US embassy cable - 05LIMA4271

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 004271 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/28/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PINS, PREL, PE, VE 
SUBJECT: MORE ON OLLANTA HUMALA'S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY 
AND LINKS TO CHAVEZ 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Alexander Margulies.  Reason:  1.4(d 
). 
 
1.  (C)  Sociologist Jaime Antesana, an expert in cocalero 
politics working for a USAID contractor, during a 9/21 
meeting with Emboffs said that the cocalero movement appears 
to be coalescing in support of ultra-nationalist Ollanta 
Humala's presidential candidacy.  Antesana added that he met 
with Humala recently, and the latter showed him the results 
of a poll by an international company, which Humala said was 
funded by the Government of Venezuela, that gave him 10 
percent of the vote nationwide. 
 
2.  (C)  In a 9/28 meeting with Deputy Polcouns, 
congressional advisor Julio Schiappa, who also teaches a 
graduate school seminar, said that he met with Humala 
recently through one of his students, who coordinates 
Humala's party membership drive.  Schiappa said that Humala 
acknowledged having a hard time obtaining the 128,000 
signatures needed to register his party, and that he would 
probably just have to "buy" one of the mini-parties that has 
already registered (29 parties are currently registered for 
the 2006 election). 
 
3.  (C)  According to Schiappa, in subsequent conversations 
his student confided that Humala is receiving money from 
Chavez, but did not/not provide specifics.  Schiappa also 
stated that Linda Lema, an advisor to First Lady Eliane Karp, 
has told him that she was romantically involved with Chavez 
when she was a student in Venezuela in the 1980s, that Chavez 
is providing funds to Humala through retired Army General 
Emilio Bobbio and retired Army Captain Eloy Villacrez, and 
that the Venezuelan Government is paying for a survey in Peru 
of Humala's electoral prospects. 
 
4.  (C)  COMMENT:  We have found both Antesana and Schiappa 
to be reliable sources in the past.  While Schiappa's 
evidence on Humala's links to Chavez are all hearsay, Lema's 
alleged claim of GOV funding for polls jibes with what 
Antesana said he heard from Humala himself.  We also note 
that General Bobbio has been linked with Humala by the press 
and other Embassy sources, although Bobbio has denied any 
current ties in conversations with DAO.  END COMMENT. 
STRUBLE