US embassy cable - 05QUITO1667

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 QUITO 001667 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, EC 
SUBJECT: FIRST STAGE OF NATIONAL DIALOGUE PROCESS COMES TO 
AN END 
 
 
1.  SUMMARY: On July 11, PolIntern met with Alexandra Perez, 
the executive director of the National State Modernization 
Council (CONAM) to discuss the ongoing national dialogue 
process and December 11 referendum.  Perez is supporting Vice 
President Alejandro Serrano in directing this project; she 
updated PolOffs on the progress of collecting citizen input 
regarding political reform.  During the meeting Perez also 
discussed several other items on the CONAM agenda, including 
modernization of the civil registry and a decentralization 
initiative.  END SUMMARY. 
 
JULY 15 MARKS END OF NATIONAL DIALOGUE PROCESS 
 
2.  July 15 is the last day for Ecuadorian citizens to submit 
their input on the issues they would like to see addressed by 
the December 11 referendum.  Via regular mail and the 
internet, CONAM has received over 3500 proposals, including 
from Ecuadorian citizens living overseas.  Perez said that 
most of the proposals they receive come from multiple people; 
she estimated that about 25-30,000 people had participated in 
the national dialogue process so far. 
 
FTA NOT TO BE INCLUDED ON REFEENDUM 
 
3.  Perez said that over 60% of the proposals received are 
related to political reform, especially the issues of 
congressional districting, reform of the judicial system, and 
decentralization, among others.  As of the afternoon of July 
14, nearly 600 of the total proposals received referred to 
congressional reform.  Many suggestions also concern 
reforming the health and education systems.  With regard to 
USG interests, there have been some proposals related to the 
Free Trade Agreement, though Perez assured PolOffs that the 
FTA will not be included on the referendum.  Perez believes 
that much of the popular opposition to the FTA arises from a 
lack of information, and said that CONAM has a "conflict 
resolution team" of technocrats working on this issue. 
USAID's Trade Capacity Building team is aware of CONAM's team 
and its activities.  Very few submissions deal with the U.S. 
Cooperative Security Location at Manta, another polemic issue 
which definitely will not make the cut, she said. 
 
MUCH WORK STILL TO BE DONE BEFORE DECEMBER 11 
 
4.  When the period of collecting citizen input comes to an 
end, CONAM will initiate a three-week synthesis phase, during 
which time the citizenry can reflect and debate over the 
proposals.  Perez said the OAS, the Spanish government, a 
Swiss NGO, and the government of Korea have already agreed to 
help with this process in the areas of financial and 
technological assistance.  CONAM is planning to hire thematic 
and legal experts for the analytical process, and is seeking 
further financial support for this. 
 
5.  This third stage of the national dialogue process will 
culminate in the formulation of questions to be included on 
the referendum.  Once their urgency is ratified by Congress 
in November, the questions will be put in official referendum 
format for December 11. 
 
OPPOSITION TO RECONCILIATION PROCESS ALREADY MOBILIZED 
 
6.  Perez asserted that the national reconciliation process 
will help to legitimize the new administration,s reform 
agenda; however, various detractors of the project have begun 
voicing dissatisfaction.  The "forajidos" (protesters who 
brought down the Gutierrez government) have accused the 
government of stalling, and numerous groups are frustrated 
that the Free Trade Agreement will not be included in the 
questions.  Some of our congressional contacts have asserted 
that reforms should be left to them and that the referendum 
will achieve nothing substantive.  Political parties are also 
accusing the administration of leaving them out of the 
process, though Perez explained that CONAM is working hard to 
gather input from various groups, including political parties. 
 
CONAM ALSO LOOKING AT OTHER MODERNIZATION PROJECTS 
7.  Perez also described several other key CONAM projects to 
PolOffs.  First on her list is modernization of the civil 
registry system.  This would involve the acquisition of 
state-of-the-art technology in order to create a central 
database for drivers' licenses, fingerprints, passports, and 
other government information.  Perez says she has been in 
contact with USAID regarding possible support for this 
project.  USAID was non-committal, because of higher priority 
political, judicial, and electoral reform issues and limited 
resources for what was described as a fairly ambitious and 
expensive system, and if a USG priority might fit better 
under DHS.  CONAM also plans a full-scale decentralization 
project that would implement 90% of existing agreements with 
provincial and local governments (currently only 5% have been 
implemented, she said).  Perez was formerly an active member 
of the donor-led Governance Round Table.  USAID expects the 
round table would serve as appropriate venue for coordination 
of CONAM's project, which we understand has been approved by 
IDB for $4.5 million and requires $1.5 million in GOE 
counterpart. 
 
COMMENT 
8.  Perez seems a competent director of the national 
reconciliation process.  However, she may be underestimating 
the difficulty of the task ahead.  The proposed referendum 
has already raised expectations it will be difficult if not 
impossible to meet.  With detractors of the project already 
making their voices heard and rumors of a future resurgence 
of the "forajidos" and opposition by Ecuadorian Congress, the 
capabilities of CONAM's director may not be enough to stem 
the tide of discontent.  Perez,s ambitious agenda may be due 
in part to her own political ambitions.  END COMMENT. 
BIO NOTE 
9.  Perez is the daughter of Alvaro Perez Intriago, Ecuador's 
Ambassador-nominee to the United States.  She studied in 
Washington, D.C., and has worked for GTZ (a German 
international development NGO) and other international 
organizations.  When asked about her career plans after the 
Palacio government, she was evasive. 
HERBERT