US embassy cable - 04CARACAS699

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 000699 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
USAID DCHA/OTI FOR RUSSELL PORTER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PREF, VE 
SUBJECT: REPORT ON STAFFDEL FEBRUARY 18-20 
 
REF: CARACAS 03674 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR REASONS 1.4 (B 
) AND (D) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (C)  House Western Hemisphere Subcommittee staff members 
met with opposition and government leaders, members of the 
National Assembly, and the UNHCR representative in Caracas 
February 18-20.  Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel 
emphasized the importance of maintaining a good 
Venezuelan-U.S. bilateral relationship despite the flare up 
of occassional conflicts.  Opposition leaders told staffers 
the GOV was only nominally a democracy, but acknowledged the 
success of Chavez's social programs.  OAS and Carter Center 
representatives said the government-allied CNE majority had 
rejected their proposal for verifying individuals' signatures 
using a statistically random sampling of the disputed 
petition forms. The UNHCR representative explained to 
staffers that the GOV needs to rapidly improve its 
application process in order to deal with its growing 
Colombian refugee population.  Staffers also discussed the 
work of the "Boston Group" and pledged to continue plans for 
establishing a TV channel for the National Assembly.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
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MEETING WITH THE G-5 
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2. DCM hosted dinner for Caleb McCarry, Staff Director 
Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Jessica Lewis, Democratic 
Staff Director Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, and Paul 
Oostburg Sanz, Deputy Democratic Chief Counsel with leaders 
of the opposition:  Enrique Mendoza (head of the Democratic 
Coordinating Committee and Governor of Miranda State), 
Henrique Salas Romer (Proyecto Venezuela), Henry Ramos Allup 
(Secretary General of Accion Democratica), and Juan Fernandez 
(Gente de Petroleo).  The leaders characterized the GOV as a 
dictatorship in fact, with the cover of a constitution. 
Ramos said the international community does not understand 
that when a Venezuelan institution takes an action or makes a 
decision (such as the National Electoral Council), that it is 
typically subordinated to revolutionary politics.  The 
leaders agreed that the GOV's social programs have been very 
successful, especially Mision Robinson (literacy), Mision 
Barrio Adentro (medical services), and the Mercals 
(subsidized food products). 
 
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THE GOV'S MESSAGE 
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3. (C)  The Staffers and Ambassador met February 19 with Vice 
President Jose Vicente Rangel.  The Vice President 
underscored the necessity for Venezuela and the United States 
to maintain a good bilateral relationship, despite occasional 
conflicts.  He pointed out that the U.S. needs regional and 
Venezuelan support to achieve its foreign policy goals and 
vice-versa.  He urged continued focus on the big picture in 
order to overcome any problems.  Rangel warned against 
misunderstanding Venezuela's purpose, which is not to become 
another Cuba, but to address long-standing problems in the 
country.  He noted that Cuban doctors established in other 
countries, such as Guatemala, do not draw the same criticism 
as those working in Venezuela and denied any political 
purpose to the project.  McCarry responded that the USG 
remains concerned about the extent of the Cuban government's 
role in Venezuelan policies. 
 
4. (C)  The Ambassador questioned Rangel about developments 
in the CNE.  The Vice President reiterated the government's 
message about the existence of major fraud.  He agreed that 
the OAS and the Carter Center played a beneficial role as 
observers but stressed that the CNE's opinion of the process 
must take precedence over the opinion of international 
organizations.  Rangel accused WHA DAS Peter DeShazo of 
giving more weight to the opinion of the OAS and Carter 
Center over that of the CNE during his recent visit to 
Venezuela and warned against this interpretation of the 
process.  Ambassador conveyed the USG's view that through 
their presence the OAS and the Carter Center lend credibility 
to an institution which, as Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez_ had 
 
stated, has none.  While the CNE has the legal authority to 
make this decision, the OAS and Carter Center observers' 
views were of great importance.  McCarry added the U.S. 
Congress's concurrence with Ambassador's points. 
 
5. (C)  In a separate meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister 
Arevalo Mendez and pro-government National Assembly member 
Luis Tascon told staffers and Ambassador that they had proof 
of extensive fraud in the Presidential recall referendum 
signature collection.  Tascon cited a few examples, but 
claimed to have 20,000 testimonials from individuals 
explaining how their names were fraudulently used.  Tascon 
also alleged 60,000 forms were handed out on the four 
mornings of the signature drive and not returned in the 
evenings of the same day, in violation of the rules.  Mendez 
expressed their conviction that President Chavez has already 
won the  2006 election and that official candidates will win 
governorships in Miranda, Anzoategui and Zulia.  Mendez went 
on to say that since democracy is best expressed in elections 
and electoral processes, Venezuela currently has the 
strongest democracy in the world. 
 
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VIEWS FROM OAS & CARTER CENTER 
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6. (C)  Ambassador hosted a meeting in which OAS country 
representative Patricio Carbacho and Carter Center 
representative Francisco Diez gave staffers their assessment 
of progress in the National Electoral Council (CNE).  Diez 
offered a more pessimistic view of the situation, saying he 
saw no hope for an acceptable CNE decision on the question of 
fraudulent signatures.  Carbacho told staffers he was 
optimistic that the CNE would be able to successfully mount a 
system for validating any challenged signatures.  Diez and 
Carbacho said they had proposed contacting individuals in a 
random sampling of the challenged population of petition 
forms ("planillas planas") to verify their signatures.  The 
CNE directors rejected this proposed statistical sampling. 
Diez noted that the directors were also considering obtaining 
national identification information through the banking 
system. 
--------------------------------------------- - 
BOSTON GROUP FIRMS PLANS FOR VENEZUELAN C-SPAN 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
7. (SBU)  Staffers met with Venezuelan Boston Group 
organizers Pedro Diaz Blum (Proyecto Venezuela) and Calixto 
Ortega (Fifth Republic Movement) and other members of the 
group to discuss ongoing plans for establishing a TV channel 
with continuous live broadcasting from the National Assembly 
(ref A).  The members agreed to move forward with the project 
and to schedule another meeting on the topic with 
Representatives Cass Ballenger (R-NC), Bill Delahunt (D-MA) 
and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) for early May, 2004 in Venezuela. 
In response to a request from Ortega, McCarry explained the 
mechanics of NED project funding, emphasizing the 
organization's bipartisan support within the U.S.  After 
debating the topic, the group members agreed to refrain from 
making any public statements about GOV accusations that the 
USG is spending millions of dollars to assist opposition 
groups since it might affect the Boston Group's own 
existence.  In response to McCarry's outline of the proposed 
Boston Group television project, Rangel promised support and 
resources. 
 
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A DIFFERENT CHAVISTA VIEW 
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8. (C)  DCM also hosted dinner for staffdel with five 
Chavista leaders, only one of whom attended, Ibrain 
Velasquez, Assembly deputy from Margarita Island.  Velasquez 
told staffers the political split among the different parties 
is so wide that cooperation and compromise are almost 
impossible.  The pro-Chavez deputy said he does not think the 
referendum will happen and asserted that there was mega fraud 
in the signature collection.  Ambassador and DCM asked why no 
statements were issued at the time of collection, to which 
Velasquez replied that no one had anticipated it as a 
problem.  He claimed that signature forms were not promptly 
returned because they were taken to "laboratories" to be 
fraudulently filled out.  He stressed that only a technical 
solution to the problems in the CNE offered an acceptable 
resolution to the recall process.  According to Velasquez, in 
a yes/no vote, the President would win if an election were 
 
called right now.  However, the government will not call for 
an election because it is unwilling to accept the conditions 
which the opposition would insist on. 
 
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ON THE TOPIC OF REFUGEES 
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9. (C)  Staffdel McCarry met February 20 with Virginia 
Trimarco, the Caracas-based regional representative for the 
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to discuss the 
extent of the refugee problem in Venezuela, the GOV response, 
and UNHCR's role.  Trimarco explained to the delegation that 
historically Venezuela did not have large numbers of refugees 
and therefore had no system in place for processing them. 
Also, movement across the border in both directions has 
always been very fluid, which wasn't a problem until a few 
years ago when large numbers of  Colombians began to enter 
Venezuela and stay.  The number of applicants for refugee 
status is large and growing due to guerrilla violence and 
drug trafficking.  Trimarco estimates that there are 150,000 
Colombians in the Western Venezuelan states; Zulia, Tachira 
and Apure.  UNHCR vets applicants in conjunction with 
security forces to weed out known criminals, but the security 
forces need training in this area. Trimarco told the staffers 
her office had sent VP Rangel a letter explaining the refugee 
situation, and emphasizing the dire need for improved 
personal ID documents issued by the Venezuelan state.  She 
also stressed the need for the Commission to establish clear 
rules for the process of vetting refugee applicants. 
SHAPIRO 
 
 
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      2004CARACA00699 - CONFIDENTIAL