BOLIVARIAN INFLUENCE IN PUNO

UNCLAS LIMA 002000 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS USEU PASS TO MCKINLEY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: CU PE PGOV PINR PTER SNAR VE SUBJECT: BOLIVARIAN INFLUENCE IN PUNO REF: A. 2006 LIMA 2253 ¶B. LIMA 1709 ¶C. LIMA 1841 Sensitive But Unclassified, Please Handle Accordingly. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The southern highlands region of Puno has emerged as the focus of Venezuelan proselytizing in Peru, with the Venezuela-funded "Bolivarian Alternative for Latin American and the Caribbean (ALBA)" center representing the latest evidence of deepening ties. While Regional President Hernan Fuentes claimed ALBA would increase access to education and health care for Puno's poor, ALBA's director Marcial Maidana said the center would also seek to project a "Bolivarian homeland" from Puno outward to the rest of Peru. UPP congressional representative from Puno, Aldo Estrada, told us Venezuela's goal was to undermine the central government in Lima and to promote leaders sympathetic to Bolivarian revolution. Estrada said Fuentes had created a Bolivarian party in April and received promises of $3 million from Caracas to aid campesino political organizations. If these still sketchy reports are true, Venezuelan money and influence are seeking to fill the vacuum left by the absence of state institutions in Peru's southern highlands. End Summary. -------------- Medicine, Scholarships, and Propaganda -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Following its clamorous interventions during the 2006 national elections, Venezuela appears to be continuing its political work in Peru -- somewhat more quietly now. According to recent press reports, 43 Peruvian-Cuban Friendship Houses (CAPC) -- funded by the Venezuelan government and linked to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People, an agency of the Cuban government -- have opened in Peru within the last year. The CAPCs aim to bring unions, students, and social organizations together to form a political base opposing capitalism and imperialism and to indoctrinate Peruvian citizens on the achievements of the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions. The houses also offer social programs -- scholarships, adult reading programs, and free eye exams -- but the primary purpose is to generate public support for Cuba and Venezuela. In the midst of a nationwide campaign, however, Puno has emerged as a focal point of Venezuela's proselytizing efforts in Peru. ¶3. (SBU) Located on Peru's southern border with Bolivia in the altiplano highlands, Puno is one of Peru's poorest and most isolated provinces: 60 percent of the largely indigenous population lives in poverty. Hernan Fuentes, running on the "Avanza Pais" ticket, won Puno's regional presidency in November 20006 with slightly more than 18 per cent of the vote. (Ulises Humala, brother of Ollanta Humala, was Avanza Pais' presidential candidate in 2006.) Soon after being declared the winner, Fuentes organized the "Festival of Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution." During his January 2007 inauguration, attended by Cuban Ambassador Luis Delfin and Venezuelan Charge Virly Torres, Fuentes promised to deepen the regional government's cooperation with Venezuela, Cuba, and China in order to help small and medium businesses and to increase access to education and health care for Puno's poor. The Venezuelan charge said her government would provide scholarships, business loans, and cultural centers to support social development in the region. ¶4. (SBU) Since that time, Fuentes has moved to deepen ties with Venezuela. In January, he opened a free optometry clinic in the city of Puno, staffed by Cuban doctors and funded by Venezuela. In February, Fuentes and Torres met with students in Puno to select candidates for full-scholarships to universities in Cuba and Venezuela. In April, Fuentes announced plans to build a free medical clinic on the border with Bolivia, to be funded by Venezuela. In May, Regional President Fuentes, accompanied by Cuban and Venezuelan diplomats, opened the "Bolivarian Alternative for Latin American and the Caribbean (ALBA)," also reportedly funded with Venezuelan money. ¶5. (SBU) Fuentes has publicly underscored that his plans for social development are part of a larger movement that includes spreading the message of Bolivarian revolution. When the ALBA center opened, director Marcial Maidana said the goal was to improve public health care but also to create "an axis of Bolivarianism" that would extend throughout Peru and unite local interests opposed to the expansion of U.S. influence. Fuentes has said scholarships are only available to those students who understand the benefits of Cuban and Venezuelan socialism. Andres Alvarado, a government official from Mazamori (Junin),told Emboffs that scholarships offered by Cuba and Venezuela in his region came with a price. Alvarado said the Cubans and Venezuelans sought to indoctrinate and radicalize students, and those who travel overseas, "never come back the same." -------------- Humalaism without Humala -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Union for Peru (UPP) President Congressman Aldo Estrada (representing Puno) and APRA Congressman Louis Negrerios told poloff recently that Fuentes' program was a kind of "Humala-ism without Humala." They said Humala may be a spent force but his party continued to be a vehicle to funnel cash to frustrated groups in the countryside. Estrada alleged that Venezuelan officials had promised to give $3 million in cash for campesino confederations in Puno, which came with no strings (other than that it had to be used to increase political support for socialism) attached. Estrada maintained that senior Peruvian Nationalist Party (PNP) operatives picked up the money at the Venezuelan Embassy in Lima, skimmed 20 percent off the top, and delivered bags of cash directly to local leaders. Estrada said he had warned Fuentes that his Bolivarian ties were costing him the support of local politicians and that the Bolivarian political party he had recently created could violate Peruvian law. ¶7. (SBU) Former APRA congressman Carlos Armas, who in 2006 founded an NGO that works in Puno, echoed Estrada's conclusions. Armas told us he had met with more than 100 Puno representatives over the past year, and that none had any affiliation with a national party. Armas described people in Puno's countryside as feeling an inchoate frustration that, while bereft of ideology, was extremely susceptible to radical discourses. The political allegiance of these groups, he explained, was up for grabs, and Venezuelan cash was an effective tool to win sympathy for goals the electorate only partially understand. Armas added that Venezuelan influence in Puno was of less concern than the revived Aymaran nationalism that sought to carve, by violent means if necessary, an independent homeland from Peru and Bolivia. -------------- Puno: Latent Radicalism -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Summary: Reports about Venezuelan and Cuban activity in Puno, often elusive and lacking in specificity, sometimes seem more rumor than fact. Congressman Estrada, for example, did not know the names of the alleged PNP bag men or other basic information. Whatever the true extent of Venezuelan involvement, it seems clear that the vacuum left by the absence of state institutions in Peru's impoverished southern highlands makes a ripe target for radicalism of all stripes. Following its narrow victory in the 2006 national elections, the Garcia government understands the nature of the challenge. Whether it can deliver in time to reduce and eliminate the threat of future radicalism, however, is another question. Poloff is currently in Puno meeting with local leaders and community organizations to gain a first-hand perspective of Bolivarian and other influences in the region. End Summary. STRUBLE