US embassy cable - 05QUITO534

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 QUITO 000534 
 
SIPDIS 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y (PARAS RENUMBERED) 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/07/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, EC 
SUBJECT: A DEFENSIVE GUTIERREZ BLASTS CRITICS 
 
REF: A. QUITO 467 
 
     B. QUITO 418 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, Reasons 1.4 (b) 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY:  President Lucio Gutierrez feels justified 
in criticizing Ecuador's political opposition, calling his 
public rebuttals valid tit-for-tat.  "If I don't respond to 
their allegations," he told the Ambassador March 7, "the 
people will believe them."  Gutierrez attributed opposition 
elites' virulence to policies he had implemented to reduce 
their allegedly corrupt influence.  He deplored the wave of 
low-level political violence and harassment currently 
enveloping the capital, however.  On the current Supreme 
Court impasse, the president acknowledged his proposed 
referendum was overly complex and needed rework; 
optimistically, he claimed political ally (but referendum 
opponent) Alvaro Noboa was warming to the idea of a Court 
swap.  Gutierrez hinted at additional Cabinet changes, 
lamenting his newly-named government minister's poor health 
and questioning whether the Embassy "had anything" on 
Administration Secretary Oscar Ayerve. 
 
2.  (C) In strongest terms, the Ambassador urged the 
president to desist from further confrontation and engage the 
opposition in real dialogue.  "Ecuador elected you because 
you were different from old-style politicians," she 
emphasized; waging wars with the media and opposition would 
only shrink his stature.  Embassy support for Ecuadorian 
democracy and its institutions was firm -- we would continue 
to encourage dialogue on all sides.  She warned the president 
not to confuse U.S. neutrality with passivity, however. 
Should GoE elements continue their clumsy attempts to muzzle 
the opposition, with or without Gutierrez approval, the 
Embassy was prepared to air its concerns publicly.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
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Referendum To Go Forward? 
------------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) Travel delays due to inclement weather and a case 
of food poisoning (the president's) had turned the 
Ambassador's March 7 breakfast with Gutierrez into a late 
working lunch.  The GoE leader opened with his pet project: 
a referendum designed to resolve the current Supreme Court 
controversy.  The president realized the current proposal, 
as-is, had little chance of clearing Congress.  "Too many 
questions," he acknowledged, and "too much opposition" from 
the legislature's numerous voting blocs.  Staff were working 
to reduced the dozen-item consultation to a single question 
for the electorate.  Gutierrez was confident the revised 
referendum would enjoy broader support.  Specifically, he 
claimed PRIAN leader and former presidential candidate Alvaro 
Noboa no longer opposed a second Court change.  "He finally 
realizes this Court is no better than the last," Gutierrez 
offered. 
 
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Fighting:  No End In Sight 
-------------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU) Turning to Quito's superheated political 
environment, an exasperated Gutierrez claimed he had never 
seen such verbal aggression against a sitting president.  The 
corrupt elites despised him for his military background and 
leadership style.  Once they became aware of his 
determination to wrest back control over state and parastatal 
institutions, they counter-attacked, exploiting their control 
over Ecuadorian media.  Even the Church was against him; on 
Sunday, Gutierrez revealed, a prominent priest had called 
presidential abode Carondelet Palace a "stable, inhabited by 
animals."  Were he not to respond in kind to these ad hominem 
attacks, he argued, Ecuador's masses would accept the 
opposition diatribe as true. 
 
5.  (C) The Ambassador disagreed.  Answering accusations with 
insults was petty and non-presidential, she admonished. 
Where was the dialogue he and his followers had promised? 
Where was the legislative agenda?  Key bills, including 
energy sector reform, the civil aviation law, and anti-TIP 
legislation, languished in Congress, victims of the 
nonsensical posturing between government loyalists and 
opposition.  Things had to change. 
 
6.  (C) Ecuador's rank-and-file had chosen the president 
based on his outsider status and determination to tackle 
corruption, the Ambassador reminded.  Yet Gutierrez's 
behavior was no different than that of career politicians he 
earlier lambasted.  Others shared the view; she recounted her 
recent trip to Esmeraldas, where marginalized 
Afro-Ecuadorians, once among Gutierrez's strongest 
supporters, had derided the president's focus on politics 
over governance. 
 
7.  (C) Worse, political violence appeared on the upswing. 
The Ambassador recounted the hours-earlier confrontation 
between members of Zero Corruption (ZC), a pro-GoE 
organization that supported the current Court, and Citizen 
Participation (PC), a USAID-financed electoral NGO.  ZC 
members had attempted to infiltrate PC's offices early March 
7, spray-painting ugly graffiti and threatening staff 
(Septel) before police arrived 30 minutes later.  In 
addition, she understood that unidentified thugs two days 
earlier had fired on the vehicle of Congressional Deputy 
Enrique Ayala.  The Ambassador laid no blame on the GoE for 
the incidents.  Yet the GoE tolerated two similarly clumsy 
attempts to muzzle prominent critics the Jesuit Order and 
retired General Jorge Gallardo (Reftels).  Taken together, 
the actions fueled perceptions of a GoE campaign to 
intimidate its critics. 
 
----------------------------------- 
USG Support Tied To Good Governance 
----------------------------------- 
 
8.  (C) The Embassy message would remain constant, the 
Ambassador asserted, focusing on support for Ecuador's 
constitution, separation of powers, and government-opposition 
dialogue.  Yet there were lines in the sand.  She was 
prepared to go public with criticism of any Ecuadorian 
institution, the presidency included, should circumstances 
merit.  Defending democracy was the USG's overriding priority 
in Ecuador. 
 
9.  (SBU) Gutierrez swore his forces were not behind the 
Ayala attack.  In fact, earlier he had expressed condolences 
in a telephone call to the Socialist deputy, promising him 
personal protection.  "No one has more to lose than me" from 
the wave of harassment and violence in Quito, the president 
asserted.  He would ensure the police investigated all leads. 
 
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Another Cabinet "Re-oxygenation" Soon? 
-------------------------------------- 
 
10.  (C) Changing gears, the president hinted at additional 
Cabinet turnover.  Minister of Government Xavier Ledesma, who 
recently traveled to the United States for emergency glaucoma 
surgery, was in bad shape; Gutierrez hoped he would return 
soon.  Recent appointee Oscar Ayerve also was on the 
president's mind.  Gutierrez attributed much of the 
controversy surrounding his new administration secretary 
general to bad blood between Ayerve and former Cabinet 
official Patricio Acosta.  Nonetheless, he asked whether the 
Embassy had incriminating information on the embattled 
official. 
 
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COMMENT 
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11.  (C) Taking a page from modern child rearing, both the 
GoE and opposition could use a "time out" from their constant 
bickering.  Regrettably, no such parental authority exists 
here, and the silliness will likely continue.  Yet the 
violent turn worries us.  Should convincing proof of 
administration involvement surface, it would mandate a strong 
USG protest.  The aforementioned incidents don't yet 
constitute evidence of GoE complicity, however.  The attack 
on Ayala might prove opposition-spawned, since his Socialist 
Party's opportunistic flip-flopping has annoyed both sides to 
the Court debate.  And while the assault on PC headquarters 
was not the opposition's work, it seems too clumsy to have 
earned the president's chop.  Regardless, the government must 
do a better job investigating these attacks and preventing 
others. 
 
12.  (C) Administration insiders reveal Gutierrez continues 
to heed Embassy recommendations and counsel.  We have reason 
to hope he heard loud and clear our private admonitions to 
turn down the vitriol and swear off political violence.  If 
not, we're prepared to make our views public.  END COMMENT. 
KENNEY