This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 003323 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/BSC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR BR
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S CAPTOR FIRST TO BOLT PT PARTY 
 
REF: A. BRASILIA 3125 
     ¶B. BRASILIA 2655 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  Fernando Gabeira, a Brazilian Federal 
Deputy whose original claim to fame was as a revolutionary 
who kidnapped the US Ambassador in 1969, has become the first 
national figure to leave Lula's Workers' Party (PT) of his 
own volition since Lula took office.  Over the years, Gabeira 
has been an outspoken environmentalist, and his break with 
the PT was triggered by Lula's recent decision to legalize 
genetically-modified soybeans (ref A).  Gabeira's departure, 
along with the likelihood that three other Deputies will be 
expelled from the party for voting against a key reform bill, 
illustrates how the Workers' Party has changed in recent 
months and years.  Policy decisions, even on bedrock 
substantive issues, are no longer made after discussion and 
consensus-building within the party.  Instead, the Lula 
government is making decisions animated by the practical 
necessities of leading a country and a fractious coalition. 
These compromises are at odds with some of the PT's 
traditional positions and are unpalatable to many of the more 
determined leftists in the party, though no others seem 
inclined to leave the PT at present.  END SUMMARY. 
 
WHAT'S UP, COMRADE? 
------------------- 
¶2. (U) Fernando Gabeira was a journalist who joined a small 
Brazilian revolutionary group called MR-8 that gained 
notoriety in 1969 when it kidnapped U.S. Ambassador to Brazil 
Charles Elbrick.  The events were brought back to life in the 
1997 movie "Four Days in September" --based on Gabeira's 
novel about the kidnapping, "O Que E Isso, Companheiro?" 
("What's Up, Comrade?").  Elbrick was freed in exchange for 
the Brazilian regime releasing fifteen political prisoners 
and sending them into exile.  Among the fifteen was Jose 
Dirceu, a Sao Paulo student leader who returned from exile in 
1979 and co-founded the PT party with Lula the next year. 
Dirceu is now President Lula's Chief of Staff and 
most-trusted advisor. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Gabeira was shot and captured during the Elbrick 
kidnapping, but himself was later freed and sent into exile 
in exchange for the release of the kidnapped German 
ambassador.  Like Dirceu, he returned to Brazil with the 1979 
amnesty.  In addition to his journalism, Gabeira became 
active in human rights and environmental causes, co-founding 
the Green Party (PV) in 1986.  In 1994, he became the Green 
Party's first Federal Deputy, winning a seat from Rio de 
Janeiro.  He moved to the PT party in 2001 and was reelected 
to his third four-year term in 2002.  Gabeira, now 62, serves 
on three Chamber committees:  Environment, Human Rights, and 
the Ad Hoc Committee on FTAA negotiations.  He is active in 
debates on biotechnology and free trade, being an outspoken 
skeptic of both. 
 
BIOTECH SOY CAUSES PT'S FIRST DEFECTION 
--------------------------------------- 
¶4. (SBU) The PT is one of the few Brazilian political parties 
that requires some discipline of its members and frowns on 
party-switching.  There have been 140 party changes in the 
Chamber in the past nine months, none involving the PT.  Thus 
it is significant when a PT member decides to leave the party 
over a point of principle.  Three Deputies are nearly certain 
to be expelled from the Workers' Party in November for voting 
against Lula's pension reform bill (ref B), and Gabeira's 
departure comes against the soul-searching engendered by that 
mini-crisis.  But Gabeira is seen as a respected voice who 
has earned his leftist stripes through the years.  In the 
words of one columnist, "Fernando Gabeira can't be accused of 
being a radical, furious, a political opportunist, nutty, 
undervalued, or hysterical" like some of the other PT rebels. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Gabeira announced his intention to leave the PT on 
October 6, charging that Lula was no longer listening to the 
rank-and-file on key issues.  He was incensed by the recent 
issuance of a presidential decree legalizing the upcoming 
crop of biotech soybeans (ref A).  Many in the PT's 
environmental factions, including Environment Minister Marina 
Silva, were deeply troubled by the decree, and in particular 
by the fact that Lula made the decision without consulting 
the party.  Historically, the PT developed policy positions 
through long debates at party congresses.  In interviews, 
Gabeira also complained that Lula recently met with Castro in 
Cuba without denouncing his human rights record. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Last week, the PT scrambled to try to keep Gabeira 
in the party and there were rumors that he alone would be 
allowed to vote against the Biotechnology bill when it comes 
to the floor.  Jose Dirceu invited him to an October 10 
meeting at the presidential palace to be joined by Marina 
Silva and party president Jose Genoino.  But Dirceu was an 
hour late to the meeting )-trapped in Congress mediating a 
coalition dispute-- and a clearly-deflated Gabeira walked out 
before Dirceu arrived, grumbling to the press about Dirceu's 
"inelegance".  Gabeira told the press that he will continue 
to vote for Lula's initiatives when he can, but will remain 
"without party" for the time being.  It seems likely that he 
will eventually rejoin the Green Party and its six Federal 
Deputies, as long as the Greens do not vote to legalize 
biotech crops. 
 
COMMENT - "PT PRAGMATIC" 
------------------------ 
¶7. (SBU) If Lula has evolved from the old fire-breathing 
union leader into "Lula Lite", then the Workers' Party has 
similarly evolved into "PT Pragmatic".  In his first few 
months in office, Lula established a dozen "councils" 
designed to forge consensus in nearly every policy sphere. 
But the councils seem nearly forgotten now.  Increasingly, 
decisions are made by a small group including Lula, Dirceu, 
Finance Minister Palocci, and a handful of other PT insiders. 
 The resulting policies --from fiscal austerity at the 
expense of social programs to pension reform to legalizing 
biotech soybeans-- are pragmatic and centrist, but are often 
sharply at odds with historical positions of the Workers' 
Party.  Both the policies and the policy-making style are 
alienating to the party's leftists, who charge the 
administration with "incoherence", a Brazilian term roughly 
meaning "lack of continuity", suggesting Lula has turned his 
back on both his constituents and his past.  In the wake of 
Gabeira's decision, even PT President Genoino, a moderate and 
a Lula insider, is calling for a review of the 
administration's decision-making style.  "The government", he 
says, "needs to be more sensitive.  The party has a tradition 
and an agenda.  It has historical banners that can't be 
forgotten". 
 
¶8. (SBU) With Gabeira's departure and the expulsion of the 
three rebels, the PT's Chamber caucus will slip to 90 members 
--it will remain the largest party in the Chamber by fifteen 
seats.  In truth, those leaving the PT will move to parties 
farther on the left that are firmly in the PT-led coalition, 
so while they will be free to vote against the administration 
on any given bill, they will not really damage the 
government's already fractious coalition.  Instead, the 
departures serve to underline the distance that the PT has 
traveled towards the center over the past year.  This is an 
evolution of choice, Lula and Dirceu and the inner circle 
have made the conscious decision to jettison some of their 
leftist ideology in the name of governability. 
HRINAK