US embassy cable - 05CARACAS1355

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 001355 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, VE 
SUBJECT: CHAVEZ CALLS FOR END TO BLACK LISTING: OPPOSITION 
DOESN'T BUY IT 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR REASONS 1.4 (d 
) 
 
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Summary 
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1.  (U)  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on officials 
to stop using the so-called Tascon List to discriminate 
against opponents April 15.  The list contains the names of 
all the Venezuelans who signed petitions calling for the 
presidential recall referendum, and has been used by 
officials to deny services and employment to many 
Venezuelans.  Some opponents called the list McCarthyism, 
while some officials rebutted accusations alleging that 
opponents, too, discriminated against Chavez supporters with 
their own lists.  Some Chavez opponents threatened to take 
the issue to the international courts, while the Attorney 
General's Office and the Ombudsman's office promise to 
investigate, though with little enthusiasm.  End Summary. 
 
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Bury the Tascon List! 
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2.  (U)  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called on officials 
to "bury the Luis Tascon list", during a televised cabinet 
meeting on April 15.  Chavez said he received constant 
complaints from people claiming to have been denied jobs 
because they appeared on the Tascon list.  He said the 
"famous list undoubtedly played an important role at one 
specific moment, but it has passed."  He also called on 
governors and mayors to work with small and medium 
businessmen, regardless of whether their names appeared on 
the list.  Miranda Governor Diosdado Cabello told reporters 
Chavez's order put in their place those "who think they are 
more Chavista then Chavez." 
 
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What List? 
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3.  (C)  The Tascon list came to be in February 2003, when 
Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) Deputy Luis Tascon put a 
search engine on his web-site purportedly to allow people to 
see if they were among those who signed petitions calling for 
a consultative referendum in November 2002.    It was  thus 
possible for anyone to enter a Venezuelan identity number and 
find out if that person had signed the referendum petitions. 
Tascon claimed to have gotten the first list by combing the 
state National Electoral Council (CNE) offices' information. 
After the Supreme Court rejected the consultative referendum, 
the NGO Sumate carried out a second signature drive for a 
recall referendum.  Tascon again put the names on his 
web-site.  Tascon alleges that he acquired the second list 
from a member of Sumate, two weeks before obtaining another 
compilation of the signatures through the CNE.  Leaders of 
Sumate and the opposition deny this, and maintain that the 
CNE violated the spirit of the law by giving the names to 
Tascon, who was the representative of the pro-Chavez Comando 
Maisanta to the CNE.  The list of people who signed 
eventually became publicly available on CD ROM. 
 
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Discrimination 
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4.  (C)  Reports that government officials were using the 
list to discriminate against signers began to surface soon 
after Tascon put the search engine on his web site.  The 
Consular section of the Embassy receive numerous complaints 
from visa applicants that they could not get new passports or 
ID cards if they had signed.  In early 2004 Health Minister 
Roger Capella publicly defended the firing public sector 
workers who had signed the petitions. 
 
5.  (U)  Antonio Suarez, President of the United National 
Federation of Public Employees told reporters on April 19 
that the organization believed 5,000 public employees had 
been victims of discrimination as a result of signing the 
petitions, and that they had documented 780 cases. 200 of 
these people were fired, including 42 by FOGADE (akin to the 
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.), 20 by the Ministry of 
Interior and Justice, 11 by the Caracas subway system, and 12 
 
 
from Hidrocapital (the Caracas water company).  Suarez 
complained to the Attorney General's Office, the Ombudsman's 
Office, the CNE, the Supreme Court, the OAS, and the UNDP in 
July 2004, without result. In October 2004, he raised the 
issue with a visiting OIT mission.  Additionally, since early 
2004, there have been purges of judges and prosecutors, and 
GOV pressure on private companies to fire workers who appear 
on the list to maintain government contracts, including 
foreign oil companies. 
 
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Tascon Unapologetic 
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6.  (C)  Tascon aide Fernando Avila admitted to poloff that 
the Chavistas would use the lists to vet future applicants 
for work in the public administration.  Avila later told 
poloff that using the list to discriminate against job 
applicants was "fascist". Tascon told poloff April 5 that he 
had suggested to Chavez that he order GOV officials to stop 
using the list.  He then announced a national crusade on 
April 20 to "persecute the persecutors", and invited people 
who felt they had been victims of discrimination to write in 
to his web page. 
 
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GOV Confusion 
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5.  (U)  Following Chavez's announcement, on April 19, 
Ombudsman German Mundarain admitted his office had received 
many complaints about public sector firings, adding that he 
"had the conviction that in the private sector, as in the 
public" people's rights had been violated. CNE President 
Jorge Rodriguez repeated the argument that the opposition had 
been equally guilty of firing Chavistas who signed the GOV 
sponsored recall campaign against opposition deputies on 
April 22.  Labor Minister Cristina Iglesias took the argument 
one step further on April 28, stating that most of the 
complaints her office had received were of opposition 
discrimination against GOV supporters.  Solicitor General 
Marisol Plaza denied that any discrimination had taken place, 
calling Chavez's statement a political maneuver to win over 
opposition supporters. 
 
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Opposition Strikes Back 
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6.  (C)  The blacklist became a hot public issue on April 5, 
when the tabloid "TalCual" began a series of articles 
detailing cases of discrimination and comparing the Tascon 
list to the McCarthy-era blacklist.  At the same time, Ana 
Julia Jatar, who is tracking the blacklisting for Sumate, 
wrote a column comparing the GOV policy to South African 
apartheid.  Following Chavez's statement, on April 18, 
Venezuelan Workers' Confederation Secretary General Manuel 
Cova called on the GOV to prove its sincerity by rehiring the 
fired state oil company workers and all other fired public 
employees.  Others announced they would request the 
International Criminal Court try Chavez for crimes against 
humanity (unlikely to prosper), while Primero Justicia Deputy 
Julio Borges called on the Attorney General to open an 
investigation of Tascon on April 22. 
 
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Buried How Deep? 
---------------- 
 
7.  (U)  Despite Chavez's call to cease using the Tascon 
list, reports of discrimination continued. Caracas daily "El 
Nacional" reported that the Supreme Court had withdrawn its 
offer to appoint a lawyer as an alternate judge on April 22, 
because he had signed the referendum petition.  On April 29 
"El Universal" reported that 200 teachers had taken over an 
educational office in Miranda State, to protest the 
harassment of the 10,000 teachers who had signed the 
petition. 
 
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Comment 
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8.  (C)  Rather than declining in importance with the passing 
 
 
of the recall referendum, Tascon's list has become a central 
issue.  Affecting from 3.5 million to 5 million Venezuelans, 
political discrimination based on Tascon's list continues to 
exacerbate the political divide.  The portrayal of the Tascon 
list in right wing terms (black list, apartheid) has put 
Chavez in an uncomfortable position. Admitting that the list 
has been used to discriminate against his opponents, and 
formally calling for an end to the practice may be enough to 
ease the consciences of some Chavez supporters, but nobody in 
the opposition believes Chavez was sincere, or that the 
discrimination will end.  In fact, there are reports that 
persons vying for government contracts can be stricken from 
"the list" by paying a fee. 
McFarland 
 
 
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      2005CARACA01355 - CONFIDENTIAL