US embassy cable - 04CARACAS3077

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 003077 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD 
STATE PASS USAID FOR DCHA/OTI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, PHUM, VE 
SUBJECT: PRIMERO JUSTICIA JUMPS FROM THE SINKING OPPOSITION 
 
REF: A. CARACAS 3013 
 
     B. CARACAS 3070 
 
Classified By: Abelardo A. Arias, Political Counselor, 
for Reason 1.4(b). 
 
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Summary 
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1. (C) Venezuelan opposition party Primero Justicia withdrew 
from the Coordinadora Democratica September 24.  Lines of 
cooperation among groups opposed to President Hugo Chavez 
have been reduced to documenting fraud claims related to the 
referendum, negotiating with the National Electoral Council 
(CNE) for the October 31 elections for governors and mayors, 
and selecting unified candidates to face pro-Chavez 
candidates in those elections.  End summary. 
 
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Primero Justicia Separates from the Coordinadora 
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2. (U) Leaders of the opposition political party Primero 
Justicia (PJ) announced September 24 the party had withdrawn 
from the Coordinadora Democratica.  PJ leader Julio Borges 
told reporters the Coordinadora had done a respectable job in 
reaching the recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez. 
 He said it is now time for PJ to leave the opposition 
alliance and build a political party that offers a viable 
alternative to Venezuelans.  The 34-year-old Borges said PJ 
hopes to facilitate a "generational change" in political 
leadership in Venezuela. 
 
3. (C) PJ Secretary General Jose Luis Mejias told poloff 
September 29 PJ's post-referendum strategy is to go into the 
poor neighborhoods and make inroads into Chavez's support 
base.  In an effort to dispel PJ's image as a right-wing 
party of young rich urbanites, Mejias said PJ would open the 
party to other sectors of Venezuelan society.  He 
specifically mentioned the possibility that Causa R, led by 
former presidential hopeful and labor activist Andres 
Velasquez, might join with PJ.  (Velasquez and Alianza Bravo 
Pueblo's Antonio Ledezma separated from the Coordinadora just 
days before (ref a).)  Mejias said PJ is not focused on the 
October 31 elections for governors and mayors as PJ has only 
a handful of likely winners.  He said PJ is instead more 
focused on the 2005 National Assembly elections and on 
fielding a candidate to challenge President Chavez in 2006. 
 
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Death Rites For the Coordinadora 
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4. (C) Mejias described PJ's departure from the Coordinadora 
as a political necessity.  He said the Coordinadora was 
"practically dead" and no longer served PJ's interests.  He 
added that Accion Democratica and Proyecto Venezuela had also 
quit the Coordinadora though without fanfare.  Mejias said 
only three areas of cooperation currently among opposition 
groups remain.  First, the secretaries general of opposition 
parties continue to meet regularly to work out single 
opposition candidacies to face pro-Chavez candidates in the 
regional elections.  Mejias was pessimistic on this point, 
however, saying there is no political will to consolidate 
candidacies.  Second, opposition governors and mayors 
continue their common negotiation with the National Electoral 
Council (CNE) to secure acceptable conditions for the 
regional elections.  Third, a diverse team of experts, 
including PJ representatives, will continue to work with 
Tulio Alvarez to pursue fraud charges related to the recall 
referendum (ref b).  Mejias added that the Coordinadora's 
political committee, composed of parties and NGOs, has ceased 
to hold meetings. 
 
5. (C) In a lunch with Coordinadora representatives Juan 
Fernandez (Gente de Petroleo), Daniel Thiman (an aide to 
Miranda State Governor Enrique Mendoza), and Amado Dounia (an 
electoral expert with the COPEI party), Fernandez expressed 
great disappointment in the Coordinadora.  He said the 
Coordinadora had become "nothing" and lamented that many 
groups had forsaken opposition unity to serve their own 
interests.  Fernandez said he was not in agreement with 
Mendoza's decision to hand control of the Coordinadora over 
 
to Pompeyo Marquez, whom he described as "an old man" who 
lacks vision.  Thiman criticized the MAS party and its 
associated NGOs as "a bunch of leftists" who practically 
joined the government by giving in after the referendum. 
 
6. (C) Fernandez, who has been attending assemblies 
throughout Venezuela of his organization's membership, said 
he saw little cooperation among opposition groups in the 
country's interior and predicted they would lose 
overwhelmingly in the regional elections.  He asserted that 
Chavez is already trying to build a "Chavista-lite" 
opposition, financed indirectly by the GOV, to contend with 
Chavez's traditional opponents and play the part of a loyal 
opposition. 
 
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Comment 
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7. (C) The passing of the referendum eliminated the cohesive 
force that maintained unity with the Coordinadora.  Parties 
with a wisp of political future are protecting their 
interests by participating in the elections while others 
(mostly opposition NGOs) are attributing to themselves the 
moral high ground and withdrawing, for now, from the scene. 
The result for the time being is the re-fragmentation of the 
opposition.  Primero Justicia is the first major party to 
leave the Coordinadora.  PJ has always fancied itself as a 
"party of the future" and so it is not surprising it would 
not linger around the political corpse of the Coordinadora. 
The party faces a challenge, however, to shed its yuppie 
image and cast itself as an organization with popular roots. 
 
Brownfield 
 
 
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      2004CARACA03077 - CONFIDENTIAL