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. -------------- Lopez Briefing for the Diplomatic Corps -------------- ¶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. -------------- Canadian Demarche -------------- ¶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. -------------- CARACAS 00001114 002.2 OF 002 Mercosur Activism -------------- ¶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." -------------- Enabling Law Fallout -------------- ¶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. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶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