Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06LAPAZ604
2006-03-07 20:07:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy La Paz
Cable title:  

PRAGMATIC INDIGENOUS LEFTIST RENE JOAQUINO ON THE

Tags:  BL ECON PGOV PINR PREL 
pdf how-to read a cable
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LA PAZ 000604 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2016
TAGS: BL ECON PGOV PINR PREL
SUBJECT: PRAGMATIC INDIGENOUS LEFTIST RENE JOAQUINO ON THE
RISE

REF: A. LA PAZ 02473

B. LA PAZ 02283

Classified By: Ambassador David N. Greenlee for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LA PAZ 000604

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/06/2016
TAGS: BL ECON PGOV PINR PREL
SUBJECT: PRAGMATIC INDIGENOUS LEFTIST RENE JOAQUINO ON THE
RISE

REF: A. LA PAZ 02473

B. LA PAZ 02283

Classified By: Ambassador David N. Greenlee for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)
.


1. (C) Summary: Embassy officials had lunch with mayor of
Potosi and former presidential aspirant Rene Joaquino on
March 3. Joaquino is organizing a new political party that
will be based out of Potosi, Chuquisaca, and Oruro, and will
tap into the region's indigenous Quechua majority. His main
goal will be to get his center-left party registered for the
Constituent Assembly (CA) and serve as a counterbalance to
the MAS and radical left. Joaquino is a soft-spoken realist
who appears sincere in his interest to serve Bolivia. He may
be the kind of pragmatic indigenous leader with whom we can
work. End Summary.

Toying With National Leadership
--------------


2. (C) ECOPOL Counselor and two Poloffs had lunch with Mayor
of Potosi Rene Joaquino Cabrera on March 3 to hear more about
his future political aspirations. He has had his sights set
on becoming President of Bolivia since childhood. In 2002,
he backed the presidential campaign of Manfred Reyes Villa
(NFR) in an effort to counter MAS inroads in Potosi (REF A).
In 2005 he launched his own presidential campaign as a
leftist counterweight to now President Evo Morales, pulling
together a coalition for a Broad Front (Frente Amplio)
citizen,s grouping based on the national mayors,
association. Despite quickly registering 9% support in the
polls, Joaquino withdrew from the race when he failed to
maintain the support of La Paz Mayor Juan del Granado, one of
Bolivia,s most influential mayors who chose to back Morales
instead. Joaquino said that he has not worked with the other
mayors since dropping out of the race.

Forming A New Party
--------------


3. (C) Joaquino has not been sidetracked from his goal of
national leadership and instead has intensified his efforts
to organize from the ground up. Joaquino told us that he
would soon formally register his new political party, the
Social Alliance. He described the party as a &modern left8

in tune with the realities of globalization. A soft-spoken
Joaquino waxed poetic on the need for foreign investment and
open markets. He said that Bolivians were missing out on
opportunities to sell their products abroad. He thought that
his party would be able to give a new face to the discourse
surrounding criticisms of the neoliberal model. When asked
how he would answer criticisms that he was just another
neoliberal supporting imperialist policies, Joaquino
responded that Peru,s Alan Garcia, a leftist, ran his
country,s economy into the ground during his presidency
(1985-90) because of his statist policies. Now, he
continued, Garcia is subscribing to market policies that will
keep the country moving forward and he is one of the top
three candidates in the Peruvian race. &The left has to
learn from the past,8 he concluded.


4. (C) Joaquino seemed to clearly understand the challenges
he faces and said that he was reaching out to people not
previously associated with the traditional parties. A
strategic thinker who plays political hardball (REF B),
Joaquino is targeting Morales, party stronghold in Oruro,
Potosi, and Chuquisaca and said that his new party would tap
into the Quechua vote in those three provinces, dividing the
MAS support (he figured that since Evo tapped into the Aymara
side he could tap the Quechua side). He also mentioned that
the party,s color would be green, a powerful symbol of
renovation in the indigenous culture.

Critical of the New Administration
--------------

LA PAZ 00000604 002 OF 003




5. (C) Joaquino was skeptical of Morales, ability to resolve
Bolivia,s problems. He criticized Morales for being an
&anti-neoliberal8 while at the same time being open to
Venezuelan and Cuban assistance. Joaquino ridiculed the
infiltration of Cuban doctors in Bolivia. He said that they
did not have any equipment to give treatment and that sick
Bolivians were running around with prescriptions that they
did not have any money to fill. He also had harsh words for
the literacy campaign underway. Joaquino said that in Potosi
they had been working on literacy for years and that they
still had not achieved 100 percent literacy. He said that if
indeed the Morales administration showed sharp increases in
the literacy rate in the following months it was only because
they were manipulating statistics and were looking for a
headline. Many participants in these programs, he claimed,
were already literate but wanted to receive free materials
and any other potential benefits. Finally, the mayor said
that the CA would not solve Bolivia,s problems of poverty
and unemployment.

Eager to Learn
--------------


6. (C) Joaquino is committed to learning all that he can to
bolster his prospects for national leadership. He has hired
professional "tutors" to teach him what he'll need to know to
become president, such as world history, geography,
international monetary theory, economics, free trade, etc.
He travelled to the United States on an IV program two years
ago where he visited DC, CA, IN, OK and IL to learn about the
US legislative system. He has expressed interest in visiting
the US again, this time for training in economic policy.


7. (C) Joaquino has expressed openness to working with the
United States beyond economic and political training. He
said his party,s platform regarding international relations
would be based on bilateral and multilateral relationships
where Bolivia has an opportunity to advance economically, and
a relationship with the United States was one of those
opportunities. When asked what his party,s platform will be
regarding coca, Joaquino said that there should be a
scientific approach to the coca policy, looking at the
decline of the traditional use of coca, the total growth of
coca, the domestic consumption of cocaine, and the export of
cocaine made from Bolivian coca. An ex-miner who chews coca,
the mayor noted that the younger generations no longer
consume coca as much as before. He said the US three-pronged
approach ) eradication, interdiction, and alternative
development ) seemed rational.

Project Oriented
--------------


8. (C) As mayor, Joaquino has shown promise as an astute
administrator, focusing on tangible projects in Potosi that
will build jobs for the local economy. He was reelected in
2004 with the largest margin of all the major cities' mayors,
no easy feat in Bolivia, largely because of his
results-oriented first term in office. He takes a very
pragmatic approach to his decision-making, weighing the costs
and benefits of projects, and seeking areas where Potosinos
have a competitive advantage. For example, he talked at
length about a project in the works to take two old colonial
buildings and convert them into training centers for silver
artisanry. Joaquino argued that not only will this provide a
way for Potosinos to tap into an area where they should have
a competitive advantage, but it will also restore some of the
architectural beauty of the colonial era by restoring the
buildings and laying the groundwork to develop more tourism.
He said that to date they have 40 instructors lined up, two
of whom studied in Italy to strengthen their tradecraft.


9. (C) Comment: Joaquino impressed us during this two-hour
lunch as a politician with a national plan and the ambition
requisite to pursue it's implementation. Ambition and vision

LA PAZ 00000604 003 OF 003


aside, Joaquino still remains true to his humble roots--the
mayor travelled to La Paz from Potosi on an 8 hour bus-ride
and hailed a cramped mini-bus following our lunch--an
attractive feature for a Bolivian leader. His desire for
more training and education appears genuine and we intend to
look for ways to help in this regard. Based on our recent
interactions with him, Joaquino may be the kind of pragmatic
indigenous leader with whom we can work. End Comment.

Bio Notes
--------------


10. (U) Joaquino was born on 27 February 1966 in the Asiento
community, Quijarro Province, Potosi. He moved to the city
of Potosi 15 years ago. He worked in mines as a child
beginning at age 7. Nonetheless, he was not paid for his
work until he was age 14. He also worked in construction as
a bricklayerfor ten years, according to press reports, and
bread making as a child. He earned a law degree at the Tomas
Frias Autonomous University in Potosi. Prior to being
elected Mayor of Potosi, Joaquino was an adviser to the
Campesinos Federation (Federacion de Campesinos) from 1993-98
and was elected a member of the Potosi municipal council
(1998) when he was 32 years old.


11. (U) Joaquino is married to Raquel Maria Rodriguez
Bolivar, a former NFR deputy (2002-06). She now works in
radio/tv. Prior to being elected to congress she served as a
Potosi municipal councilwoman. Joaquino and his wife, both
of Quechua origin, have three children.
GREENLEE