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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SAO PAULO 000121 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR CRONIN 
STATE PASS USTR FOR SULLIVAN/LEZNY 
USDOC FOR 4332/ITA/MAC/WH/OLAC/JANDERSEN/ADRISCOLL/MWAR D 
USDOC FOR 3134/USFCS/OIO/EOLSON/DDEVITO/DANDERSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PHUM SOCI ELAB BR
SUBJECT: LULA'S GOVERNMENT IN THE CROSSHAIRS: A PT PERSPECTIVE ON 
THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM IN CARACAS 
 
REF: Caracas 260 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified -- Protect Accordingly 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: Although they deny it, members of President 
Lula's Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT) who attended 
the Sixth World Social Forum - Americas Region (WSF) in Caracas in 
late January had some difficult moments.  The event became Hugo 
Chavez's show and Brazil was criticized for being an "imperialistic 
force" in Latin America.  Demonstrators at the Forum criticized the 
presence of Brazilian troops in Haiti, operations of state-owned 
Petrobras in Bolivia, and President Lula's economic policies.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) According to participants' reports cited by Ana Maria 
Stuart, PT International Affairs advisor, the event was 
disorganized.  Seminars were held in many places far away from each 
other and with no good options for public transportation.  Thus, 
many seminars were left empty because the participants couldn't get 
there on time.  The internal disorganization combined with the 
chaotic traffic in Caracas made participants' life harder than it 
was at the 2005 WSF in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, in southern 
Brazil. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) PT members present at the WSF joined the chorus of 
criticism against Brazil and Lula's government.  Antonio Carlos 
Spis, representative of the Sco Paulo Unified Workers' Confederation 
(CUT) - a labor umbrella group -- and Coordinator of the Social 
Movement Forum, one of the largest panels of Caracas, asserted that 
the criticism of Lula's government is "natural."  The social 
movements, he noted, gathered in Caracas agreed to call for 1) 
Withdrawal of Brazilian forces from Haiti, and 2) Withdrawal of 
American forces from Iraq.  They also wanted to express their 
opposition to American imperialism throughout the world, and to 
Brazilian imperialism in Bolivia and Ecuador, where Brazil has 
economic interests. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) According to Spis, the criticism against America and 
Brazil are different in kind because the former is destructive ("we 
want George Bush dead") while the latter is constructive ("we 
support Lula's government even though we disagree with many of its 
policies.")  In addition, perhaps as a means of demonstrating where 
their sympathies lie, CUT and the Federation Oil Workers (Petrobras 
employees' union) announced their willingness to support the 
Bolivian government's decision concerning exploitation of natural 
gas, whatever it turns out to be.  They even talked about going on 
strike in Brazil to support Bolivia. When asked if CUT and the oil 
workers would support the nationalization of Petrobras holdings in 
Bolivia, Spis answered that Evo Morales has already said that is not 
part of his plans. 
 
¶5.  (U) The direction of the WSF as a whole is under discussion.  Up 
to now it has been a place where people from outside the mainstream 
international organizations get together to discuss social issues, 
an alternative to the Davos World Economic Forum.  However, 
according to Ana Maria Stuart, some participants, including some PT 
representatives, believe the WSF should present, in a more formal 
way, at the end of each session, delegates' views and 
recommendations on important contemporary issues.  They would like 
to see more concrete results from the meetings. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Oded Grajew, Chairman of the Instituto Ethos, who is a 
founder of the WSF and a former advisor to Lula, stressed the 
diverse, decentralized nature of the Forum and said those who are 
pushing for a more proactive agenda represent a very small minority. 
 He said the Forum will continue to be a process and a debating 
society which will foment change only indirectly.  Grajew 
acknowledged that Hugo Chavez had appropriated this year's regional 
Forum for his own purposes, but indicated that host governments 
always try to do this, as the Brazilian government had itself done 
at past events in Porto Alegre.  There was a qualitative difference 
this time, he noted, because of the close affinity between Chavez 
 
SAO PAULO 00000121  002 OF 002 
 
 
and some of the more militant and vocal leftist organizations, and 
because of the timbre, tone, and volume of Chavez's rhetoric.  But 
Grajew insisted that the Forum is not a monolithic body that issues 
resolutions, but rather a collection of independent movements, each 
of which sponsors its own activities (hence the thousands of 
different events in Caracas - see reftel) and speaks for itself. 
Many of these groups oppose any use of force, including military 
force, to bring about social change; thus it was natural for such 
organizations to criticize the presence of Brazilian peacekeeping 
forces in Haiti.  This criticism was not meant to reflect badly on 
Brazil or its government.  Grajew also acknowledged that the Lula 
government came under criticism for its "neo-liberal" macroeconomic 
policies, but, like Spis, he characterized it as "friendly" 
criticism from people who consider Lula one of their own and wish 
him well but want him to do more to combat inequality.  He also 
noted that, although it didn't receive much publicity, Chavez 
himself was criticized by many Forum elements because Venezuela's 
economy is dependent on the petroleum sector, which tends to be a 
source of global conflict as well as a danger to the environment. 
Some leftists, he added, are also uncomfortable with Chavez's 
military background and posture, and his flamboyance. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Comment: President Lula received some criticism at home 
for not attending this year's WSF (though some members of his 
government were there, as was his former Chief of Staff, Jose 
Dirceu).  No doubt he knew he would be upstaged by Chavez, and that 
he would be subjected to criticism from militant leftists.  As 
presidential campaign 2006 draws nearer, Lula continues to wrestle 
with the question of how to mobilize his party's leftist base while 
at the same time reaching out to try to regain the support of 
centrist, middle-class voters who have been disillusioned by several 
months of political scandals, and who he will need to attract to win 
re-election.  End comment. 
 
¶8.  (U) This cable was cleared/coordinated with Embassy Brasilia. 
 
McMullen