AMMUNITION TRANSFER FROM VENEZUELA RAISES

S E C R E T MONTEVIDEO 000735 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE ALSO FOR WHA/BSC AND WHA/PPC SOUTHCOM FOR POLAD E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/07/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PARM PINS PTER KCRM UY SUBJECT: AMMUNITION TRANSFER FROM VENEZUELA RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT PURPOSE AND ORIGIN REF: USDAO MONTEVIDEO/IIR 6 900 0035 07/25 MAY 2007 Classified By: Ambassador Frank E. Baxter for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) ¶1. (S) Summary: The Uruguayan media has raised questions about the purpose and origin of a shipment of Venezuelan ammunition to Uruguay. The issue centers around an attempt by the Uruguayan Ambassador to Venezuela to have a UY naval vessel pick up two hundred kilograms of "materials" from Venezuela during a refueling stop. The material has turned out to be fifteen thousand rounds of ammunition. The request to place the cargo on the ROU 04 Artigas was part of a recent piece of legislation to authorize Uruguay's involvement in the PANAMAX naval exercise and the MINUSTAH PKO in Haiti. It was reported in the media that the ammunition was supposed to be used for testing of Iranian-origin assault rifles in a GOU arms tender. However, GOU contacts indicate that in February the rifles were removed from consideration in the tender. Director General for Political Affairs Alvaro Gallardo indicated to us that the GOU did not know the true end destination of the ammunition which is apparently not/not of Iranian manufacture. MFA DG Cancela indicated to the DCM that this may have been an attempt to establish a weapons trafficking pipeline into the area. Post has been aware of rumored arms shipments from Venezuela to Uruguay for some time, and GOU contacts have speculated that President Vasquez,s brother, Jorge may be secretly stockpiling arms. At this point, Embassy has no proof that Uruguay has violated any UNSC resolution concerning Iran but will continue to monitor the issue. End Summary. Arms transfer as legislative rider to PANAMAX -------------- - ¶2. (U) On July 7, the Vasquez administration, including the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted a request to the Uruguayan congress for authorization to send the ROU 04 General Artigas, a Uruguayan supply vessel, to Haiti on a mission to rotate and re-supply Uruguayan troops participating in the MINUSTAH PKO in Haiti. Part of the legislation included a request to participate in the PANAMAX naval exercise, scheduled to commence on August 28. Upon reviewing the legislation the Uruguayan congress elected to split out the PANAMAX mission from the primary legislation. The congress subsequently approved continued participation in MINUSTAH until December ¶2007. ¶3. (C) An obscure part of the initial legislation was a request that the ROU 04 Artigas pick up two hundred kilograms of "materials" during a refueling stop in Venezuela. It was reported in the media that this material was fifteen thousand rounds of ammunition that were supposedly in support of a bid by MODLEX, an Iranian arms company, to the GOU for eighteen thousand rifles. The offer was being facilitated by UY Major (ret.) Luis E. Rondan Domingues of Bener's Internacional de Uruguay, a local Uruguayan vendor (reftel). Several other countries are under consideration, including the U.S. and Canada. GOU contacts recently indicated that a local vendor made the offer to the GOU and that testing on the rifle had begun, but that when the GOU realized in February that the rifles were of Iranian origin, they dismissed the offer. The ROU 04 Artigas was to pick up the ammunition during its mission and return with them to Uruguay. On July 31, during a meeting of the Uruguayan House Defense committee, Nationalist (Blanco) party legislator Javier Garcia questioned Minister of Defense Azucena Berrutti about the situation, prompting Berrutti to claim that she was unaware of the cargo and admit that, "There was an error here," and that the situation was a result of, "a lack of internal coordination." On August 1 El Observador published a full page article, detailing in particular concerns of the opposition about the apparent lack of knowledge of the "mysterious cargo" by the President, MOD, MFA and MOI, all of which have since distanced themselves from the issue. On August 1, Radio Sarandi reported that President Vasquez has "ordered the vessel not to pick up cargo from Venezuela." On August 7, Uruguayan daily El Pais reported that the rifles to be used in the testing were of Iranian origin, which was the first reporting of any Iranian connection. On August 8, El Pais reported that Venezuelan Military Industries, Inc. was the Venezuelan company involved in the transaction. Is Vasquez's brother bringing in arms from Venezuela? -------------- -------------- ¶4. (C) According to local contacts, the deal was brokered by the Uruguayan Ambassador in Caracas, Geronimo Cardozo and the Venezuelan Ambassador in Montevideo. Cardozo is known for his pro-Chavez views and is a close ally to Uruguayan FM Reinaldo Gargano. It is unclear what the President and the Minister of Defense,s offices knew about the cargo or its connection to Iran. Anecdotal reporting at post suggests that the Uruguayan MOD suffers from internal communications issues which may have contributed to the issue. ¶5. (S) Post has been aware of rumored arms shipments into Uruguay since late 2006. On October 18, 2006, PolCouns met with Jaime PACHE Soto (close hold) at his request. Pache is a disaffected mid-level Uruguayan diplomat of unknown reliability. (Comment: many career diplomats at the MFA have expressed discontent to emboffs about their marginalization under FM Gargano. End Comment). He told PolCouns that Venezuela is supplying clandestine shipments to Uruguay. He believes that the shipments are small arms destined for the Presidency. He speculated that the weapons are to ward off the possibility of a coup and to arm the Tupamaros or other Marxist groups. It is possible that PACHE's reference to "the Presidency" is President Vazquez's brother who is a former guerrilla and coordinates the President's security force (all Tupamaros or former guerrillas as well). He also said that the "increasingly close ties" between the GOU and the BRV are based mostly on money, but that leftist ideology also plays an important part. Some of PACHE,s comments are consistent with similar reports to DAO (reftel) and to PolCouns by UY Army Col. (ret.) Carlos Frachelle (protect). Both PACHE and Frachelle may have their own reasons for trying to influence USG thinking on this issue, and we continue to evaluate their accusations. ¶6. (C) On August 7, PolCouns spoke with Director General for Political Affairs Alvaro Gallardo. Gallardo said that his office had approved the transfer of the ammunition. He tried to downplay the issue saying that he felt that fifteen thousand rounds was not a large quantity of ammunition and that the paperwork was all in order with the exception of identity of the end user. He said that MOD Berrutti had been unaware of the transfer and that there must be "some sort of a problem" within the MOD. PolCouns asked about the possibility that the Iranian connection posed a potential violation of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran, which prompted Gallardo to quickly change the subject. ¶7. (C) On August 8, DCM met with Deputy Pablo Iturralde from the Nacional (Blanco) party who indicated that "nobody knows anything." He said that his party was very concerned about the situation and thought that the shipment may have been a trial run to see if a reliable pipeline to move arms into the area could be established. He questioned whether or not the "material" was actually ammunition, and speculated that it may have been weapons. He also questioned whether or not the origin of the cargo was Venezuela and thought that it may very well have been Iran. MFA Director General Jose Luis Cancela echoed Iturralde's concerns in a separate meeting with the DCM saying that the GOU is, "very worried," and did not know "what this is all about." He also speculated that this may have been a trial run to test a pipeline for weapons shipments. ¶8. (S) Comment: Media and anecdotal reporting, in conjunction with the discussion with PACHE (please protect) and other sources, raises more questions than answers. It is clear that an attempt was made to move the fifteen thousand rounds of ammunition (or whatever the "material" turns out to be) from Venezuela without public scrutiny. This attempt is being publicly and privately explained away as a simple cost-saving measure. However, given that the testing for the Iranian rifles was supposedly done in February, and that previous reports suggest there may be an ongoing attempt to secretly move arms from Venezuela to Uruguay, it is possible SIPDIS that this incident is part of something larger. What is unclear is: 1) who paid for the ammunition, 2) who was supposed to receive the ammunition, and 3) who in the GOU had advance knowledge of the transfer. The larger questions are: A) Whether or not elements inside or close to the GOU are stockpiling arms and if so, for what purpose, and B) if the GOU testing of Iranian 5.56mm assault rifles in any way contravenes U.N. Security Council resolutions. Embassy will continue to monitor the issues and report as appropriate. End Comment Baxter