NO IMMEDIATE MORALES VISIT PLANS, BUT LEFT WOULD

C O N F I D E N T I A L NEW DELHI 000223 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/09/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV IN BO SUBJECT: NO IMMEDIATE MORALES VISIT PLANS, BUT LEFT WOULD WELCOME IT REF: A. STATE 3416 ¶B. STATE 1353 Classified By: D/PolCouns Atul Keshap for Reasons 1.4 (B, D) ¶1. (C) Summary: D/PolCouns and Poloff delivered reftel talking points on January 10 to Director (Latin America Countries) Anwar Haleem, who commented that he knew of no immediate plans for the Bolivian President-elect to visit India. We note that Indian Left parties would welcome a Morales visit as an opportunity to trumpet their anti-American sympathies, and raise their comrades' hopes for the progress of "the glorious anti-imperialist people's revolution." End Summary. No Visit Planned Yet -------------- ¶2. (C) Haleem told us that he knew of no plans for Morales to visit India, but promised to raise our concerns about Morales with his division's Joint Secretary. Morales' recent public statements were a "serious matter," Haleem allowed, adding that New Delhi was "still in the process of evaluating him." COMMENT: Possible Opportunity for Left Solidarity -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) India's leftists and left parties are closely following events in Latin America and would extend a warm welcome to Morales. In current Indian left ideology, the US globalization agenda is an attempt to dress up old-fashioned capitalism and imperialism in new clothes and pawn them off to developing countries as something new. They argue that only a strong government sector committed to redistribution of wealth can lift the desperately poor out of poverty and that private enterprise, foreign investment, and "trickle-down economics" will ultimately make the rich richer and the poor poorer. India's left argues that this is particularly true in India, where two thirds of the population lives on less than two dollars per day. ¶4. (C) Of India's three national coalitions, the NDA and UPA support economic liberalization, free trade and foreign investment. This leaves the Left Front as the sole national grouping espousing populist socialism and a strong public sector. The left sees events in Latin America as indicative of a historic shift. It expects the Latin American phenomenon to spread to Africa and Asia, and wants India to form "ties of solidarity" with Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and other Latin American countries espousing a socialist/populist development model. It would welcome possible visits by these Latin American heads of state as opportunities to demonstrate rejection of neoliberalism and cultivate close ties with friendly socialist countries. Such visits also enable the Left to demonstrate publicly that it has carved out a separate and distinct political/economic space that provides an alternative to the other two groupings and rouse the committed party cadre by reminding them that "history is on their side." That such coziness with communist dictators and their supporters infuriates the US is cream on the top. ¶5. (U) Visit New Delhi's Classified Website: (http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/sa/newdelhi/) MULFORD