PPT SECRETARY GENERAL: "ONE PARTY IS UN-DEMOCRATIC"

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 003038 SIPDIS SIPDIS HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD DEPT PASS TO AID/OTI (RPORTER) E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/03/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL VE SUBJECT: PPT SECRETARY GENERAL: "ONE PARTY IS UN-DEMOCRATIC" REF: CARACAS 002963 CARACAS 00003038 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT DOWNES, REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (C) Summary. During a September 26 meeting with PolCouns and Poloff, pro-Chavez Patria Para Todos (PPT) Secretary General and National Assembly Deputy Jose Albornoz criticized both the Chavez and Rosales campaigns, but expressed confidence that President Chavez would be re-elected. He accused Chavez of co-opting and undermining emerging leaders in the National Assembly and Chavez' Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) of marginalizing the PPT and other coalition partners. Albornoz attributed Chavez' interest in creating a single revolutionary party to Fidel Castro's influence on Chavez and said the idea is neither democratic or viable. Albornoz, who spearheaded the National Assembly's investigation of electoral NGO "Sumate," predicted that the legal case against the NGO would stay on hold until the BRV decides to "dust it off again." Albornoz said Foreign Minister Maduro deliberately provoked the September 23 incident at JFK airport (Reftel). End Summary. -------------- The Presidential Campaign -------------- ¶2. (C) Pro-government Patria Para Todos (PPT) Secretary General Jose Albornoz opined that the Chavez campaign has been running too much on its record, and would have more success making more promises for the future. When asked to detail the Chavez administration's accomplishments, he was non-responsive. Albornoz said the Chavez campaign was already taking a hard look at how to improve its campaign messages, and he expressed confidence that President Chavez would defeat consensus opposition candidate Manuel Rosales at the polls on December 3. Albornoz conceded that Rosales was making some inroads with poor Venezuelans with his debit card plan ("Mi Negra"),but predicted that Rosales would have difficulty persuading such voters and his middle class base to actually go to the polls. Nevertheless, Albornoz said he thought launching recall referenda against Chavista mayors and governors next year could give the opposition a potential platform on which to build. -------------- The National Assembly -------------- ¶3. (C) Asked about recent developments in the legislature, Albornoz said Chavez is deliberately incorporating influential deputies into the executive branch to undermine what he called the "Chavismo without Chavez" group within the National Assembly. The selection of former NA President Nicolas Maduro to be foreign minister reduces his influence on other parliamentarians, and the selection of PPT Deputy Rodolfo Sanz to be MFA Vice Minister for Latin America and the Caribbean diminishes the PPT's influence in the National Assembly, according to Albornoz. To avoid diminishing PPT's legislative influence further, Albornoz said he turned down Chavez' offer to replace Housing and Habitat Minister Ramon Carrizales. (Note: BRV Housing Ministers consistently tend to last less than a year in office). He added that his refusal created a political problem because President Chavez "does not like to be told 'no'." ¶4. (C) Albornoz questioned the "election" of Cilia Flores as the new National Assembly President stating that the Constitutional rules of succession should have triggered the automatic elevation of National Assembly First Vice President Desire Santos Amaral. He also blamed the National Assembly's inability to pass important legislation on the combination of the MVR's domination of Assembly committees and the inexperience and ineptness of MVR legislators. He said the MVR leadership in the NA is deliberately delaying passage of the National Police Law and the National Infrastructure Law, shepherded respectively by PODEMOS and the PPT, to marginalize both coalition partners. Albornoz predicted that the NA would take up the anti-civil society NGO Cooperation law, which provoked an outcry from NGO's and foreign donors when initiated earlier this year, again early in 2007. -------------- One Revolutionary Party -------------- ¶5. (C) According to Albornoz, Chavez is determined to create CARACAS 00003038 002.2 OF 002 a single revolutionary party in 2007 (Septel),as he announced in his September 9 Caracas campaign rally. Albornoz said Fidel Castro warned Chavez earlier this year that his Bolivarian revolution could not survive without Chavez because the Venezuelan president does not have a strong, unified revolutionary party, like the Communist Party of Cuba, behind him. Albornoz said Chavez took Castro's advice to heart and plans to press ahead after the presidential election with a proposal to set up a unitary party structure along Cuban lines. Albornoz said he considers the idea "undemocratic" and "unworkable" and added that Ismael Garcia, the Secretary General of PODEMOS, another pro-Chavez minor party, also shares Albornoz' views and opposes the idea. -------------- Sumate -------------- ¶6. (C) Asked about the congressional investigation he led against Sumate, Albornoz insisted that the NGO had "gone too far" and had become a "political problem." He claimed that Sumate had made itself vulnerable by not declaring donations, avoiding taxes, and returning U.S. assistance. He said it was "nothing personal" and claimed he had backed off treason charges against Sumate leaders and refrained from publicizing the names of private companies that had made donations to Sumate. Albornoz predicted that the BRV's legal case against Sumate would go "nowhere...until we decide to dust it off again." PolCouns stressed that the U.S. and numerous European governments believe that the BRV's selective political prosecution of Sumate and others is undermining democracy in Venezuela. -------------- Bilateral Relations -------------- ¶7. (C) Albornoz claimed to have a direct account of Foreign Minister Maduro's September 23 JFK incident (Reftel). He said Maduro provoked a confrontation at JFK. Citing what he called a difficult political climate, Albornoz said he has been turning down invitations to embassy events, but is willing to meet periodically with poloffs. He noted that he sent DISIP personnel assigned to his office on an errand so that they would not see PolCouns and Poloff entering his office. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) Albornoz' fairly frank comments about the Chavez campaign, the National Assembly, and Chavez' ambition to create a single revolutionary party probably reflect his ire as much as insights into the Chavez administration. Chavez and the MVR continue to marginalize the PPT and other coalition partners, and Chavez' intention to create a single revolutionary party early next year would eliminate coalition partners' already tenuous separate political identity completely. Despite his claim that one-party politics would never work in Venezuela, Albornoz appears to be hedging his bets. He is reportedly trying to forge a merger with the Podemos coalition party to enhance both parties' leverage with respect to Chavez' MVR. At the same time, by leading the Sumate witchhunt, and more recently, by accusing CANTV of trying to destabilize the Chavez government, he continues to burnish his Chavista credentials. BROWNFIELD