales),and (Cuban leader) Fidel (Castro)."

-------------- --------------
Venezuelan MFA Response: I Know You Are But What Am I?
-------------- --------------


4. (C) The Peruvian Government responded the same day

CARACAS 00001174 002.2 OF 003


(April 29) by withdrawing its Ambassador to Venezuela for
Chavez' "persistent and flagrant meddling" in Peru's internal
politics, according to press reports. (Note: This is the
second time this year that Toledo has withdrawn his
Ambassador. In January 2006, Toledo recalled his man in
Caracas in response to Chavez' publicly praising candidate
Ollanta Humala during Humala's trip to Venezuela.) Couching
its response in terms of the principle of "non-intervention,"
the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry issued a communique faulting
the GOP for committing many of the BRV's own dirty tricks.
For example, the Venezuelan communique denounced "rude
aggressions against Venezuela." It complained that Garcia
was "determined to pull Venezuela into (Peru's) internal
conflicts." Candidate Garcia had called President Chavez
ugly names, the note continued, and Venezuela was not going
to sit idly by and take it. In contrast to his ministry's
defiant communique, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali
Rodriguez, just back from months of convalescence in Cuba,
said he told Venezuela's Ambassador to Peru to stay put and
not "fall into provocation," according to press reports.
Rodriguez claimed the crisis with Peru was an international
campaign to destabilize Venezuela.


5. (SBU) The name-calling continued May 1, by which date
the Chavez administration had shifted most of its rhetoric
onto the outgoing Peruvian President. Keeping on the message
of Chavez' ties to the United States, Garcia said Chavez had
a "double standard." "Who does (Chavez) think he is? A
Saddam Hussein who can lord it over other countries because
he has oil?" asked Garcia. Garcia announced he would send
Chavez a Peruvian guide to manners if he became president.
Venezuelan Communications and Information Minister William
Lara shot back called President Toledo the "office boy" and
"talking puppet" of President Bush.

--------------
Chavez Upsets Kirchner and Lula
--------------


6. (U) Separately, Argentine daily La Nacion reported that
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Brazilian President
Lula da Silva "reproached" Chavez April 27 for having
participated the previous week in an energy summit in
Asuncion that allegedly questioned Brasilia and Buenos
Aires's will to help develop other Mercosur states. Chavez
apparently had suggested that the disintegration of Mercosur
would not bother him. Citing Brazilian and Argentine
government sources, the article said Kirchner and da Silva
told Chavez they wanted him to moderate his participation in
Southern Cone issues. President da Silva told Chavez to stop
encouraging Bolivian President Morales' aggressive stance
toward Brazilian state-oil company Petrobras.

--------------
Comment
--------------


7. (C) Chavez' diplomatic incidents are becoming
increasingly predictable. It would seem the Venezuelan
Government were reading from a playbook used for every
international dispute, no matter how poorly adaptable: (1)
react to criticism "asymmetrically," that is, fight flies
with a flame-thrower; (2) claim interference in internal
Venezuelan affairs; (3) blame the United States for starting
the whole thing in the first place. The BRV decision not to
recall its Ambassador is not a sign of rapprochement. More
likely, the BRV wants its Ambassador to remain in Lima to
continue trying to get Humala elected. Chavez appears most

CARACAS 00001174 003.2 OF 003


sensitive to attacks from the left that question his
fundamental assumed role as the world's premier warrior
against the U.S. "menace." His personality is brittle enough
that he could not abide being labeled a bad copy of Bolivar,
his idol. We could not have scripted Alan Garcia's remarks
any better.

BROWNFIELD