AMBASSADOR,S MEETING WITH COORDINATING MINISTER OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L QUITO 000811

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/03/2018
TAGS: ECON EINV EAID PREL SENV EC
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR,S MEETING WITH COORDINATING MINISTER OF
PRODUCTION SUSANA CABEZA DE VACA

REF: QUITO 365

Classified By: Classified by Ambassador Heather Hodges. Reason: 1.4 b
and d.


1. (SBU) Summary: The Ambassador had a one hour courtesy
call with Coordinating Minister for Production, Susana Cabeza
de Vaca, on August 26, 2008. In their wide-ranging
discussion, Cabeza de Vaca shared with the Ambassador her
programmatic priorities, challenges, and interesting insights
into Correa and her relation with him. She said she admired
the President's ethics and his passion to improve the lives
of the poor in Ecuador, while noting his "Don Quixote
complex" of trying to fix everything at once. End Summary


2. (U) Cabeza de Vaca is a U.S. Citizen. She received her
degrees from Kalamazoo College and her PhD from Michigan
State University. She was head of the Fulbright Commission
from 1998 to 2007. She has known Correa for 20 years,
harking back to when she hired Correa as a professor at San
Francisco University, Quito. She was appointed by Correa as
Coordinating Minister of Production in December, 2007.
Cabeza de Vaca said that Correa asked her several times to
join her cabinet before she finally agreed. At age 63, she
is the oldest member of his cabinet.

3. (SBU) Cabeza de Vaca said that there were three reasons
she was impressed with Correa 20 years ago. First, he had
personal experience working with indigenous groups and speaks
their language. Second he was flexible, and third he was
ethical.

4. (SBU) Cabeza de Vaca was a reference for Correa when he
first looked for jobs. He got good reviews from students
when he taught at San Francisco University, where he took a
very mathematical approach to teaching economics. Cabeza de
Vaca recalled that even when he only had three students in
his class, he would speak loudly. She contends that is
because he is passionate about his work, but that some
misinterpret his loudness for aggressiveness.

5. (SBU) The minister said that she likes Correa
specifically because he is passionate about his work. She
says Correa's virtue and weakness is that he has a Don
Quixote complex; he wants to fix everything. She mentioned
that he was a Boy Scout leader and is committed to
transforming the country. When Correa introduced Cabeza de
Vaca to the other cabinet members for the first time, he
said, "I am President of the country because of her."

6. (SBU) The Ambassador mentioned that she hoped to meet with
President Correa soon. Cabeza de Vaca replied that she did
not know anything about protocol issues nor had any influence
over them. She said that the bureaucracy can be stifling and
added that "being in government can be very trying." She
also insisted that the press was biased against Correa and
that we should not pay too much attention to them.

7. (SBU) In terms of her programmatic priorities, Cabeza de
Vaca first mentioned implementation of the "star" sector
strategy and thanked USAID for its help in developing this
strategy with them. She also highlighted her work on issues
related to food security and pricing policies, controlling
inflation, drafting an anti-monopoly and investment promotion
law, putting together an export promotion strategy and
helping farmers develop a certified seed program, credit and
research. She said that reducing poverty is a huge concern,
but that the government is still grappling with approaches to
address this problem. Finally, Cabeza de Vaca said that the
GOE is becoming increasingly concerned with the social impact
in Ecuador of emigration, particularly the impact on children
left behind by parents seeking work in the U.S. and Europe.
She mentioned that in the small town of Guamote, where the
cabinet met the week before, 18 young people committed
suicide in 2007 with 12 more suicides thus far this year.
She said that youth left behind by parents are also
vulnerable to being attracted to the drug trade. The GOE is
exploring establishing a system of credit for returning
migrants and a program to help them set up businesses in
Ecuador so that Ecuador can benefit from the skills they
learned while living abroad.

8. (U) Cabeza de Vaca and the Ambassador then explored how
the USG could help the GOE in research. Cabeza de Vaca is
interested in exploring research in production as well as in
other areas such as health. Cabeza de Vaca agreed
wholeheartedly with the Ambassador that the experience of
living and working in the U.S. and that human interaction are
invaluable to promoting better relations between Americans
and Ecuadorians.

9. (U) Cabeza de Vaca also said that the Americas
Competiveness Forum in Atlanta was very interesting. She

said that in her presentation, she told participants that
they had nothing to worry about in Ecuador, as the government
was pursuing a private sector-led growth strategy. She also
mentioned that she is interested in promoting social
inclusion into this scenario so that small producers benefit
from streamlined value chains that eliminate unnecessary
intermediaries.

10. (C) Comment: Cabeza de Vaca was surprisingly open with
the Ambassador and frank about the challenges of working
within the government, including with her ministerial
counterpart Pedro Paez, who accuses her of failing to
coordinate with him. Her apparent willingness to share her
perspectives with the Ambassador, coupled with her long-term
relationship with Correa and the mutual respect they
apparently have for each other, represents a valuable channel
for dialogue and an extremely useful window into the inner
workings of the Correa government.
Hodges