MY BAD: CHILE'S AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA OFFERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTIAGO 000447

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/15/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL VE CI
SUBJECT: MY BAD: CHILE'S AMBASSADOR TO VENEZUELA OFFERS
RESIGNATION, BACHELET ACCEPTS

REF: SANTIAGO 425

Classified By: Ambassador Craig Kelly for reasons 1.5 (b and d).


1. (U) Chile's ambassador to Venezuela, Claudio Huepe,
returned to Santiago early the morning of March 15 and, after
a 11:00 a.m. meeting with Foreign Minister Foxley, offered
his "irrevocable resignation." President Bachelet accepted
it. Huepe's exit was expected, coming only days after his
remarks in a Caracas television interview - heavily
publicized here - in which he claimed Bachelet had told him
she had wanted to vote for Venezuela in last fall's UNSC
election (reftel). She had not, she purportedly told Huepe,
due to internal coalition dissent within the Concertacion.
This was a direct contradiction of Bachelet's public
rationale that the vote was based solely on Chile's foreign
policy interests.


2. (U) In a statement to the press, Huepe said he had decided
to resign because his Caracas interview had "provoked a
political storm that I never sought, nor thought would
develop." Huepe further muddied the waters by reversing
himself and saying that Bachelet had in fact said to him what
she had been saying publicly: That Chile would not vote for
Venezuela because there was no regional consensus on its
candidacy.


3. (U) Foxley, in his own statement following the meeting
with Huepe, said that he personally lamented his "good
friend" Huepe's departure, noting that Huepe had done a good
job of strengthening Chile-Venezeula relations. In declaring
the matter "closed," Foxley observed, that "It escapes no one
that while we were seeking consensus (on the UNSC vote),
there was internal debate in political sectors. This debate
was neutralized by the President on the basis of only one
consideration: the interests of Chile."


4. (C) The Ambassador spoke with Foxley the evening of March
15 on several matters (septel). On this issue, the FM shook
his head. "Huepe made a mistake, and he knew it." Foxley
said that Huepe had been well-liked by all but that Huepe
himself had admitted that "he (Huepe) was not able to make
the transition from politician to diplomat." (Huepe's
immediate superior, Ambassador Juan Pablo Lira, had made a
similar observation to E/POL Counselor March 14, noting that
"Diplomats know what to say and what not to say." Lira had
also expected Huepe to be removed for his indiscretion.)


5. (C) Foxley also noted that Huepe commented that Venezuelan
president Chavez now saw Chile as a "challenger" for
influence in Latin America. Although Bachelet was a fellow
socialist, she offered a "competing vision" for development.
For Chavez, such competition was a zero-sum game.


6. (C) Comment: Foxley's comments on Huepe's dismissal only
confirm what everybody in Chile knew, but Huepe to his
chagrin announced: that Bachelet's UNSC vote was influenced
by politics. We find at least as interesting Huepe's
analysis of Chavez's discomfort with Chile's more successful
"socialist" model. Foxley has made clear to us that he
intends to keep making the point in the region that the
Chilean path works. End comment.
KELLY