HUMALA'S REVEALING "GREAT TRANSFORMATION" CAMPAIGN

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 000893 SIPDIS SIPDIS WHA FOR FRIEDMAN, MONSERRATE E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/03/2018 TAGS: PGOV PINR PHUM PE SUBJECT: HUMALA'S REVEALING "GREAT TRANSFORMATION" CAMPAIGN PLATFORM REF: 03 LIMA 4698 Classified By: APolcouns Arthur Muirhead for Reasons 1.4 (b,d) -------------- Summary: -------------- ¶1. (C) Peruvian anti-system presidential candidate Ollanta Humala released his plan of government, entitled &The Great Transformation,8 (GT) on 2/22/06. The 84-page manifesto calls for a state-directed social revolution in Peru. The plan assumes that the state can form voluntary, productive partnerships with both national and international investors. Reams of seemingly socially-friendly rhetoric cover certain hard points about the future direction of an Humala-led government. Among these: -A proposal to strengthen the copyright and competition policy office (INDECOPI) so that it can combat "disloyal competition" and restrict the entry of dangerous products into Peruvian markets. -The organization of "urban ronderos" (urban self-defense units) to fight street crime. -The formation of an Andean version of OPEC. -An express goal to work with China, Russia and Venezuela to promote state-led economic development and to oppose "unipolarity" in the global system. ¶2. (C) In its harder edges, the GT resembles elements of the Ethno-Cacerist ideology that spawned Humala (Reftel) and similarities with Hugo Chavez initiatives to organize groups of armed citizens in Venezuela. End Summary. -------------- The Great Transformation -------------- ¶3. (C) Peruvian ultra-nationalist, anti-system presidential candidate Ollanta Humala released his plan of government, entitled &The Great Transformation,8 on 2/22/06. The document is a cleverly written, densely argued, 84-page manifesto for a state-directed social revolution for Peru (available at www.partidonacionalistaperuano.com). Throughout, it posits a greater role for the central government in guaranteeing a more autarkic economic model for the country. -------------- Prosperity Comes from Within -------------- ¶4. (U) The basic premise of &The Great Transformation8 (GT) is that Peru,s development and prosperity must come from within, from central government action that expands internal markets by creating opportunities for national capital (both small and large scale) and that assures that Peruvian resources and major industries serve public ends. In contrast, the pro-FTA, pro-globalization model for development favored by the U.S. is portrayed as negative, leading to: denationalization of resources, diminution of the local wages, a deluge of foreign imports, and the dilution of national culture. -------------- Refounding the Republic -------------- ¶5. (U) The path to a vigorous state will be a constitutional convention (constituyente) that will, in a period of 12 months, wipe away the old Peruvian government, which it describes as colonial, oligarchic, exclusionary and imperialist, and create a new Peruvian state, one that will be democratic, "pluricultural," and a vigorous defender of the public interest. The new Peruvian state will also be austere, with strict limits on salaries and benefits for elected officials and firm rules against re-election for the President and Congress. The new state will promote decentralization, engage in strategic partnerships in key economic sectors, invest in infrastructure, promote educational reform (including multilingual education),and guarantee health benefits, energy and clean water for all, among other goals. A Humala Government would reject the Free Trade Agreement as the wrong model, but would push for the continuation of APTDEA, it says, so Peruvian exporters would not lose customers. ¶6. (U) In something of a non-sequitur to the document's general socialist leanings, Humala,s GT also commits the new state to several tenets of orthodox fiscal policy, including low inflation and a deficit limited to 1 percent of GDP. The document does not say how the new Peruvian government would meet these tight fiscal and monetary goals while carrying out the grand programs it proposes. -------------- Walking a Fine Line... -------------- ¶7. (U) The GT says that the central government will guarantee the public character of Peru,s hydrocarbons, gas, territorial waters, air space, and biodiversity. The GT makes clear, however, that the government will not necessarily nationalize industries or expropriate infrastructure. Instead, the Peruvian State &will fortify the Peruvian private sector and create mixed public-private enterprises under the aegis of strategic planning....8 Thus, the government will operate as a regulator and a partial investor with the private sector (preferably the domestic private sector, but also with carefully regulated foreign investors) in essential enterprises. -------------- Creating "Economic Circuits" -------------- ¶8. (SBU) The GT says the state will create productive economic "circuits." In tourism, agriculture, fishing, and gas, for example, the government will create circuits or chains of production ) public and private sector partnerships between the state, the universities, and the local private sector ) that will allow these industries to take off, leading to the development of internal, value-adding cycles of self-reinforcing growth. With cattle, for example, GT posits that the state will promote "high altitude livestock" herds by making a special "high altitude alfalfa" available to farmers. (Note: Nowhere does the document indicate exactly how these results will come about. End Note.) -------------- A Less Visible, But Potentially Heavy Hand -------------- ¶9. (C) Along with language lauding the state,s energizing role in economics, the document puts describes new roles for the central government. For example, the GT says that the Peruvian copyrights and competition agency, INDECOPI, will be expanded and will enforce rules against "disloyal competition" and "anti-competitive behavior." (Comment: In the present environment, INDECOPI is a weak agency, unable to effectively enforce rules against trademark infringement. Humala's plan envisions a more ample -- though still ill-defined -- role for this agency in market regulation. End Comment.) ¶10. (C) In a similar way, the document calls for a "new decentralized system of citizen security" that would create "local Citizen Security Committees" that would "dynamize" the capability of local actors, including the Peruvian National Police but also neighborhood committees, "urban ronderos" (urban self-defense committees),and rural self-defense committees to control crime and delinquency. (Comment: The exact relationship between the central government and these -- some presumably armed -- neighborhood organizations is never spelled out, but could be problematic for democratic principles. End Comment). -------------- International Relations -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Toward its conclusion, the GT describes Peru,s international relations. It is clear that good relations with the United States do not rank high among candidate Humala's priorities, which are described as follows: -A Humala Government would prioritize Peru,s relationship with Brazil, with which Peru shares the Amazon. -It would also value Venezuela, "recognizing Venezuela,s growing economic and political dimension." -PeQwould participate actively in the Andean Community, seeking to unite the region,s petrochemical interests, creating a kind of OPEC in the Andes. -Longer term, Peru would favor the creation of an Organization of Security and Cooperation in South America as well as the union of all Latin American countries. -A Humala-led Peru favors a multi-polar world system and does not favor a unipolar world. Toward this end, a Humala government would seek alliances with Russia, China, the European Union, Japan "and other regional powers." -The new GOP would seek to have the U.N. work to reform a variety of international institutions, including the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank, to make them more equitable in their operations. -------------- And the U.S? -------------- ¶12. (U) The document states that the new Peru would cooperate with the United States on terrorism and narcotrafficking. However, the GT also proposes the abolition of the Rio Treaty as an instrument "that became a Cold War anachronism and that did not work in response to English aggression against Argentina (Malvinas)." ¶13. (U) The GT upholds Russia and China as future Peruvian allies, both for their opposition to foreign intervention and the recognition in both countries that the state has to remain a strong agent in national development. -------------- Comment: In the End, Perfectly Clear -------------- ¶14. (C) Humala is a highly controlling man of action, and so it is unlikely that, once in power, he would follow a single script. The GT, however, is less a detailed plan and more a revolutionary manifesto. Carefully written and couched in moderate-sounding language, it appears to hold out the prospect of a state eager to partner with private capital, foreign and domestic, for laudable social goals. The plan's authors clearly want to avoid the charge that they are repeating the errors of the Velasco era. Nonetheless, the document never makes clear exactly what the state will do if businesses -- foreign and domestic -- choose not to invest in its schemes. ¶15. (C) Chavez-style, the GT combines proposals for a stronger and potentially controlling state with selective calls for action in favor of flagship progressive issues like workers and women's rights, multi-lingual education, and environmental protection. In the end, in advocating the creation of citizen paramilitary groups, the GT shows certain affinities with the Ethno-Cacerist ideology promoted by Humala's family (particularly the formation of the uniformed "reservists" that follow Ollanta Humala's brother, Antauro--reftel) and with elements present in Hugo Chavez' schemes to form armed citizens organizations in Venezuela. End Comment. STRUBLE