US embassy cable - 04QUITO3027

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 QUITO 003027 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, KCRM, PINR, EC 
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT MINISTER POLITICAL LIGHTING ROD, 
POSSIBLE ALLY ON TIP 
 
REF: A. QUITO 2955 
     B. QUITO 2959 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, for reasons 1.4 (b&d). 
 
1.  (C) Summary:  Government Minister Jaime Damerval has 
courted controversy since taking office on November 8, 
recently suggesting that the GoE convoke a referendum on 
whether to dissolve Congress to promote constitutional 
reforms.  In a private meeting with the DCM on November 15, 
Damerval backed away from his own proposal, describing it as 
a trial balloon which may not prosper.  What seems clear is 
that Damerval was hired to lead the government's 
counter-attack against pro-impeachment forces in Congress. 
That effort became apparent with the organization of 
pro-government rallies outside Congress, where scuffles 
erupted between pro and anti-impeachment legislators.  We 
have forcefully conveyed to Damerval USG support for 
democratic institutions, including Congress, and hope to 
continue USG-GoE collaboration on mutual interests, including 
combating trafficking in persons.  Damerval responded 
positively, but clearly has other priorities.  End Summary. 
 
2.   (C) DCM and PolChief met with Government Minister Jaime 
Damerval Martinez on November 15, at our request.  The DCM 
emphasized USG support for democratic institutions, including 
Congress, and emphasized the cost to Ecuador of political 
instability and uncertainty.  We hope to continue to 
cooperate with the Government Ministry in areas of mutual 
interest, such as combating narco-trafficking and trafficking 
in persons, he said.  The Minister has a leading role to play 
in these vital efforts, which we hope will continue to show 
progress.  He suggested that Damerval name key members of his 
staff to maintain working-level contact with Embassy officers 
on these issues. 
 
3.  (C) Damerval agreed that these are important issues which 
he hoped to turn to once his Ministry team was named later 
that week.  Preoccupied by staff and budgetary constraints, 
Damerval nevertheless said he would personally support 
pending anti-TIP legislation.  He said he hoped to use his 
term in office to promote several other reforms, including 
commercial code reform and privatization of the civil 
registry.  Security is another high priority, he said, and 
Ecuador deserved greater support from its neighbor Colombia 
to handle it.  He characterized the Colombian attitude 
towards Ecuador as "arrogant" and described Colombian 
President Uribe's response to President Gutierrez' recent 
request for economic assistance for Colombian refugees in 
Ecuador as "dismissive."  Damerval claimed to be open to 
collaboration with the USG on all issues of mutual interest. 
 
4.  (C) Turning to politics, Damerval said his proposal to 
seek approval by the populace to dissolve Congress already 
faced opposition from President Gutierrez' brother Gilmar, 
who had publicly stated that any constitutional reform 
initiatives should be handled by Congress, not through 
referendum.  Damerval said his idea was simply to promote 3-6 
key reforms, which involve further reducing the size of 
Congress, giving the Pacific Coastal area a greater say in 
national affairs, and de-politicizing the courts.  Congress 
is naturally opposed and would never support reform, since 
they would reduce its influence.  A referendum to dissolve 
Congress would not be legally binding, he said, but would 
provide "moral weight" in favor of reform that Congress could 
not ignore. 
 
5.  (U) Several thousand pro-government indigenous 
evangelicals (FEINE) marched on November 16-17 to protest 
Congressional action against their leader, Marco Murillo. 
Murillo had publicly called for the dissolution of Congress 
when it was moving to impeach President Gutierrez, prompting 
one Congress member to file criminal charges against him. 
Protesters called for an end to the criminal investigation of 
Murillo, and to the Congressional hearing on November 17 to 
censure Minister of Social Welfare Antonio Vargas, an 
indigenous leader from the Amazon region and strong Gutierrez 
ally.  Political analysts speculated that these 
pro-government protests were conceived or supported by the 
GoE, and attribute these aggressive new tactics to Damerval. 
 
6.  (U) Meanwhile, temperatures inside the Congress were 
rising as the government attempted to fashion a 
pro-government majority and the pro-impeachment opposition 
courted the Socialist Party's three votes after failing on 
November 9 to muster the simple majority needed to create an 
impeachment committee (Ref A).  Inside the Congress on 
November 16, a scuffle broke out between pro-impeachment 
legislators and Gilmar Gutierrez, the president's brother. 
The incident was reportedly sparked by debate over President 
Gutierrez' announcement on November 15 that the government 
would aggressively pursue debtors who owed money to the 
public purse, including those associated with former 
president Leon Febres-Cordero.  In response to the scuffle, 
PSC legislator Alfonso Harb reportedly pulled out and waved 
his handgun on the floor of Congress.  President of Congress 
Landazuri later announced an investigation of Harb for his 
violation of Congressional etiquette. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
7.  (C) We concur with the view that Damerval was chosen to 
more aggressively counter pro-impeachment forces in Congress. 
 However, when the impeachment effort stalled on November 9, 
Damerval suddenly became the wrong person for the wrong job. 
Oblivious to changed circumstances, he has seized on the 
President's reform agenda as a vehicle to counter-attack the 
pro-impeachment forces.  The suggestion that Congress be 
dissolved to promote reforms is worrisome and apparently 
designed to get around a constitutional provision that 
requires majority Congressional support to call a referendum 
on constitutional reform.  Any such move would likely 
threaten the government's legitimacy.  We are encouraged that 
Damerval seemed chastened by the public rebuke of his idea by 
the President's brother. 
 
8.  (C) Nevertheless, we will try to work with Damerval and 
his appointees on essential mutual interests such as TIP and 
counter-narcotics, which will clearly require great effort on 
our part.  Though it is very early to judge, we are concerned 
that Demarval's priorities may be elsewhere, and that he may 
seek new opportunities to put pro-impeachment forces on the 
defensive, risking further political destabilization. 
 
Additional Bio Information (Ref B) 
---------------------------------- 
 
9. (C) According to PSC Congress member Marcelo Dotti, 
Damerval is motivated by personal antipathy towards Leon 
Febres-Cordero after losing a ten-year legal battle to the 
ex-president decades ago.  Since that time, Dotti claims, 
Damerval has used his press column to virulently attack 
Febres-Cordero and his party interests, which led Gutierrez 
to select him.  Dotti predicted that Damerval's personal 
motives and ambitions would eventually clash with the 
President's. 
KENNEY