CHAVEZ' NEW PARTY: DISCIPLINING DISCUSSION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 001776

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPARTMENT PASS TO AID/OTI (RPORTER)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/06/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM VE
SUBJECT: CHAVEZ' NEW PARTY: DISCIPLINING DISCUSSION

REF: CARACAS 001671 AND PREVIOUS

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Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT DOWNES,
REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) Summary. President Chavez continues to face serious
internal challenges to his efforts to forge a single
pro-government party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
(PSUV). Most recently, Chavez' new PSUV discipline committee
stripped Francisco Ameliach, Chavez' 2006 presidential
campaign manager and a political heavyweight, of his party
coordinating role in the National Assembly (NA) and his
chairmanship of the NA Defense Committee. Ameliach was
punished for merely forwarding parliamentarians' concerns
about the PSUV party formation process to Chavez and for
publicly suggesting that Chavez' former party, the MVR, may
need to be "dusted off" for 2008 local elections. The PSUV
is now slated to elect local leaders starting on September 29
and to hold a founding party congress starting on October 20,
much later than originally planned. Rather than foster unity
within Chavismo, the PSUV party formation process so far is
creating and exposing divisions among Chavez' leading
supporters. End Summary.

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Chavez Disciplines Party Loyalist
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2. (SBU) President Chavez announced during his August 25
speech to United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV)
activists that he passed the name of a "national leader" to
the PSUV's new discipline committee. Chavez named Miranda
Governor Diosdado Cabello to head the committee. Vice
President Jorge Rodriguez, Education Minister Adan Chavez,
National Assembly President Cilia Flores, National Assembly
Member Eustoquio Contreras, former Nutrition Minister Erika
Farias, Science and Technology Minister Hector Navarro, Lara
Governor Luis Reyes Reyes, and National Assembly Second Vice
President Roberto Hernandez reportedly make up the rest of
the committee.


3. (SBU) Francisco Ameliach, the head of Chavez' 2006
re-election campaign, was stripped of his PSUV coordinating
role in the National Assembly and replaced as head of the
NA's Defense Committee on August 29. Ameliach told reporters
September 5 that he erred by suggesting to the media that if
the PSUV was not ready to compete in 2008 gubernatorial and
mayoral elections, Chavez' Fifth Republic Movement (MVR)
should be "dusted off" to lead pro-government supporters into
the local elections. Ameliach also confirmed that he
synthesized NA members' concerns with the PSUV party
formation process to date in a memo that he sent to Chavez.


4. (SBU) BRV officials have tried to minimize the
disciplining of Ameliach and the party's internal divisions.
NA President Flores suggested that Ameliach requested to be
removed from his party and NA committee responsibilities for
health reasons. Former PPT member and National Assembly
delegate Mario Isea, who took over Ameliach's PSUV
coordinating role within the NA, said Ameliach's "temporary"
removal from the NA PSUV coordinating role was a consensus
decision among the six NA PSUV coordinators. In his
September 4 press conference, Vice President Rodriguez denied
that NA members wrote a letter listing their concerns about
the PSUV party formation process.


5. (SBU) NA Assembly members Luis Tascon and Iris Varela have
expressed support for Ameliach. They also publicly suggested
that the PSUV should instead punish UN Ambassador Francisco
Arias Cardenas and PSUV Promotion Committee Member Lina Ron
for noting that apathy among PSUV battalions could hurt
Chavista efforts to secure passage of Chavez' proposed
constitutional changes in a public referendum. Former
Military General Staff Chief General Alberto Muller Rojas,
who presided over the initial PSUV creation commission, told
the media August 30 that he disagreed with the formation of a
PSUV disciplinary committee, noting that he prefers
"education" to "alienation."

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New Timeline for PSUV Formation
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6. (SBU) Vice President Jorge Rodriguez also announced a new
timeline September 4 for the formation of the PSUV.
Rodriguez said PSUV's over 20,000 battalions of between 200
to 400 "aspiring militants" would elect spokespersons on

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September 29, as well as four persons in charge of
policy-ideology, organization, propaganda, and social work.
These initial party elections were abruptly postponed on
August 17 in the wake of poorly attended battalion meetings
(Reftel).


7. (SBU) A second election among battalion spokespersons is
slated to elect 1400 delegates to the party's founding
congress by October 13. Rodriguez said the founding party
congress would begin on October 20 and run as long as the
delegates deem necessary. PSUV organizers had previously
announced that the party congress would run from September 8
to December 15. Rodriguez also noted that PSUV delegates
would not elect PSUV national leaders until early 2008.

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Comment
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8. (C) The disciplining of political heavyweight Francisco
Ameliach, Chavez' 2006 presidential campaign manager and a
former president of the National Assembly, demonstrates how
little room Chavez allows for constructive dissent in the
PSUV formation process and how humbling the price of
"rehabilitation" can be. In his September 5 "mea culpa"
message to the local media, Ameliach stressed that "The only
leader is Hugo Chavez" and that "A revolution without Chavez
is impossible." Chavez' making an example of Ameliach again
exposed real divisions among pro-Chavez leaders in an
uncharacteristically public way.

DUDDY