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### Viewing cable 06CARACAS219, CUBA/VENEZUELA AXIS OF MISCHIEF: THE VIEW FROM

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
06CARACAS219 | 2006-01-30 19:07 | 2010-11-30 21:09 | SECRET | Embassy Caracas

`

    VZCZCXRO6607
    PP RUEHAO
    DE RUEHCV #0219/01 0301912
    ZNY SSSSS ZZH
    P 301912Z JAN 06
    FM AMEMBASSY CARACAS
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2920
    INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 5901
    RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 5109
    RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ PRIORITY 1580
    RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 9782
    RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 1652
    RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS PRIORITY 0351
    RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON PRIORITY 1276
    RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0396
    RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID PRIORITY 3007
    RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 0300
    RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 0532
    RUEHTC/AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE PRIORITY 0769
    RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO PRIORITY 3525
    RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0525
    RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 0971
    RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 3222
    RUEHMU/AMEMBASSY MANAGUA PRIORITY 0914
    RUEHAO/AMCONSUL CURACAO PRIORITY 0543
    RUEHMI/USOFFICE FRC FT LAUDERDALE PRIORITY 2777
    RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
    RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
    RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA PRIORITY 0420

` `

    S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 06 CARACAS 000219

    SIPDIS

    SECRET NOFORN

    SIPDIS
    SIPDIS

    HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
    FOR FRC LAMBERT

    E.O. 12958: DNG: CO 01/26/2021
    TAGS: PGOV PREL VE
    SUBJECT: CUBA/VENEZUELA AXIS OF MISCHIEF: THE VIEW FROM
    CARACAS

    REF: A. A: HAVANA 00118
    ¶B. B: HAVANA 00697
    ¶C. C: TD-314/63777-05 LIMITED DISTRIBUTION
    ¶D. D: IIR 6 902 9698 06

    Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT R. DOWNES FOR 1.4 (D)

    -------
    Summary
    -------

    ¶1. (S//NF) As noted in REF A, the Venezuelan relationship
    with Cuba continues to intensify. Thousands of personnel
    sent by the Cuban Government are involved in the Venezuelan
    health sector and other BRV social missions. Cubans
    cooperate extensively with Venezuelan intelligence services.
    Cubans may also participate heavily in the BRV's efforts to
    naturalize foreigners and provide documentation for citizens,
    according to various reports from Embassy contacts. Cubans'
    roles in the military are less clear but probably are also
    less significant.

    ¶2. (C) Venezuelans' views of individual Cubans are mixed.
    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez appears to be trying to
    promote the involvement of Cubans in Venezuelan society,
    although he has proceeded slowly and carefully. Anti-Chavez
    politicians have barked up the wrong tree by decrying Cuban
    communism and sovereignty violations, issues that simply do
    not resonate with poor Venezuelans. While the economic
    impact of Cubans working in Venezuela may be limited, Cuban
    intelligence has much to offer to Venezuela's anti-U.S.
    intelligence services. End Summary.

    ----------------
    How Many Cubans?
    ----------------

    ¶3. (S) Although the numbers of Cubans sent by the GOC to
    work in Venezuela are significant, the exact figures are
    difficult to establish. Embassy officers have noted regular
    flights of Cubans--or Venezuelans returning from official
    visits to Cuba--at Caracas's Maiquetia airport. According to
    a DOD analysis of flight activity, an average of about 350
    people arrive on three to five commercial or military flights
    from Cuba to Venezuela per day. Most of these flights land
    at Maiquetia, but Barcelona and Maracaibo are also common
    destinations. Post cannot determine how many Cubans are on
    the flights or how many passengers stay in Venezuela
    permanently. Airport officials spirit passengers through the
    building without stopping in customs or immigration. ONIDEX,
    Venezuela's National Office of Identification and
    Immigration, reports that it naturalized only 12 Cubans out
    of a group of 22,664 persons naturalized in December 2005.
    Whether or not they enjoy Venezuelan citizenship, however,
    thousands of Cubans have Venezuelan documentation. In
    addition to the over 20,000 Cubans involved in the Venezuelan
    health sector (see below), less reliable reports indicate
    that thousands more are active in the Venezuelan interior.
    Manuel Rosales, the opposition Governor of Zulia State, told
    the DCM in October 2005 that 20,000 Cubans resided in Zulia
    alone. Former National Assembly deputy Pedro Pablo Alcantara
    (Accion Democratica) told us in October that Lara State had
    the most Cubans per capita in Venezuela. He claimed more
    flights from Havana arrived in Barquisimeto, Lara than in

    CARACAS 00000219 002 OF 006

    Caracas. Complicating the matter further are some 30,000
    Cuban exiles in Venezuela, the Cuban exile NGO Net for Cuba
    estimates.

    ------
    Health
    ------

    ¶4. (C) The BRV created Mision Barrio Adentro (Inside the
    Neighborhood Mission) to provide basic health care for
    disadvantaged neighborhoods in December 2003, shortly after
    signing a bilateral agreement with Cuba to swap oil for
    medical services. As of mid-2005, about 21,000 Cuban
    physicians, nurses, and support staff along with some 6,000
    Venezuelan personnel staffed the mission, according to the
    Ministry of Communication. Mission clinics are small,
    two-story hexagonal structures that also house two to three
    doctors. The BRV provides the clinics' equipment and
    reduced-cost medicines. Through Barrio Adentro, the BRV
    identifies patients eligible for Mision Milagro (Miracle
    Mission), which flies Venezuelans to Havana for cataract
    surgery. Anecdotal reporting suggests the care Cuban doctors
    provide is often lacking and that many "physicians" are
    actually medical students. The BRV has recently begun Mision
    Barrio Adentro II, a network of more advanced diagnostic
    centers and inpatient clinics to be administered and staffed
    mostly by Venezuelans.

    ¶5. (C) Notwithstanding the 90,000 to 100,000 barrels of oil
    Venezuela provides Cuba per day on barter terms, Cuban
    doctors earn relatively little. According to press reports,
    Cuban doctors receive salaries of up to USD 400 per month, a
    figure slightly lower than local averages. A Cuban physician
    told Post's medical advisor, however, that he received room,
    board, and toiletries but that the Cuban Government was
    "holding" his salary until he finished his two-year tour.
    Some Cuban doctors have "deserted" and fled. A European
    diplomat told polcouns in mid-January 2006 that the number of
    Cuban asylum requests received by EU missions in Venezuela
    had increased over the past few months. A local legislator
    with extensive contacts in poor neighborhoods told us in
    November 2005 that Cuban doctors complained bitterly that the
    Cuban regime held their families hostage while the doctors
    relied on local donations to survive. In contrast, according
    to REF B, the GOC receives from Venezuela between USD 1,000
    to 5,000 for each Mision Milagro cataract operation, which is
    comparable to the roughly USD 3,500 that a Venezuelan private
    clinic would charge for the procedure.

    ------------
    Intelligence
    ------------

    ¶6. (S//NF) Sensitive reports indicate Cuban and Venezuelan
    intelligence ties are so advanced that the two countries'
    agencies appear to be competing with each other for the BRV's
    attention. Cuban intelligence officers have direct access to
    Chavez and frequently provide him with intelligence reporting
    unvetted by Venezuelan officers. Venezuela's Directorate of
    Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP), moreover, may
    be taking advice from Cuban intelligence on the formation of
    a new intelligence service (REF C). Cuban intelligence
    officers train Venezuelans both in Cuba and in Venezuela,
    providing both political indoctrination and operational

    CARACAS 00000219 003 OF 006

    instruction. They also may work in other Venezuelan
    government ministries, unconfirmed sensitive reporting
    suggests.

    --------
    Military
    --------

    ¶7. (C) Post has received no credible reports of extensive
    Cuban involvement in the Venezuelan military, despite the
    Venezuelan Armed Forces' attempts to imitate Cuban military
    doctrine and uniforms. According to DAO reports, Cubans
    train and advise Chavez' military security detail.
    Anti-Chavez military officers have told us that Cubans hold
    liaison and personnel exchange positions within the
    Venezuelan military formerly held by European and other Latin
    American officers. Moreover, a few Venezuelan military
    officers--along with some from the Foreign Ministry--undergo
    ideological training in Cuba. Chavez has also sent a
    military team to Cuba construct a complex of 150 houses,
    according to press reports.

    --------------
    Other Sectors?
    --------------

    ¶8. (S//NF) Cuban involvement in other agencies and missions
    is harder to confirm. Cubans have been heavily involved in
    ONIDEX, according to various unconfirmed sources. A local
    academic with a background in electoral systems told poloff
    that Venezuelans trained in Cuba helped expand the national
    electoral registry by over two million voters through Mision
    Identidad (Identity Mission) in 2003. He added that the
    Venezuelan process to receive an identity card was a carbon
    copy of the Cuban process. Anti-Chavez military officers
    told us in July 2005 that Cubans helped run ONIDEX and
    reported that an active duty army colonel was running an
    operation to print identity cards for Cubans. According to
    an Embassy employee with access to secure areas of Caracas'
    Maiquetia airport, Cubans hold supervisory positions at the
    airport's auxiliary terminal. Cubans also have established
    and continue to service the airport's biometrics equipment,
    according to sensitive reports. Some anecdotal sensitive
    reporting further suggests Cuban officials had a Venezuelan
    officer dismissed for resisting their attempts to take
    temporary operational control over a section of the airport
    during a visit of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

    ¶9. (C) Ruben Flores, the editor of a rancher newspaper,
    told poloff in early 2005 that Cuban involvement in the
    agricultural sector was second only to that in the health
    sector. Such a claim may be exaggerated, but Cubans are
    likely involved to a great extent. According to the
    Agricultural Attache, Cuban officials hold senior positions
    in the Ministry of Agriculture and also operate in the
    Venezuelan interior. Citing technical experts in the
    Ministry, Flores told us in January 2006 that Cuban officials
    were helping design Venezuela's "Planting Plan 2006," which
    would prescribe the crops to be sown in each region. Jaime
    Perez Branger, head of the company that owns cattle ranch and
    nature preserve Hato Pinero, told us in January that Cubans
    advised the BRV on agricultural productivity and on setting
    up cooperatives in such missions as Vuelvan Caras. (Vuelvan
    Caras, or "About Face," is a BRV program offering six months

    CARACAS 00000219 004 OF 006

    of job training, after which participants form cooperatives,
    often in the agricultural sector.) Venezuela, South
    America's only net importer of agricultural products, is also
    setting up Cuban sugar mills in Venezuela in the wake of
    Cuba's failing sugar industry.

    ¶10. (C) Industry contacts have told the Agricultural
    Attache that Cubans helped design and manage Mision Mercal,
    the BRV's subsidized grocery program. An Arthur D. Little
    consultant told us in February 2005 that a Cuban vice
    minister of commerce works with Mercal full-time. Flores
    told poloff in January 2006 that ALIMPORT, Cuba's agency that
    handles all food imports, was advising the BRV on food
    distribution. Venezuela finances some of its own food
    imports through a Havana branch of the Industrial Bank of
    Venezuela, and Chavez' brother Adan Chavez, the Venezuelan
    Ambassador there, may profit illicitly from the loan process,
    according to DAO reporting (REF D).

    --------------------------
    Venezuelan Views of Cubans
    --------------------------

    ¶11. (SBU) Cuban citizens' resentment of Venezuelans (REF A)
    is not completely mutual. Some Venezuelans, including many
    who experienced the infiltration of violent Cuban
    revolutionaries during the 1960s, do dislike Cubans. The
    average Venezuelan's view of Cubans, however, is more
    nuanced. Some poor Venezuelans admire Cubans involved in the
    missions for providing free services. Others, while
    disapproving of their political system, appreciate Cuban
    culture displayed by individual Cubans, especially those
    among the exile community.

    ¶12. (SBU) Chavez appears to be trying to promote a friendly
    image of Cubans. Cubans have appeared increasingly on public
    television, including on Chavez' "Alo Presidente" show.
    Images of crossed Cuban and Venezuelan flags have also begun
    to appear in Caracas. The polling firm Datanalisis reports
    that Chavez' recent attempts to "sell" the Cuban political
    model may have increased Venezuelans' rejection of the Cuban
    regime from May 2005 (63 percent) to October 2005 (81
    percent). (Embassy note: Whether Chavez' promotion of Cuba
    is paying off or backfiring is unclear. Answers to
    Datanalisis' question, "what do you think of Venezuela taking
    the Cuban regime as a model," may reflect a growing sense of
    nationalism and uniqueness among Venezuelans--consistent with
    Chavez' calls for a "new socialism"--rather than a rejection
    of Cubans. Indeed, almost half of the Chavez supporters
    polled, who would seem least likely to oppose Cuba, responded
    negatively.)

    ¶13. (SBU) Despite the increasing publicity, signs of
    Cuban-Venezuelan partnership in Caracas are not as ubiquitous
    as they apparently are in Havana, and Cubans generally keep a
    low profile. Chavez' sense of self-importance may partly
    explain why Cuba figures less prominently. The "Bolivarian
    Alternative for Latin America" is not a synonym for
    Cuban-Venezuelan cooperation in Venezuela because Chavez
    pitches it as a movement he has launched throughout the
    hemisphere. Chavez features call-ins from Castro during his
    public appearances, such as a mid-January 2006 sendoff for
    Venezuelans going to study medicine in Cuba. Nonetheless,
    Chavez does not part with the spotlight for long. His weekly

    CARACAS 00000219 005 OF 006

    "Alo Presidente" broadcasts routinely run longer than five
    hours.

    ----------------------------
    The Opposition Has Failed...
    ----------------------------

    ¶14. (C) Some of Chavez' opponents appear to be trying to
    inflame a prejudice against Cubans that is uncommon among
    Venezuelans. They rant about "Cuban invaders" and
    "sovereignty violations" that resonate little with the
    Venezuelan poor. Opposition politicians also berate Chavez
    for attempting to introduce Cuban communism, although few
    Venezuelans believe he will do so. Former opposition
    National Assembly deputy Carlos Casanova (Socialdemocrata)
    told poloff the public's response to the opposition was "look
    around, this isn't communism, chico!" Still, over-the-top
    critiques can impede focused criticism. Asked how the
    opposition could exploit opposition to Chavez' oil "loans" to
    Cuba, Accion Democratica's former international relations
    secretary Alfredo Coronil replied to poloff that Cuba was

    SIPDIS
    planning to intervene in Africa after Venezuela, brushing
    aside poloff's remark that Cuba could hardly still afford
    adventurism on a Cold War scale.

    ¶15. (C) The political opposition does little to exploit
    alleged medical malpractice in Mision Barrio Adentro or to
    report on returning Mision Milagro patients' impressions of
    Cuba. In fact, much of the opposition remains ignorant of
    how such missions work because it does not reach out to poor
    neighborhoods for the most part. One anti-Chavez retired
    military officer, however, told poloff in June 2005 that
    groups of Venezuelan doctors had begun treating people in
    poor areas with the support of certain pharmacies. The scope
    of the initiative is unclear.

    -----------------------------------
    ...But Finally Getting the Picture?
    -----------------------------------

    ¶16. (U) Primero Justicia (PJ) has been the only political
    party to criticize Chavez consistently for his handouts to
    other countries. Promising additional programs to
    redistribute oil wealth, PJ presidential candidate Julio
    Borges has asked the BRV to explain why ordinary Venezuelans
    are not receiving the money sent to Cuba, according to press
    reports. With the closure of the Caracas-La Guaira bridge,
    other elements of the opposition are also beginning to
    contrast BRV gifts abroad with problems at home. An internet
    blog site has displayed the amounts spent on foreign
    infrastructure next to photos of the crumbling bridge.
    During its assembly in mid-January 2006, the Venezuelan
    Episcopal Conference criticized grants and loans the BRV had
    awarded overseas.

    -------
    Comment
    -------

    ¶17. (C) The economic impact of Cubans in Venezuela is mixed
    but limited. (Venezuelan subsidies to Cuba, on the other
    hand, could eventually pose greater problems for the BRV
    (SEPTEL).) By helping the BRV pad its voter rolls and
    naturalize suspicious immigrants, Cubans are doing jobs that

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    Venezuelan government personnel could and would do in their
    absence. Cuban doctors, however, are treating communities
    mostly unreached by Venezuelan health services. Venezuela
    continues to purchase costly conventional weapons systems
    despite the influence on paper of Cuba's "asymmetric" warfare
    doctrine.

    ¶18. (S//NF) The impact of Cuban involvement in Venezuelan
    intelligence could impact U.S. interests directly.
    Venezuelan intelligence services are among the most hostile
    towards the United States in the hemisphere, but they lack
    the expertise that Cuban services can provide. Cuban
    intelligence routinely provides the BRV intelligence reports
    about the activities of the USG. Cuban dissemination of
    ideological propaganda in Venezuela is less of a threat.
    Chavez, the revolution's most effective proponent, still
    appears to be involving Cubans in public discourse and BRV
    projects with some discretion.

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