US embassy cable - 04CARACAS3855

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 003855 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, VE 
SUBJECT: COPEI ON THE ROPES 
 
Classified By: A/DCM ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR 1.4 (D) 
 
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Summary 
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1.  (C)  Venezuela's Christian Democratic party (Copei) 
agreed to restructure during party federal council and 
general assembly meetings December 8-9.  Frustrated with 
Copei's refusal to cede leadership space at the national 
level and failure to share funds, the leadership of the Copei 
youth wing offered resignations and asked that the party 
executive follow suit.  Copei president Eduardo Fernandez 
offered his resignation (refused by the party) in solidarity 
with the movement.  The agreement to reorganize appeased 
Copei youth wing national secretary Raul Chirinos, although 
Chirinos described the process as too slow.  The youth 
movement is prudent to worry about the future viability of 
Copei, but neither its proposals nor the party leadership's 
hand-wringing and foot-dragging will serve to prepare the 
declining party for next year's legislative elections.  End 
summary. 
 
2.  (C)  During party federal council and general assembly 
meetings during December 8-9, Venezuela's Christian Democrats 
(Copei) agreed to begin to reorganize the party and its 
leadership.  Copei announced that an executive board headed 
by party president Eduardo Fernandez, secretary general Cesar 
Perez Vivas, and nine other members would oversee the 
restructuring.  The party also agreed to name committees 
charged with internal dialog, statutory reform, platform 
revision, and political alliances.  According to Copei 
officials, the party will meet again in January-February to 
discuss proposed changes.  Copei national coordinator of 
organization Luis Ignacio Planas told poloff the party is 
also considering scrapping its dual president/secretary 
general leadership structure in favor of a single, more 
clearly defined leader.  He mentioned that Fernandez enjoyed 
the support of over 90 percent of the party, while less than 
half the party backed Perez Vivas. 
 
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Angry Youth 
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3.  (C)  Copei called the meetings partly at the behest of 
the party's youth wing, whose leadership offered its 
resignations as an example to the party executive to 
surrender positions to those who better reflect the party 
"base."  A visibly angry Raul Chirinos, the national 
secretary of the Copei youth, told poloff before the meetings 
 
SIPDIS 
that the party leadership benefited from his movement 
politically but refused to reciprocate with either positions 
or resources.  Chirinos singled out former Miranda governor 
and Coordinadora Democratica leader Enrique Mendoza for 
failing to provide one million bolivars (approximately USD 
500) that he had promised the youth wing.  (NOTE:  Mendoza 
maintains distance from the Copei party structure.) 
 
4.  (C)  Chirinos was not optimistic about his ability to 
promote leadership change, saying the old guard probably 
would not be willing to step down until after the 2005 
legislative elections.  He said the about 30,000 Copei youth 
would consider walking if the party leadership was not 
accommodating, although he downplayed the influence of the 
youth movement in the party.  Fernandez also offered his 
resignation (rejected by the party) as an effort to promote 
party restructuring, but Perez Vivas told the press that he 
would not resign as secretary general because the party 
"base" already trusted him.  He added that he did not view 
the "33- or 34-year old" Chirinos as the leader of Copei 
youth. 
 
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New Urgency Confronts Old Apathy 
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5.  (C) Chirinos told poloff on December 13 he remained 
dissatisfied with the pace of change.  According to press, 
Chirinos advocates realignment with parties of similar 
ideology, and he told poloff he hoped to bring former 
President Rafael Caldera's family and former Governors 
Henrique Salas Feo (Proyecto Venezuela) and Eduardo Lapi 
(Convergencia) back into the Christian Democratic fold.  The 
youth leader avowed that an alternative to President Hugo 
 
Chavez would emerge one way or another and would "run over" 
the current opposition if it refused to change.  During a 
December 14 meeting with poloff, party executives--more 
concerned with recounting the administration's abuses--seemed 
unfazed about the prospect of being "overrun."  Asked if they 
had been talking with other opposition parties, the Copei 
officials merely mentioned eating lunch recently with old 
friends from Primero Justicia. 
 
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Comment 
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6.  (C)  For the near term, an agreement to restructure and 
to discuss proposed changes in February appears to have 
appeased Chirinos, but the youth movement's concerns about 
the party's uncertain future are warranted.  With legislative 
elections that could relegate Copei to Venezuelan electoral 
history less than a year away, Copei can ill afford a lengthy 
period of self-reflection.  Now scrapping for funds, Copei is 
a network of friends and families whose politicians lack 
public support and whose political base has been gradually 
emigrating from Venezuela.  Digging up discredited fossils 
such as former President Caldera and figures like Salas Feo, 
however, would hardly offer life support to a party that 
needs above all to shed its "oligarchic" image, which Chavez 
so successfully exploits. 
Brownfield 
 
 
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      2004CARACA03855 - CONFIDENTIAL