VENEZUELAN CONSULATE PROMOTES CHAVEZ BRAND OF SOCIALISM

C O N F I D E N T I A L NAPLES 000048

E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/18/2018
TAGS: PREL PINR IT VE
SUBJECT: VENEZUELAN CONSULATE PROMOTES CHAVEZ BRAND OF SOCIALISM

CLASSIFIED BY: J. PATRICK TRUHN, CONSUL GENERAL, AMCONGEN
NAPLES, STATE.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)


1. (C) Venezuela appears to be using its long-dormant Consulate
General in Naples as a platform for spreading propaganda on
behalf of the Chavez brand of socialism. After leaving the
Consul General position vacant for over a year, reflecting
Venezuela's apparently minimal interests in southern Italy, the
Venezuelan Foreign Ministry recently assigned Bernardo Borges, a
petroleum engineer who appears to be in his mid-sixties and is
new to the Foreign Ministry, as Consul General in early April.
Borges speaks excellent Italian, having earned his geology
degree at the University of Parma forty years ago.


2. (SBU) After a breakfast meeting in a downtown hotel to
introduce himself to the rest of the career consular corps in
Naples (the only other Latin American country represented is
Panama),we heard nothing from Borges until he invited us to a
June 11 symposium at the University of Federico II, entitled
"Venezuela: The Search for a New Socialism: Progress, Obstacles
and Threats," with Borges billed as the guest of honor. The
event was moderated by Professor Giuseppe Cacciatore, who
praised Chavez for creating the "perfect constitution" for
Venezuela, balancing "basic freedoms" with "practical
necessities" of governing in a time of transition. The guest
speaker was Italian author and screenwriter Dario Azzelini, who
proceeded to give a brief, albeit revisionist history of
Venezuela from the 1960s to the present, saying that Chavez is
rebuilding the country after it was exploited by "outside
forces." Borges, the "guest of honor," lamented that the
"global mass media," controlled by a "small group of special
interests," is reluctant to publicize Chavez's accomplishments.


3. (SBU) The event appears to have been of no public diplomacy
significance. It was publicized as a presentation explaining
the "difficult experiences in transitioning Venezuelan society
to true Socialism," and was attended by only about fifty people,
mostly students and self-described "revolutionary" journalists,
who presumably already shared the speakers' point of view. The
event was not covered in the press.

TRUHN