VENEZUELAN ADVENTISTS ALSO UNDER BRV SUSPICION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 000703

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

COPENHAGEN FOR DLAWTON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/03/2021
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KIRF KDEM VE
SUBJECT: VENEZUELAN ADVENTISTS ALSO UNDER BRV SUSPICION


Classified By: Robert Downes, Political Counselor,
for Reason 1.4(b).

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Summary
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1. (C) The Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church is depicted in
a government training film for "Ribas Mission" students as a
fanatical religious sect that spreads terror among indigenous
tribes and spies for the CIA, according a video shown to
Emboffs by SDA officials February 21. SDA officials thought
government officials had agreed to pull the objectionable
material, however, and even commented to Emboffs that
(non-Catholic) religious broadcasting by the SDA had become
more open under President Hugo Chavez. The 150,000 SDA
population is mostly located in the interior of the country,
especially in the southern plains region, and has sometimes
been linked by the BRV with the New Tribes Mission (NTM).
Despite having its world headquarters in Washington, DC, the
SDA church does not rely on American missionaries and
therefore has not had problems with religious visas. Like
other small religious groups, the Adventists are trying to
"go along to get along," aided by the fact that many of their
members are at the same time adherents of the Bolivarian
Revolution. End Summary.


2. (C) Poloff and USAID officer met with Pastor Josney
Rodriguez, Secretary General of the Venezuelan-Antilles
Adventist Union and coordinator of Adventist churches in
eastern Venezuela, and other senior Adventist pastors on
February 21 at their association site in Caracas. (Note:
The Seventh-Day Adventists claim 150,000 members in
Venezuela. The National Adventist Union headquarters is
located in Barquisimeto, Lara State. Pastor Julio Palacio is
the current head of the Venezuelan Union, which reports to
the South America Division headquarters located in Miami,
Florida. The SDA world headquarters is located in
Washington, DC.)

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Mision Ribas Video Accuses Adventists of Terror Tactics
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3. (C) Rodriguez showed Emboffs clips supposedly taken last
year from the "Lessons 11 and 12" video class of Mision
Ribas, the BRV-sponsored high school equivalency
certification program. The unit topic was "foreign
missionaries in Venezuela," presented by an on-screen
professor. The professor introduced the topic by showing
selective scenes from the 1986 movie "The Mission," depicting
18th Century indigenous tribespeople building churches and
making furniture for foreign missionaries. The action cuts
to scenes of the indigenous being slaughtered by
musket-bearing foreign troops. (Note: "The Mission" is
actually about Jesuits living with the Guarani in colonial
Brazil. The movie's climax has the Jesuit missionaries
trying to protect the indigenous people from Portuguese
soldiers. None of this is explained by the professor in the
Mision Ribas video, however, leaving students with the
impression that missionaries participated in the massacre.)


4. (C) At the end of the movie scene, the professor says that
subjugation of the indigenous in Venezuela continues to the
modern era in the form of the New Tribes Mission and SDA
church. Characteristics of these groups flash on the screen
as the professor ticks them off: "fanatical preaching, fear
and submission, doctrine of terror, and espionage." In the
video, the professor then proceeds to read from a book
published in Venezuela in the 90s about NTM, saying that such
foreign missionary groups spy on behalf of the CIA. The
piece appeared to be presented in its entirety, and did not
offer any historical or factual context for the opinions
expressed by the official BRV video lesson. (Note: It is
thought that some two million Venezuelans are enrolled in

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Mision Ribas.)

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But Adventists See The Bright Side
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5. (C) The Adventists also showed Emboffs a video prepared in
response to the Ribas video explaining the presence of
Adventists in eastern indigenous areas for the past 75 years
and showing the results of Adventist social programs there.
Rodriguez said that Adventists within Chavismo had clued them
into the controversial Ribas video, and also served as a
communication bridge back to BRV officials to complain
privately. Rodriguez said he believed the offending video
had been removed from circulation, based on reports from
church members. The link to the New Tribes (ref) did have
the effect last October, Rodriguez reported, of having
Venezuelan army units visit the SDA's school for indigenous
students in the Gran Sabana near the Brazilian border. In
Rodriguez' opinion, however, the officials went away
impressed with the school's operation and did not return.


6. (C) Despite the obvious affronts in the government video,
the Adventists said that, in some ways, life for the
religious minority had become easier under the Chavez regime.
The BRV's friction with the Catholic Church, for example,
has loosened the latter's grip on religious broadcasting,
making it easier for Adventist television and radio stations
to broadcast. Poloff also pointed out that the SDA Church
had representation on the censorship board of
telecommunications regulator CONATEL, while the Catholics did
not. Rodriguez answered, however, that he was not aware
whether the board, a by-product of the Social Responsibility
Law ("Ley RESORTE"),had ever formally convened.

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Adventists With U.S. Roots, But Few Foreigners
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7. (C) Asked about the ease with which Adventist missionaries
receive religious visas, Rodriguez said the SDA in Venezuela
has very few foreign missionaries in country. The
150,000-strong membership, he said, largely depends on
Venezuelan pastors for their administration and therefore had
not experienced the visa problems of other groups. Rodriguez
added that the SDA population is decentralized outside of
Caracas, which is why the national headquarters is in
Barquisimeto. The church's presence among the indigenous,
Rodriguez related, stems from a century-old prophesy by a
local chief ("cacique") that foreign missionaries would one
day come to their village, which happened decades later. The
result is the oddity of some nearly all-Adventist indigenous
villages in the Gran Sabana (as well as in Delta Amacuro).

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Comment
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8. (C) Like many religious minority groups in Venezuela, the
Adventists are finding the path of least resistance the most
effective way of existence, even if it means brushing off
outlandish accusations like the one in the Ribas video. For
some reason, the BRV seems to have left the SDA out of its
edict to expel foreign missionary groups from indigenous
areas, for now at least. This could be explained by SDA's
tendency to use Venezuelan religious workers, who would be
much harder to dislodge from any part of Venezuelan
territory. Also, many SDA members come from the poorer
classes that tend to support Chavez.

BROWNFIELD