VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHPE #2000/01 1581921
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071921Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY LIMA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5742
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 1660
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 4711
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 7373
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0440
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ JUN MONTEVIDEO 9185
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 1253
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 1310
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS LIMA 002000 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USEU PASS TO MCKINLEY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CU PE PGOV PINR PTER SNAR VE
SUBJECT: BOLIVARIAN INFLUENCE IN PUNO 
 
REF: A. 2006 LIMA 2253 
 
     ¶B. LIMA 1709 
     ¶C. LIMA 1841 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified, Please Handle Accordingly. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary: The southern highlands region of Puno has 
emerged as the focus of Venezuelan proselytizing in Peru, 
with the Venezuela-funded "Bolivarian Alternative for Latin 
American and the Caribbean (ALBA)" center representing the 
latest evidence of deepening ties.  While Regional President 
Hernan Fuentes claimed ALBA would increase access to 
education and health care for Puno's poor, ALBA's director 
Marcial Maidana said the center would also seek to project a 
"Bolivarian homeland" from Puno outward to the rest of Peru. 
UPP congressional representative from Puno, Aldo Estrada, 
told us Venezuela's goal was to undermine the central 
government in Lima and to promote leaders sympathetic to 
Bolivarian revolution.  Estrada said Fuentes had created a 
Bolivarian party in April and received promises of $3 million 
from Caracas to aid campesino political organizations.  If 
these still sketchy reports are true, Venezuelan money and 
influence are seeking to fill the vacuum left by the absence 
of state institutions in Peru's southern highlands.  End 
Summary. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Medicine, Scholarships, and Propaganda 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Following its clamorous interventions during the 
2006 national elections, Venezuela appears to be continuing 
its political work in Peru -- somewhat more quietly now. 
According to recent press reports, 43 Peruvian-Cuban 
Friendship Houses (CAPC) -- funded by the Venezuelan 
government and linked to the Cuban Institute of Friendship 
with the People, an agency of the Cuban government -- have 
opened in Peru within the last year.  The CAPCs aim to bring 
unions, students, and social organizations together to form a 
political base opposing capitalism and imperialism and to 
indoctrinate Peruvian citizens on the achievements of the 
Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions.  The houses also offer 
social programs -- scholarships, adult reading programs, and 
free eye exams -- but the primary purpose is to generate 
public support for Cuba and Venezuela.  In the midst of a 
nationwide campaign, however, Puno has emerged as a focal 
point of Venezuela's proselytizing efforts in Peru. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Located on Peru's southern border with Bolivia in 
the altiplano highlands, Puno is one of Peru's poorest and 
most isolated provinces: 60 percent of the largely indigenous 
population lives in poverty.  Hernan Fuentes, running on the 
"Avanza Pais" ticket, won Puno's regional presidency in 
November 20006 with slightly more than 18 per cent of the 
vote.  (Ulises Humala, brother of Ollanta Humala, was Avanza 
Pais' presidential candidate in 2006.)  Soon after being 
declared the winner, Fuentes organized the "Festival of 
Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution."  During his 
January 2007 inauguration, attended by Cuban Ambassador Luis 
Delfin and Venezuelan Charge Virly Torres, Fuentes promised 
to deepen the regional government's cooperation with 
Venezuela, Cuba, and China in order to help small and medium 
businesses and to increase access to education and health 
care for Puno's poor.  The Venezuelan charge said her 
government would provide scholarships, business loans, and 
cultural centers to support social development in the region. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Since that time, Fuentes has moved to deepen ties 
with Venezuela.  In January, he opened a free optometry 
clinic in the city of Puno, staffed by Cuban doctors and 
funded by Venezuela.  In February, Fuentes and Torres met 
with students in Puno to select candidates for 
full-scholarships to universities in Cuba and Venezuela.  In 
April, Fuentes announced plans to build a free medical clinic 
on the border with Bolivia, to be funded by Venezuela.  In 
May, Regional President Fuentes, accompanied by Cuban and 
Venezuelan diplomats, opened the "Bolivarian Alternative for 
Latin American and the Caribbean (ALBA)," also reportedly 
funded with Venezuelan money. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Fuentes has publicly underscored that his plans for 
social development are part of a larger movement that 
includes spreading the message of Bolivarian revolution. 
When the ALBA center opened, director Marcial Maidana said 
the goal was to improve public health care but also to create 
"an axis of Bolivarianism" that would extend throughout Peru 
and unite local interests opposed to the expansion of U.S. 
influence.  Fuentes has said scholarships are only available 
to those students who understand the benefits of Cuban and 
Venezuelan socialism.  Andres Alvarado, a government official 
from Mazamori (Junin), told Emboffs that scholarships offered 
by Cuba and Venezuela in his region came with a price. 
Alvarado said the Cubans and Venezuelans sought to 
indoctrinate and radicalize students, and those who travel 
overseas, "never come back the same." 
 
------------------------ 
Humalaism without Humala 
------------------------ 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Union for Peru (UPP) President Congressman Aldo 
Estrada (representing Puno) and APRA Congressman Louis 
Negrerios told poloff recently that Fuentes' program was a 
kind of "Humala-ism without Humala."  They said Humala may be 
a spent force but his party continued to be a vehicle to 
funnel cash to frustrated groups in the countryside.  Estrada 
alleged that Venezuelan officials had promised to give $3 
million in cash for campesino confederations in Puno, which 
came with no strings (other than that it had to be used to 
increase political support for socialism) attached.  Estrada 
maintained that senior Peruvian Nationalist Party (PNP) 
operatives picked up the money at the Venezuelan Embassy in 
Lima, skimmed 20 percent off the top, and delivered bags of 
cash directly to local leaders.  Estrada said he had warned 
Fuentes that his Bolivarian ties were costing him the support 
of local politicians and that the Bolivarian political party 
he had recently created could violate Peruvian law. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Former APRA congressman Carlos Armas, who in 2006 
founded an NGO that works in Puno, echoed Estrada's 
conclusions.  Armas told us he had met with more than 100 
Puno representatives over the past year, and that none had 
any affiliation with a national party.  Armas described 
people in Puno's countryside as feeling an inchoate 
frustration that, while bereft of ideology, was extremely 
susceptible to radical discourses.  The political allegiance 
of these groups, he explained, was up for grabs, and 
Venezuelan cash was an effective tool to win sympathy for 
goals the electorate only partially understand.  Armas added 
that Venezuelan influence in Puno was of less concern than 
the revived Aymaran nationalism that sought to carve, by 
violent means if necessary, an independent homeland from Peru 
and Bolivia. 
 
----------------------- 
Puno: Latent Radicalism 
----------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Summary: Reports about Venezuelan and Cuban 
activity in Puno, often elusive and lacking in specificity, 
sometimes seem more rumor than fact.  Congressman Estrada, 
for example, did not know the names of the alleged PNP bag 
men or other basic information.  Whatever the true extent of 
Venezuelan involvement, it seems clear that the vacuum left 
by the absence of state institutions in Peru's impoverished 
southern highlands makes a ripe target for radicalism of all 
stripes.  Following its narrow victory in the 2006 national 
elections, the Garcia government understands the nature of 
the challenge.  Whether it can deliver in time to reduce and 
eliminate the threat of future radicalism, however, is 
another question.  Poloff is currently in Puno meeting with 
local leaders and community organizations to gain a 
first-hand perspective of Bolivarian and other influences in 
the region.  End Summary. 
STRUBLE