CLONE WARS: MAS "PARALLELISM" IN ACTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L LA PAZ 003062

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/05/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ELAB BL
SUBJECT: CLONE WARS: MAS "PARALLELISM" IN ACTION

REF: LA PAZ 2104

Classified By: EcoPol Counselor Mike Hammer reasons 1.4b,d

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Summary
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1. (C) At many levels of social organization, Bolivia's
ruling Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party is creating
parallel organizations when confronted by civic groups that
will not fall in line with the MAS agenda. By creating
parallel organizations and then acting as if they are the
original or only organization of that name, the MAS is
artificially bolstering its apparent level of civic support.
Members of non-MAS, original organizations also tell us that
their clones receive Venezuelan and NGO aid while the non-MAS
groups are left out or even actively attacked. The growing
number of MAS "clones" is causing frustration for original,
non-MAS organizations and confusion for foreign donors (those
few who are aware of the situation). End summary.

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Duplicating Hugo's Cloning Concept
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2. (C) Those familiar with recent Venezuelan history will
see parallels to the MAS policy of cloning uncooperative
civic groups. For example, when faced with opposition in the
form of Venezuela's oldest labor union, the Confederation of
Venezuelan Workers (CTV) headed by Manuel Cova, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez created a new union, the National Union
of Venezuelan Workers (UNT). Reportedly the International
Labor Organization (ILO) was then lobbied strongly by each
group, as both CTV and UNT sought recognition from the UN's
international labor body. In 2006 the ILO ruled in favor of
CTV in a complaint against numerous actions of the Venezuelan
government (available at
www.oit.org.pe/sindi/english/casos/ven/ven200 601.html ) but
within Venezuela the organizations discredited each other
with dueling claims of legitimacy.

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The Student Has Surpassed the Teacher...
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3. (C) Bolivian President Evo Morales has taken Hugo
Chavez's example and expanded upon it. Any group that does
not conform with MAS goals risks being cloned. A prime
example is the Syndicated Confederation of Campesino (small
farmer) Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB),a group which,
traditionally, would have been assumed to be firmly in the
MAS camp. Differences between the CSUTCB leadership and the
MAS led to a split, however, soon followed by the appearance
of a new CSUTCB with different leadership (Note: the head of
the original CSUTCB, Rufo Calle, will be an International
Visitor to the United States in January and February of 2008.
End note.) The official state news service now refers to the
cloned CSUTCB and its leader, Isaac Avalos, as "the CSUTCB"
with no mention of the fact that there is another, pre-dating
version of the group. Because of the hierarchical
organization of civic groups such as the CSUTCB, the MAS has
also had to clone departmental (or state-level) CSUTCBs as
well. As a result, each department now has an original
CSUTCB which still reports to Rufo Calle and the original
national CSUTCB while also having a cloned departmental
CSUTCB that reports to Isaac Avalos. Rufo Calle informs us
that his members and associate organizations have been
harassed by the MAS. Possibly more damaging, even the
independent press now quotes the head of the cloned MAS
CSUTCB, with no mention of the original organization.

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Send in the Clones
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4. (C) Other cloned groups include the national and
departmental levels of the "Bartolina Sisa" Confederation of
Campesino Women and a number of local neighborhood committees
(FEJUVEs) and departmental civic committees. In certain
cases (such as the attempt to clone the Santa Cruz Civic
Committee) the original is either prominent or powerful
enough to resist replacement, and the MAS clone hovers in the
background almost unrecognized. In Santa Cruz, the local
power structure has also rejected MAS attempts at cloning
civic and neighborhood committees, and while our contacts
inform us that the MAS is still trying to set up parallel or
competing organizations, the attempts are thus far
unsuccessful. But in other cases, the MAS clones are cited
in the media and referred to in legal documents, so that an
outside observer might not even be aware of the existence of
the original.

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Cobija: Complaints and Clones
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5. (C) In Cobija, the departmental capital of Pando, emboffs
had an enlightening meeting with Ana Melena de Suzuki, the
president of the original Civic Committee of Pando. Melena,
an accountant in her first public position, explained that
the MAS clone of her organization worked with other MAS
clones or with MAS-aligned original organizations such as the
Campesinos' Federation. Melena claimed that although the
leadership of the Campesinos' Federation was aligned with
MAS, some of its membership still worked with Melena's
original Civic Committee. Because the local Neighborhood
Association (FEJUVE) had not tied itself to MAS, the Civic
Committee and the FEJUVE were still affiliated. In a later
meeting with the president of the original FEJUVE, emboffs
learned that the FEJUVE has also been cloned, and that while
the original FEJUVE attempts to maintain ties to the FEJUVEs
at a national level, they have been to some extent pushed
aside by the MAS-aligned clone. The president of the
original FEJUVE, Eduardo Segundo Miyashiro Mercado, stated
that the local Vigilance Committee (an anti-corruption group)
has also been cloned. Because the mayor of Cobija is aligned
with the MAS, the mayor's office will not work with either
the original Civic Committee or the original FEJUVE.

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The Tears of a Clone
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6. (C) All representatives of original organizations with
whom we have spoken have complained about the diversion of
international support to their clones. According to Melena
and Miyashiro in Cobija, their organizations' clones have
received support from NGOs and in the form of Venezuelan
checks, while the original organizations are ignored. In the
case of Venezuelan checks or other Bolivian government (that
is, MAS) support, the diversion of funds is clearly
intentional.

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Eenie, Meanie, Miney...MAS
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7. (C) In the case of NGOs, particularly newly-arrived NGOs, the
preferential support of cloned organizations may be
intentional (many NGOs are quite supportive of the MAS) or it
may be a result of ignorance or confusion. For example, an
NGO arriving recently with the worthy goal of supporting
indigenous groups could easily be directed to a cloned
campesino or neighborhood organization, with no knowledge
that this organization is a MAS-created puppet. Thus,
MAS-created clones not only receive public recognition (a
type of currency in its own right),they are likely to
receive financial support that may have been intended for the
original organization that the clone replaced.

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Invasion of the Name Snatchers
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8. (C) Comment: In the end, does it really matter? The original
organizations are only psuedo-democratic and sometimes
questionably-responsive to the constituents they claim to
represent. Who cares if the 'CSUTCB' quoted in the press is
really CSUTCB 2.0, the MAS-clone? Beyond the question of
state-interference and strong-arm tactics, there is another
reason to care about the MAS cloning program: Evo bases much
of his international reputation on his popular support. When
he claims to have the support of the CSUTCB, or campesino
women's groups, or neighborhood or civic committees, much of
Bolivia (let alone the world) is not aware that he created
many of these groups himself. As the president of the
original (and now sidelined) Cobija FEJUVE stated, "Evo
claims to rule for all the people, but he doesn't." And
those people who object to Evo's rule may find themselves
sidelined by their own clones. End comment.
GOLDBERG