AMBASSADOR VISITS ANZOATEGUI AND NUEVA ESPARTA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CARACAS 001078

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPT FOR AID/OTI (RPORTER)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/01/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL EPET ECON SNAR KPAO VE NL TD
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR VISITS ANZOATEGUI AND NUEVA ESPARTA

REF: 05 CARACAS 0003809

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Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR FRANCISCO FERNANDEZ,
REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) Summary. During a July 25 - 29 visit to Anzoategui
and Nueva Esparta, the Ambassador met with local political
leaders and media. Almost all interlocutors were in
agreement that pro-opposition Nueva Esparta Governor Morel
Rodriguez was a near lock to be re-elected in November's
gubernatorial election. While pro-Chavez Anzoategui Governor
Tarek Saab's chances were somewhat lower, they have improved
due to opposition missteps. The Ambassador highlighted the
Embassy's continuing engagement in the two states through
visits to an American Corner, an environmental organization,
a baseball clinic, and a drug rehabilitation clinic. It was
also clear throughout the visit in Nueva Esparta that the
governor worked to avoid a repeat of the incident that
occurred during the last visit of the previous U.S.
Ambassador to Nueva Esparta. The extensive press coverage at
all events was positive. End Summary.

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NEPOTISM IN LECHERIA
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2. (C) The Ambassador's trip began with a warm reception by
Mayor of Lecheria Gustavo Marcano in Anzoategui. Marcano, in
his late twenties and a member of political party Primero
Justicia (Justice First),is a pre-candidate for Governor of
the state. He told the Ambassador at lunch that he was
confident he would be named the unified opposition candidate
in early August to run against unpopular incumbent Tarek
Saab. (As it happens, Marcano was named an alternate
opposition candidate on July 30 and will run if another
leading candidate remains ineligible.) The Mayor then
accompanied the Ambassador to the American Corner, where the
Ambassador witnessed a play performed by young English
language students, presented gifts from the Embassy and spoke
to gathered press. His comments about U.S.-Venezuela
relations were reported in regional and national press.


3. (C) Comment. Marcano, though popular for his record of
real achievement in Lecheria, has been criticized for a
number of missteps. He appointed his mother head of the
municipality's social services, where the American Corner is
co-located. He has now supported his mother to run for Mayor
of Lecheria in his place, allowing him to in effect run for
both the mayorship and governorship concurrently. Chavista
press has labeled the effort, "el pacto de mami y papi (the
pact of mommy and daddy)." Media and political interlocutors
told the Ambassador that this situation would hurt the
opposition's chances in November of taking Anzoategui's
governorship. They said that the Governor's seat should have
been easily won by the opposition, but the lack of a unified
candidate and apparent nepotism have hurt the opposition's
credibility and its chances of taking the seat in the
upcoming elections.

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CHEVRON, PDVSA, AND ELECTION SPECULATION
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4. (C) The Ambassador and met with Chevron's Venezuela
Offshore and Trinidad Operations Manager Nicola Woods and
PetroPiar Manager Ron Lubojacky (protect) in Lecheria. Woods
told the Ambassador that Trinidad and Tobago has signed a
bilateral treaty on oil field rights, but that there were not
yet agreements on individual fields. Both Woods and
Lubojacky believed that the election results in November
would not likely affect oil production, but that PDVSA
officials in Anzoategui appeared to be worried about the
election outcome. They also said that political calculations
ruled personnel decisions in PDVSA.

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GOVERNOR MOREL, FOUR TIME STATE CHAMPION
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5. (C) Governor Morel Rodriguez, already a four-time
governor of the archipelago, is highly popular among Nueva
Esparta state's population. The state is composed of three
islands, Margarita Island, Coche, and the largely uninhabited
Cubagua. The Ambassador opened his trip to Margarita Island
with breakfast with the Governor. Rodriguez said that
housing was among the biggest concerns for his government.
He also said that crime, while still lower than in much of

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the rest of the country, was on the rise. The Governor
described some of his social and economic development plans,
including scholarships for fisherman and insurance programs
for workers in the informal sector. The state's working
class voters, Rodriguez told the Ambassador, respected his
government because of such programs aimed at them. Primero
Justicia party official and mayoral candidate Francisco
Torcat confirmed the governor's view of his chances and
commented to the Ambassador that Morel's popularity rested on
the state's well-funded and well-run social and economic
development programs.


6. (C) Rodriguez's close advisor and the State's Secretary
General Bower Rosas was among many who expressed concern to
the Ambassador that the BRV would attempt to disqualify
Rodriguez from running in light of his popularity and the
likelihood that he would easily win in November. Rosas, a
young party leader, also told the Ambassador that President
Chavez' unified party, the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV),was wildly exaggerating its strength in
Nueva Esparta, claiming more than 70,000 members. Rosas said
polling from his office indicated a level of membership of
closer to 14,000. He also expressed confidence that
opposition candidates would win nine out of eleven
municipalities in the state.


7. (C) Comment. Throughout the Ambassador's trip, it was
apparent that Morel's government did not want a repeat of
incidents in 2005 when former Ambassador to Venezuela William
Brownfield visited Margarita Island and pro-Chavez protesters
threw rocks (reftel). The Nueva Esparta state government
provided several police vehicles and added an ambulance to
the Ambassador's security detail in an effort to be prepared
for any eventuality. End Comment.

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VENAMCHAM - TOURISM AND GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS RULE THE DAY
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8. (C) VenAmCham sponsored a cocktail for the Ambassador
hosted by Pedro Castillo, a prominent hotelier with important
government contracts. Castillo commented privately that he
asked BRV Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez Araque for his view
on hosting the Ambassador and reported that Rodriguez agreed,
indicating that the BRV was looking to improve relations with
the U.S. Nueva Esparta is heavily dependent on tourism, in
which the majority of VenAmCham businessmen were involved.
During the event, the hosts stressed the difficulties of
working in their industry in Venezuela's unfriendly business
atmosphere.

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THE DUTCH TAKE - DRUG-RELATED CRIME
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9. (C) Honorary Dutch Consul Jaap van Adelberg (protect)
shared breakfast with the Ambassador, and raised drug-related
crime as his major concern. He said that 80 Dutch citizens
were incarcerated in Venezuela, half of them in Nueva
Esparta, and nearly all on drug-related charges. Van
Adelberg added that corruption, fueled by the trade and
transport of narcotics, was at the same time both blatant and
ignored by Venezuelan National Guard elements at the island's
airports.

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SOCIAL ACTION SITE VISITS
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10. (SBU) The Ambassador and Mrs. Duddy visited an
Embassy-funded baseball clinic and two nongovernmental
organizations, environmental group Provita, and drug
rehabilitation clinic Hogares Claret (Claret's Homes),that
received funds from the Embassy's Public Affairs section and
USAID. The baseball clinic, part of a series of
Embassy-funded baseball/demand reduction clinics called
'Baseball and Friendship,' was well attended by little
leaguers and local press. The Ambassador and Mrs. Duddy
emphasized the importance of staying free of drugs to the
children and presented them with tee shirts expressing the
clinic's theme, "yes to sports, no to drugs."


11. (SBU) Hogares Claret provides counseling and
rehabilitation services to the island's recovering drug
addicts. The Ambassador and Mrs. Duddy received a tour of
the clinic and presented the clinic with books and other
reading materials from the Embassy. The Ambassador also

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spoke to the clinic's patients, urging them to continue with
their rehabilitation. The Ambassador and Mrs. Duddy then
visited the headquarters of Provita, an organization
dedicated to preserving Margarita Island's environment and
wildlife, and presented the group with research materials and
dictionaries before touring one of the nature reserves
Provita helps protect.

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BROAD MEDIA COVERAGE
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12. (C) The Ambassador's trip received extensive and
positive press coverage from national and local outlets. Even
before departing for Anzoategui, national daily El Universal
and regional dailies published articles announcing the trip.
The Ambassador was interviewed by daily El Tiempo in
Lecheria, radio station 98.1 SuperStereo in Nueva Esparta
(which also broadcast the interview on Voice of America's
"Enfoque Andino"),Nueva Esparta television channel
Telecaribe, and centrist daily El Sol de Margarita. The trip
also generated positive press from the Ambassador's visits to
Provita and the baseball clinic. National opposition news
outlet Globovision and international network Radio Caracas
Television (RCTV) gave several minutes of coverage to the
baseball clinic. International and national television
channels RCTV, Televen and Venevision aired the Ambassador's
Q&A session at the American Corner. Regional dailies La Nueva
Prensa and El Norte carried front page coverage of the
Ambassador's visit in general and El Sol de Margarita
dedicated a large part of its sports section to the baseball
clinic. (The message was consistent: relations are difficult
but we are open to improving relations with Venezuela,
particularly in the area of anti-drug cooperation.


13. (C) In visits to dailies El Tiempo and El Sol de
Margarita, as well as TeleCaribe, it was clear that media
outlets in the region are benefiting from overall economic
growth. All discussed recent investments, and plans to
expand operations. However, due to their dependence on
advertising revenue from the government (in El Tiempo's case
representing 50 percent of total advertising revenue),the
regional dailies seem to exercise considerable
self-censorship and keep editorializing to a minimum.
TeleCaribe, which plans to become the sixth open signal
network in seven regions, and needs to remain pragmatic in
its programming, currently broadcasts Televen's "Jose Vicente
Hoy," a weekly program by former Vice President and Chavez
ally Jose Vicente Rangel. TeleCaribe's Executive Vice
President Alquiles Gatas said the channel will be balanced
while it makes sure to carefully abide by national laws.

DUDDY