US embassy cable - 05SANTODOMINGO3408

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 003408 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA, WHA/AND, WHA/CAR, INR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2025 
TAGS: PREL, EPET, DR 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN PRESIDENT FERNANDEZ DISCUSSES CHAVEZ 
 
REF: 2005 SANTO DOMINGO 3121 
 
Classified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES MICHAEL MEIGS.  REASON: 1.4 (B) AND (D 
). 
 
1. (C)  Summary.  Dominican President Leonel Fernandez says 
that though his relation with Venezuelan President Hugo 
Chavez remains warm, Chavez shrugs off Fernandez's advice to 
pursue moderation.  Fernandez says he and other Latin 
American leaders see Chavez as out of touch intellectually 
with global realities and unable to articulate the essence of 
his "bolivarian" revolution.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) Dominican President Leonel Fernandez received the 
Ambassador, SAA and an officer visiting from Caracas on June 
21 to discuss Venezuela issues.  Visiting oficer had met 
Fernandez several times during Fernandez's 1996-2000 term. 
Fernandez remembered the meetings well and hosted a relaxed 2 
1/2 hour discussion centered almost entirely on Venezuelan 
matters. 
 
3.  (C) Fernandez listened intently as visiting officer led 
off witha rundown of the current situation in Venezuela.  The 
President was extremely interested in comments about Chavez's 
oil policy.  Venezuela is one of few oil price "hawks" in 
OPEC, with Chavez having the stated goal of seeing oil prices 
reach USD 100/barrel, the briefer said.  Fernandez  replied 
that this policy would ultimately hurt Venezuela's "friends" 
such as the Dominican Republic, even though some countries 
would continue to receive preferential pricing.  The briefer 
commented on Venezuela's poor management of state-owned oil 
company PDVSA and its wasteful use of oil revenues.  Chavez 
is banking on high oil prices but risking the country's 
economy.  Fernandez said that he is very worried about gas 
prices which translate quickly into political problems for 
the Dominican Republic.  Fernandez said that he will send a 
representative to an upcoming meeting of Caribbean nations on 
energy, hosted by Venezuela, scheduled for late June. (Note: 
Fernandez himself is now attending this meeting, along with 
senior Dominican officials who will be discussing Venezuelan 
demands for adjustment of the bilateral energy agreeemnt -- 
see reftel.) 
 
4.  (S) The briefer pointed out that while the USG respects 
the right of the Venezuelan people to elect their leader, the 
region is threatened by Chavez's attempts to bring his 
"bolivarian" revolution to other Latin American countries. 
Chavez is actively providing political and logistical support 
to the FARC in Colombia.  While discussing FARC 
narcotrafficking activities, Fernandez said that he had been 
particularly alarmed about a briefing he received recently in 
Washington from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, including a 
graphic showing tracks of drug flights coming out of 
Colombia, through Venezuela and directly to the south coast 
of the Dominican Republic.  Visiting officer commented that 
Chavez is probably not personally corrupt and is not 
directing government officials to allow narcotics activities 
to transit Venezuela.  Even so, Chavez has a long record of 
not disciplining military officers found to be directly 
involved in the drug trade.  Further, Chavez's inner circle 
are deeply involved in corrupt activities, certainly with 
Chavez's knowledge; he is astute and a micro manager who 
knows what is going on in his country. 
 
5.  (C) Fernandez was extremely well-versed on Chavez's 
personal background.  He commented that they are from the 
same generation of Latin American leaders and have known each 
other for a long time.  Chavez and Fernandez have an 
excellent personal relationship; Fernandez feels that Chavez 
has a warm affection for him.  They call each other 
frequently.  However, Fernandez commented, though Chavez once 
saw Fernandez as something of a mentor, currently the 
Venezuelan president does not give Fernandez's opinions the 
same weight as before.  Fernandez said that he had called 
Chavez recently to rebuke him for insulting the U.S. 
President; Chavez acknowledged that he had gone too far, but 
was not chastened by Fernandez's counsel to deal more 
intelligently with the United States.  In short, Fernandez 
recognized that his earlier professed intention to serve as a 
good-faith arbiter between Venezuela and the United States 
could not be successful. 
 
6.  (C) Fernandez said that Chavez is intellectually weak and 
has trouble making coherent arguments.  Fernandez commented 
that although Chavez has a tendency to speak for hours at a 
time, during regional latin American summits, Chavez is very 
hesitant to speak at lentgh in front of his Latin amerifcan 
counterparts, and when he does speak, he tends to speak in 
generalities.  As a result, Fernandez and other Latin 
American leaders view Chavez on a lower intellectual level 
than themselves and privately make fun of Chavez' inability 
to articulate himself in an intelligent manner.  Fernandez 
feels that Chavez's project of "bolivarian" revolution does 
not make sense and is out of step with programs of serious 
political leaders in the region. 
7.  (C) Fernandez stated that democracy and free and fair 
trade is the wave of the future and reiterated his support 
for the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement.  Fernandez commented 
that within his generation of "leftist" leaders in Latin 
America, his personal experience growing up in New York gives 
him a better objective understanding of the United States, 
which distances him from knee-jerk anti-Americanism of some 
of his colleagues.  In particular, Fernandez was sharply 
critical of the fact that Venezuela under Chavez had diverged 
from what Fernandez described as a pragmatic left-of-center 
political grouping and had joined the "Havana" group. 
 
8.  (C) Fernandez said that he and other pragmatic leftist 
leaders such as Chilean President Lagos understand that the 
marxist and socialist theories of the previous cold war were 
"a failure" and that one must understand that globalization 
and free trade are important to any country's economy.  He 
commented that leaders like Chavez continue to live in the 
past, believing that the ideas of the 1970's are still valid 
in today's economy.  Fernandez noted that he has never seen a 
definition of Chavez' "bolivarian revolution" and criticized 
Chavez for not being able to articulate concepts defining the 
essence of the "bolivarian" revolution. 
MEIGS