INELIGIBLE LIST AND ENABLING LAW FALLOUT INCREASING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 001114

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPARTMENT PASS TO AID/OTI (RPORTER)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/08/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM VE
SUBJECT: INELIGIBLE LIST AND ENABLING LAW FALLOUT INCREASING

CARACAS 00001114 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: ACTING POLITICAL COUNSELOR DANIEL LAWTON,
REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) Summary. The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the
Comptroller's ineligible list and President Chavez's July 31
issuance of 26 far-reaching decree-laws are generating
growing international and domestic opposition. In an August
8 briefing, Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez urged local diplomats
to convey to their capitals that the Comptroller's
ineligibles list is politically motivated human rights abuse.
The Canadian Ambassador raised his government's concerns
over the ineligible list privately with Vice Foreign Minister
Valero August 7. Two visiting Mercosur parliamentarians told
the local media August 7 that they believe political rights
are being violated by the ineligibles list and expressed
regret that the Comptroller declined to meet with them. An
August 9 Caracas protest march will be an important test of
the fractured opposition's ability to unite and mobilize
supporters. End Summary.

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Lopez Briefing for the Diplomatic Corps
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2. (C) Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez invited diplomats from
Europe and the Western Hemisphere to an August 8 breakfast to
register his concerns about being declared ineligible to run
for the Caracas mayorship. Lopez is among 272 current and
former public officials that the Comptroller declared
ineligible to run for office based on administrative
sanctions. The U.S., Canada and numerous European embassies
sent representatives, but the Guatemalan DCM was the only
Latin American diplomat present. The opposition is also
convoking a march from Chacao to the National Electoral
Commission on August 9.


3. (C) Lopez accused the BRV of mounting a system of
"political apartheid" that the BRV is using arbitrarily to
sideline some of its strongest democratic opponents. He and
his legal team stressed that a judicial sentence was required
to strip potential candidates of their political rights.
They added the following points:
-- Lopez is innocent of administrative wrong-doing;
-- The Comptroller's ineligibles list is unconstitutional;
-- The Supreme Court decision upholding the list was a
political decision;
-- Lopez will continue to press this issue with the
Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, with Mercosur
parliamentarians, and with members of the European Parliament.
-- The ineligibles list is one part of "systemic" BRV
violations of human rights.


4. (C) A Lopez advisor told Poloff that the Chacao Mayor will
campaign on behalf of as many consensus gubernatorial and
mayoral opposition candidates as possible. Lopez has also
received and will likely accept numerous international
invitations, including two from the United States, to speak
on this issue. Lopez will not automatically throw his
support behind Antonio Ledezma, the opposition candidate who
has been running behind Lopez in the polls. There is
widespread speculation that Lopez will back a "wild card,"
possibly Podemos Secretary General Ismael Garcia.

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Canadian Demarche
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5. (C) Canadian DCM (protect) informed the Ambassador that
the Canadian Ambassador delivered an August 6 demarche to MFA
Vice Foreign Minister Jorge Valero conveying the Canadian
government's concerns about the ineligibles list. The
Canadians do not intend to go public with their concerns.
Valero reportedly was taken aback by the demarche and
responded that the National Assembly passed the applicable
Comptroller Law in 2000 unanimously. Valero also stressed
that the Comptroller's authority to make individuals
ineligible to run for office is an important tool to fight
corruption. Expressing disappointment in the Canadian
government's views, Valero also suggested the Canadian
Embassy had been misinformed by opposition-oriented news
sources and proceeded to criticize the Chacao Mayor. The
Canadian Ambassador responded that his government reached its
conclusions based on a wide range of sources and that the
ineligible list was a question of democratic principles, not
individual candidates.

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CARACAS 00001114 002.2 OF 002


Mercosur Activism
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6. (C) Mercosur parliamentarians and Human Rights Commission
members Mirta Palacios of Paraguay and Adriana Pena of
Uruguay held an August 7 press conference in Caracas
regarding their fact-finding mission over the 272 ineligible
candidates. Referring to their lack of access to BRV
officials, Pena said "Venezuela needs to decide whether or
not it wants to complicate its entry into Mercosur." Palacio
and Pena had met with jurists, constitutional experts,
student leaders, and ineligible candidates but BRV
Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian declined to meet with
them. Pena added "we are aware that certain rights have been
violated but without hearing both sides, it will be hard to
draw a conclusion." An Un Nuevo Tiempo activist told Poloff
that BRV airport passport control authorities tried to delay
Pena's departure the morning of August 8. The passport
officials reportedly backed down when Pena reminded them that
she had diplomatic immunity and said she intended to catch
her flight "with or without her passport."

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Enabling Law Fallout
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7. (SBU) Venezuela's Academy of Political and Social Sciences
declared August 7 that the 26 laws passed July 31 by
presidential decree are "restrictive of fundamental rights,
support the aims of a single ideology and modify the
constitution without due democratic process." Academy
president Tatiana Maekelt, although openly skeptical that the
Venezuelan Supreme Court would declare the decrees
unconstitutional, urged that every legal measure be
exhausted. She suggested that without legal redress,
citizens would have to resort to civil disobedience, invoking
Article 350 of the Constitution. The BRV, for its part, is
dispatching several National Assembly members to public areas
around Venezuela August 9-10 to defend the 26 decree-laws as
part of its "Parliament in the Street" program.

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Comment
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8. (C) The BRV's July 31 issuance of 26 decree-laws and the
Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the Comptroller's
right to declare individuals ineligible to run for office
appears to be galvanizing renewed domestic opposition to
President Chavez. That said, the opposition has yet to
muster a sizable rally to protest the Comptroller's
ineligible list, and the opposition march to the CNE
scheduled for August 9 will be an important test of both
opposition strength and unity. Lopez has close ties with the
student movement, but if the past is any guide, it will
likely prove difficult to mobilize large numbers of students
while most universities are on summer break. Moreover,
opposition leaders are still focusing most of their attention
on trying to reach consensus on five remaining gubernatorial
candidates and some 150 mayoral candidates, a task they had
originally hoped to have completed by July at the latest.

DUDDY