GOP EXPLORES CUBA ENGAGEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 001114

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PE
SUBJECT: GOP EXPLORES CUBA ENGAGEMENT

REF: LIMA 870

Classified By: Amb. P Michael McKinley for reasons 1.b and d.


1. (C) Summary: The GOP's approach to Cuba is reflected in
President Garcia's rhetoric: critical of restrictions on
freedom while acknowledging incipient reforms. In a sign
that the GOP's approach could lead to a diplomatic thaw,
Peruvian Health Minister Hernan Garrido Lecca recently
traveled to Havana -- the first ministerial visit in years --
to sign several health-sector cooperation agreements. An MFA
official with Cuba responsibilities told us the agreements
would allow the GOP to assert control over positive Cuban
activities while avoiding the baggage of Venezuelan
middlemen. He said Foreign Minister Garcia Belaunde may
visit Cuba in October. GOP policy toward Cuba remains
ambivalent, with strong concerns remaining about political
repression and Cuba's ties to what they see as the more
directly destabilizing actions by Venezuela and Bolivia. End
Summary.

Promoting Democracy Through Engagement
--------------

2. (C) The GOP's approach to Cuba is reflected in President
Garcia's rhetoric: critical of restrictions on freedom and
violations of human rights while acknowledging that incipient
reforms may be afoot. During the opening of the recent
EU-LAC summit in Lima, Garcia publicly declared: "The only
way for any country that has not joined the system of
democratic freedoms and the world economy is to follow the
path of elections, freedom of press, and freedom for those
who suffer because of their ideas or positions." Government
insiders told us this was intended as a clear allusion to
Cuba and the absence of basic democratic freedoms there (ref
A).


3. (C) Several weeks later, President Garcia, during an
impromptu Q&A response, stated that even the Government of
Cuba under Raul Castro had been forced to adapt to the
inexorable challenges of globalization by adopting
pay-for-performance rules for government civil servants.
Referring to President Garcia's public remarks, MFA Director
General for Mexico and Caribbean Gonzalo Zapater (protect)
told poloffs that the GOP's main policy goal with respect to
Cuba was to quietly encourage the incipient signs of
democratic opening in that country. Zapater emphasized that
it was too soon to tell whether these signs constituted a
transition.

Health Minister Visits Cuba, Signs Aid Agreements
-------------- --------------

4. (SBU) In acknowlegment of the possible transition, the
GOP has begun tentatively unfreezing its diplomatic relations
with Cuba. Zapater told us that there had been no official
GOP visits to Cuba over the past several years,
notwithstanding repeated GOC invitations. That had changed,
however, with the mid-April travel to Havana, Cuba, of Health
Minister (and ruling APRA-party insider) Hernan Garrido
Lecca. In Cuba, Garrida Lecca signed several cooperation
agreements to formalize Cuban medical support in Peru. Cuban
assistance will principally go to a pilot program called "The
Family's Doctor" ("El Medico de la Familia") to promote
preventative health care in impoverished rural areas.
(Garrido Lecca announced the program in late May, and said it
is based on a model used in Cuba, Brazil, and England.)
According to the agreement, the GOP will provide funds and
Cuba will provide doctors and expertise. The Health Minister
also signed an accord to set up a Cuban-run ophthalmology
center in Cusco that Cuban press says will provide 80
cataract surgeries per day. A third agreement will allow a
Cuban medical brigade that has helped Peruvians since the
2007 earthquake to remain permanently in the country. In
total, 49 Cuban doctors and technicians will work in Peru to
support these programs.


5. (C) APRA Party Congresswoman Luciana Leon told poloffs
that Cuba is also helping Peru to fight illiteracy, which she
described as President Garcia's top social priority. She
said that the massive literacy program Pronama ("Programa
Nacional de Movilizacion por la Alfabetizacion") is actually
run by a Cuban, Angel Velasquez Fernandez, whom she believed
worked for the Cuban government. MFA Director General for
the Caribbean Gonzalo Zapater confirmed that Velasquez
Fernandez is a Cuban married to a Peruvian, but did not know
if he worked for the GOC.

Cutting out the Venezuelan Middle-Man
--------------

6. (C) Zapater told poloffs that working directly and openly
with Cuba would allow the GOP to assert control over positive
Cuban activities while cutting out the Venezuelen middle-men
and President Chavez's political baggage. He said the Cubans
had demonstrated by their work in post-earthquake zone
hospitals that they could provide excellent health care
without overt propaganda or undermining the government. He
told us the story of a well-to-do friend who had received
free care and medicines at the Cuban hospital and seen no
prosthelytizing. "How could we refuse this assistance?"
asked Zapater. That said, the GOP wants to monitor the Cuban
presence and, through these agreements, will have access to
the names, profiles, and locations of any Cuban health
workers in Peru. Zapater added that the agreements with Cuba
are "Health Ministry-to-Health Ministry" not
"Government-to-Goverment".


7. (C) Zapater said that Foreign Minister Jose Garcia
Belaunde may travel to Havana in October 2008 as a follow-on
to Garrido Lecca's groundbreaking visit. FM Belaunde's
principal goal in Cuba will be to determine whether Raul
Castro's government is seeking genuine change and, if so, to
support that process by expanding Peru's engagement
incrementally, Zapater said.

Comment:
--------------

8. (C) GOP policy toward Cuba remains ambivalent. While the
romantic sympathies of some ruling APRA-party members for the
Cuban "revolution" are latent, they have been diluted by two
factors. First is the perceived betrayal by the Cuban regime
during the 90s when Fidel cozied up to the then-government of
President Fujimori and shunned the APRA (which was then part
of the opposition). Next, and perhaps more importantly,
President Garcia's clear-eyed approach to the challenges of
globalization is anchored in an awareness of the damaging
political and economic consequences of a closed system -- a
system best embodied in Latin America by "revolutionary" Cuba.
MCKINLEY