US embassy cable - 04CARACAS2252

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 002252 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS USAID FOR DCHA/OTI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/12/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, PHUM, KIRF, VE 
SUBJECT: CHAVEZ AND THE EVANGELICALS 
 
Classified By: Abelardo A. Arias, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission, 
for Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
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Summary 
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1. (C) The GOV is catering to evangelical Christians, who 
make up nine percent of Venezuela's population, to build the 
support base of President Hugo Chavez and to win the August 
recall referendum.  Some Evangelicals have plugged into 
Chavez's coffers and his social message, at times reflecting 
an anti-USG bias.  Chavez himself sympathizes with 
Evangelicals, and at least once claimed to be one.  Like many 
his efforts to incorporate segments of Venezuelan society 
into Chavismo, Chavez's attempt to win over Evangelicals is 
poorly planned and executed, based more on payoffs than 
conviction.  End summary. 
 
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Evangelicals in Venezuela 
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2. (C) Evangelicals estimate their numbers at around nine 
percent of the population, or fewer than two million 
Venezuelans.  (Note:  Venezuelan Catholics call "Evangelical" 
all Christian non-Catholics, including Mormons and Jehovah's 
witnesses.  Venezuelan Evangelicals use it as a doctrinal 
description that includes many mainline Protestant groups 
which emphasize aggressive evangelization and 
church-planting.)  Samuel Olson, President of the Evangelical 
Council of Venezuela (ECV), told poloff the number of 
evangelicals is not growing exponentially as in other 
countries in the region because of Venezuela's historic high 
cost of living, which has limited expansion efforts by 
foreign missionaries. 
3. (C) Olson, a Princeton-trained minister and son of Amcit 
missionaries to Venezuela, told poloff June 14 Venezuela's 
Evangelical movement is afflicted by "post-modernism," which 
he said is characterized by lax personal morals and an 
emphasis on money and power.  Olson also noted that 
Venezuelan Evangelicals adhere to an "apostolic movement" in 
which popular Evangelical pastors claim authority over large 
numbers of churches (or all of Venezuela), often using titles 
such as "Bishop" or "Apostle."  Aside from this relatively 
new phenomenon, Evangelical churches in Venezuela are largely 
independent and only loosely affiliated among themselves or 
with foreign religious organizations. 
 
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Evangelical Organizations 
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4. (C) There are three evangelical confederations in 
Venezuela that, according to one estimate, incorporate less 
than half of the evangelical churches in Venezuela.  Unlike 
their Catholic counterpart, the Episcopal Council of 
Venezuela, the Evangelical confederations do not supervise or 
regulate member churches.  The confederations mostly advocate 
for religious freedom, collaborate on the training of 
pastors, and only sparingly wade into doctrinal questions. 
The confederations, Olson claimed, try to remain apolitical, 
though Venezuela's acrid political environment often forces 
responses.  For example, Olson was forever branded as an 
opposition member when he appeared on stage with other 
religious leaders during the events of April 2002 praying for 
the victims of the Miraflores slayings.  Olson said the 
prayer event was carried split-screen with the swearing-in of 
short-lived interim President Pedro Carmona, giving rise to 
subsequent allegations that Olson had supported Carmona. 
 
5. (C) Olson's ECV was founded in 1964 as a reaction to the 
signing of the concordat between the GOV and the Catholic 
Church.  The evangelicals worried, Olson said, that the 
Catholics' relations with the state would prejudice 
evangelicals.  The CEV currently has 160 members, some of 
which, like the Baptists, have hundreds of individual 
churches.  Olson estimated the CEV represents 4000 individual 
churches.  Among these members are many groups with U.S. 
 
origins, such as the Baptists and Assemblies of God.  Olson, 
who has presided over ECV for six years, is frequently 
invited to appear with catholic and Jewish leaders at 
ecumenical events. 
 
6. (C) The Confederation of Evangelical-Pentecostal Pastors 
of Venezuela, with around 90 members and 4000 churches, broke 
from the ECV in 1984.  Olson claimed the schism came when 
some conservative Pentecostal leaders became worried over the 
ECV's relations with non-Christian religions.  Finally, the 
Union of Christian Churches of Venezuela ("Unicristiana") was 
formed in the 1990s under the guidance of "Apostle" Raul 
Avila, an Argentine who pastors the Christ for the Nations 
Center in Caracas, a church that openly supports President 
Hugo Chavez.  Unicristiana President Elias Rincon told poloff 
June 18 the confederation comprises some 200 churches. 
 
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Chavez Courting Evangelicals 
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7. (C) Olson claimed that certain Evangelical ministers have 
received large amounts of money for their churches in return 
for their support of the GOV.  He said he had spoken with ECV 
pastors who have been offered housing and pension benefits in 
exchange for open political support for Chavez.  The state 
television station carries two programs -- free of charge -- 
of popular evangelical ministers (Note: A Catholic priest 
also hosts a state television program).  State television 
also carries GOV ads with images of Evangelical church 
services and of the ten commandments and scripture 
references.  Evangelical Bishop Jesus Ramon Perez, whose 
program airs Saturday mornings on state television, denied to 
poloff June 16 that he had received large sums of money.  He 
said his only funding from the GOV came from a work program 
in which 300 of his congregation members received grants to 
form work cooperatives from the state development bank, 
Bandes.  (Note:  The president of Bandes is Nelson Merentes, 
a member of Chavez's Comando Maisanta campaign committee.) 
 
8. (C) Unicristiana's Rincon said his church had received 
grants from the GOV to help homeless people in Caracas.  He 
claimed that more than 300 people had been reintegrated into 
regular society via their program, which utilizes Chavez's 
social "missions."  The homeless people, for example, are 
sent to Mission Robinson's literacy and education classes, 
and later participate in "Mission Vuelvan Caras" to get job 
training. 
 
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A Common Cause 
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9. (C) Bishop Perez described his support for Chavez (he 
reportedly called Evangelicals to rally to Miraflores Palace 
to support Chavez during the events of April 2002) as one of 
a common social agenda.  In 1994, Perez signed a "Spiritual 
Declaration of Independence" with 600 other Evangelical 
pastors denouncing the GOV's rampant corruption and 
inattention to the plight of the poor.  Perez, who lived on 
the streets of Caracas as a child, sees Chavez as an answer 
to his prayer.  Perez claims the Catholic Church used its 
influence with previous governments to persecute 
Evangelicals, including falsely imprisoning him in 1999 
(press reports say the Bishop was involved in a stolen car 
ring operating in his halfway house for drug addicts). 
 
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Anti-American Bias 
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10. (C) Rincon and fellow "Apostle" Ramiro Torres admitted 
their church leans toward support for Chavez, and church 
teachings have a clear tint of Chavez's social class 
diatribe.  The church's website, in fact, carries 
anti-American (and anti-Bush) stories taken directly from GOV 
media sources.  Asked why a church website contains only 
pro-GOV links and news, the two said it was a question of 
justice:  private media is anti-Chavez and the church felt 
 
the need to provide balance to its congregation members. 
Torres went on to say that the United States is suffering the 
"wrath of God" for its immorality, citing same sex marriages 
and the invasion of Iraq, which he said his church opposed. 
He predicted that the Evangelical Christians of "the South" 
would help "the North" find its way. 
 
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Chavez:  Evangelical For A Day? 
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11. (C) Claims that Chavez is an Evangelical have surfaced on 
several occasions.  Chavez himself commented in January 2002 
that he was an Evangelical, only to backtrack once the media 
began to scrutinize his claims.  Perez, who claims to have 
had meetings with Chavez, says Chavez had "an encounter with 
God" while in prison after his failed coup attempt in 1992. 
Perez claimed a group of Evangelicals meet regularly in 
Miraflores, though he did not know if Chavez attended the 
meetings. 
 
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GOV Denies Evangelical Bias 
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12. (C) Gonzalo Gonzalez, Director of the Office of Worship 
of the Ministry of Interior and Justice (MIJ), told poloff 
June 23 that the GOV is not trying to play to Evangelical 
interests.  He said the GOV is attempting to apply the 1999 
Constitution, which guarantees religious expression.  The 
traditional GOV funding of the Catholic Church (a by-product 
of the concordat) is inconsistent with the new constitution, 
Gonzalez argued and must be expanded to include other groups. 
 Evangelical Bishop Perez told poloff the amounts offered by 
MIJ are "offensive" in the size of the amounts. (Note:  The 
money from MIJ is only a portion of the funding the GOV makes 
available to churches, as other ministries such as health and 
education also fund religious projects.) 
 
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Comment 
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13. (C) Chavez's catering to Evangelicals has all the 
earmarks of the tendency to seek Bolivarian alternatives to 
the status quo, in this case the Catholic Church which is one 
of Chavez's greatest critics.  Like many Chavista ideas, 
however, it seems to be applied with less-than-full 
efficiency, targeting a few controversial Chavista ministers 
(whom Olson calls "rejects" of traditional Evangelical 
groups).  Additionally, there is little evidence that the 
Evangelicals constitute a monolithic voting bloc that Chavez 
and his supporters could readily exploit. 
 
McFarland 
 
 
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      2004CARACA02252 - CONFIDENTIAL