CHAVEZ CALLS FOR "SOCIALIST EDUCATION"; NEW LAW IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 000933

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/19/2024
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM KPAO VE
SUBJECT: CHAVEZ CALLS FOR "SOCIALIST EDUCATION"; NEW LAW IN
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

CARACAS 00000933 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: ACTING POLITICAL COUNSELOR DARNALL STEUART,
REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) Summary: President Chavez, National Assembly leaders,
and the Ministers of Education and Higher Education have
declared that the controversial Education Law will be passed
soon by the National Assembly, possibly within the next few
weeks. No text of the draft law is available for review, not
even by legislators expected to approve it. University
leaders, teacher unions, private school owners and parent
groups have expressed deep concerns about President Chavez's
stated intention to impose socialist values through the
educational system. Education experts say changing the
education system has long been part of President Chavez's
overall plan, and that it appears he believes he now has the
political power to do so. People opposing the legislation do
not believe it is possible to stop its approval; instead,
they plan on resisting its implementation. End Summary.

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THE HISTORY OFTHE "NEW EDUCATION LAW"
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2. (C) There is wide agreement hat a new education law is
warranted - currentlya law from 1980 regulates the national,
state, muicipal, and private schools in the country. In
2001, with thousands of public signatures and extensive civil
society involvement, educational advocates presented a new
Education Law to the National Assembly (AN). This law had
its first reading in 2001, and President Chavez indicated
that he would not approve it. In subsequent years the
administration has discussed the possibility of having a new
Education Law that would incorporate socialist ideology; in
2006 then AN member Luis Acuna (currently Minister of Higher
Education) proposed a law that was met with strong resistance
from parents and teachers. Recently, government leaders have
again said publicly that a new law is necessary. Minister
Acuna and Minister of Education Hector Navarro presented
commentary and recommendations for the Education Law to the
AN on June 23, 2009. Under discussion now is the second
reading of the law, as the Government of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela (GBRV) is counting the law's first
reading in 2001 as legitimate, even though the text of the
law is likely to have changed dramatically.

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NO PUBLIC TEXT OF THE LAW
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3. (C) There is no public text of the law under discussion.
An AN professional staff member who works for the Education
Committee told PolOff June 16 that Education Committee
members had not yet seen a recent version, and that it is not
uncommon for AN members to first see laws when they are
called to vote on them. Even without the text, many people
in the education community are very concerned. Respected
education expert Dr. Leonardo Carvajal told PolOff June 23
that the people most involved with the law, Ministers Acuna
and Navarro and AN Education Committee Chair Maria de Queipo,
are all committed to drastically changing the education
system in Venezuela, noting their long-standing admiration of
the Cuban system. President Chavez has repeatedly called for
"socialist education;" at a graduation ceremony on July 14 he
said "we must transform our education system, and change
capitalist values into socialist values."


4. (C) President of the Venezuelan Chamber of Private
Education (CAVEP),Octavio De Lamo, told PolOff July 13 that
there are indications of what the law will include. He
thinks the law will empower "consejos comunales" (community
councils initiated by Chavez) to appoint school boards. Like
Carvajal, De Lamo is concerned about de Queipo's influence.
"She told me once during a public debate," he said, "that
private education should not exist." Miranda State Director
of Education Juan Maragall told PolOff July 17 that his
concern was about selection and promotion of teachers and
principals. Currently, using the 1980 law and regulations
issued in 1991, national, state, and municipal schools select
and promote teachers via an open and competitive exam with
clear qualification standards. Under the previous pro-Chavez
government in Miranda State over the past four years,
Maragall said, 25% of the state's public school teachers had
been selected as "additional teachers," bypassing the
regulations for competitive selection. In January 2009, the
GBRV issued a decree enabling the national government to
convert these temporary hires to permanent staff. "This is

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currently against the law," Maragall said, "and my primary
concern with the new education law is that it will legalize
the politicization of hiring and promoting teachers."

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RESIGNED TO LAW'S APPROVAL, FOCUS ON IMPLEMENTATION
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5. (C) University leaders, teacher unions, and private
education groups have asked the National Assembly for a
public discussion of the law. It appears that the GBRV is
aware that public consultation, or at least the claim of
having had public consultations, is necessary. On the
evening of July 7, a consortium of private education groups
was invited to go to the National Assembly the morning of
July 8 to discuss the law. De Lamo decided that CAVEP would
not participate, as the text of the law still was not public
and there was not sufficient time to prepare. According to
De Lamo, at the end of the discussion on July 8, Maria de
Queipo said that the law was ready to be passed because the
consultations with civil society were complete. University
leaders have also requested more discussion about the law,
although AN members still insist that civil society has
already been consulted.


6. (C) Post contacts agree that the law will be passed this
summer, no matter what the opposition does. Their focus,
therefore, is how to resist its implementation when schools
open again in September. CAVEP held a conference "What Will
Be Lost in July and August" in Caracas on July 15, with over
700 people in attendance, but De Lamo still thinks that the
law will pass. De Lamo said CAVEP has developed a detailed
plan to involve parents in keeping watch for any changes in
their children's classrooms. He said that CAVEP is framing
this issue as a "violation of the rights of parents," and
will work to raise attention of people's individual
responsibility to resist. Carvajal also thinks the law will
be passed, and that there will be a strong response in the
press, in public forums, and in schools. "Venezuelan
teachers, with support from their professional organizations,
will reject this law. They will refuse to follow it. This
kind of resistance is not glamorous," Carvajal concluded,
"but it will work."

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COMMENT
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7. (C) There is significant concern among Venezuelans about
this education law. Many contacts point to education as one
area where citizens have successfully resisted President
Chavez's "revolution" so far. The opposition is resigned to
the inevitability of the law, and has no hope that the
judicial system would reject it should it be in violation of
the constitution. For that reason, they are focusing on
raising public awareness about the law to encourage
widespread grass-roots rejection of its implementation. This
type of response effectively stopped the implementation of
the controversial 2008 Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence
Law (the "Ley Sapo"). Still, it is indicative of the level
of President Chavez's control over the political process that
the opposition already considers popular rejection its only
viable option to mitigate changes to the education system.

CAULFIELD