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.

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The Presidential Campaign
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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.

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The National Assembly
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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.

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One Revolutionary Party
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5. (C) According to Albornoz, Chavez is determined to create

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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.

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Sumate
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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.

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Bilateral Relations
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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.

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Comment
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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