US embassy cable - 05QUITO661

C O N F I D E N T I A L QUITO 000661 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/22/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, EC, VE 
SUBJECT: GUTIERREZ TO CARACAS:  WILL HE OR WON'T HE? 
 
REF: QUITO 652 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Arnold Chacon, Reasons 1.4 (b) 
 
1.  (U) SUMMARY:  For a month the Embassy has heard rumors 
that Ecuador President Lucio Gutierrez would travel to 
Caracas and meet Hugo Chavez.  Confirmation has proved 
difficult, however; Gutierrez himself swears the trip dates 
have slipped until autumn.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (U) Guayaquil's El Universo newspaper wrote February 26 
that President Hugo Chavez had informed Venezuelan press that 
his Ecuadorian counterpart was seeking dates for a Venezuela 
trip.  Later press accounts claimed Gutierrez, while in 
Caracas, would focus on greater bilateral cooperation in the 
petroleum sector.  Editorialists, however, quickly offered 
the "real" motivation behind the president's Venezuela 
travel:  pressuring Washington.  Under their theory, 
Gutierrez, annoyed at the Ambassador's public statements of 
concern over Ecuador's political blood-letting, had floated 
his cozying up to Chavez as a means to tell the USG to back 
off. 
 
3.  (C) Confusion soon set in.  Over lunch March 18, Spanish 
Ambassador to Ecuador Juan Maria Alzina informed the 
Ambassador that, according to GoE Foreign Minister Patricio 
Zuquilanda, there was no Gutierrez-Chavez get-together 
planned.  Zuquilanda had told Alzina the Caracas meeting was 
pure Chavez misinformation.  Other Embassy sources refuted 
the FM's assertions, however, claiming that presidential 
Venezuela trip planning was well underway.  Further, 
Presidential Legal Advisor Carlos Larrea informed Poloff 
March 22 that Gutierrez would travel to Caracas the first 
week of April.  The visit was purely commercial/technical in 
nature, as Ecuador sought Venezuelan investment and expertise 
in increasing petroleum production and profitability.  Larrea 
described the Chavez-Gutierrez relationship as cordial but 
not close.  Washington should not worry over the visit, he 
continued, as Gutierrez did not support his Venezuelan 
counterpart's anti-US, anti-"imperialist" ideology. 
 
4.  (C) Under the guise of wishing the president a happy 
birthday, the Ambassador telephoned Gutierrez March 22.  She 
focused on points of "great USG concern," the upcoming UNHRC 
Cuba resolution (Reftel) and his reported trip to Caracas. 
Gutierrez had no plans to visit Caracas in April, although he 
was considering travel in October or November.  To follow up, 
the Ambassador sought and obtained a private meeting with the 
president, tentatively scheduled for March 28. 
 
5.  (C) COMMENT:  Chavez long has pressured Gutierrez to 
visit Caracas, intimating that a refusal was tantamount to 
opposing Latin American unity.  The Ecuadorian has so far 
resisted, partly from concern of annoying the United States 
and partly because the two are not friends (Embassy contacts 
claim Gutierrez was furious over Chavez's anti-US, 
anti-Gutierrez antics during the June 2004 OASGA in Quito). 
Recent press has painted Ecuador the odd man out in South 
America's turn to the left, however, and perhaps pushed the 
president into accepting a perfunctory Venezuela visit 
couched in technical/commercial terms.  Realizing we cannot 
control Gutierrez's travel plans and seeing potential 
blow-back in the attempt, we nonetheless have counseled 
presidential staff to consider Caracas visit optics and have 
pushed hard for meetings with Venezuelan opposition and civil 
society.  The Ambassador will echo this message in her 
upcoming call on Gutierrez.  END COMMENT. 
CHACON