US embassy cable - 05LIMA2551

S E C R E T LIMA 002551 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2015 
TAGS: PE, PGOV, PREL, VE 
SUBJECT: VENEZUELA MEDDLING IN PERUVIAN POLITICS 
 
REF: TD-314/34084-05 
 
Classified By: Ambassador J. Curtis Struble for Reason 1.4 (B, D) 
 
1.  (S)  Ambassador requested a one-on-one meeting with 
Foreign Minister Rodriguez Cuadros  June 6 to discuss the 
Venezuelan government,s involvement with violent, extremist 
Peruvian organizations.  The Ambassador noted that the 
Embassy had learned late last week that Venezuela,s 
Ambassador-designate to Peru, Manuel Martinez Ramirez, was 
visiting Lima to help organize a &Friends of the Bolivarian 
Revolution8 national commission comprising groups such as 
Patria Roja and the Ethnocaseritas.  The Embassy had alerted 
the Ministry of Interior, which had police film the event. 
In the event that the Ministry of Interior had not alerted 
MFA to this, the Ambassador said, he wanted to be certain the 
Foreign Minister was aware of it. 
 
2.  (S)  Rodriguez Cuadros said that he met that morning with 
the Ministry of Interior to discuss the GOV,s engagement 
with extremist Peruvian groups; this latest incident was not 
the first.  The Foreign Minister said that prior to the South 
American Summit, which Peru hosted, President Chavez, 5-6 
person advance team met in Ayacucho with Patria Roja 
representatives.  The advance gave their Peruvian 
collaborators money used to print anti-Toledo and pro-Chavez 
placards as well as to bus demonstrators to an event the 
Presidents attended commemorating the Battle of Ayacucho. 
The disruptive demonstration was both larger and better 
organized that Patria Roja,s usual efforts.  While police 
intelligence reports are not always credible, the Minister 
said, in this case authorities had both audiotapes and photos 
to prove GOV financial support for the protestors.  Rodriguez 
Cuadros worried that the GOV might be meddling elsewhere in 
Peru.  He thought particularly likely--though he had no 
specific evidence--that Chavez was trying to stir things up 
in Puno, in the hope of spreading Bolivia,s unrest to 
Peru,s Aymaras.  Rodriguez Cuadros said that he would be 
convoking the Venezuelan Ambassador (sic) to lay out this 
evidence and demand the GOV cease and desist. 
 
3.  (S)  Rodriguez also mused (septel) on the priority need 
to enhance development in Peru,s Sierra region as a means to 
deny to Chavez what he has found to be fertile ground in 
Bolivia and Ecuador. 
 
STRUBLE