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### Viewing cable 08LIMA1707, PUNO UPDATE: WATER ISSUES ADD TO INSTABILITY

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
08LIMA1707 | 2008-10-23 22:10 | 2011-02-25 12:12 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Lima

`

    VZCZCXYZ0002
    PP RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHPE #1707/01 2972256
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    P 232256Z OCT 08
    FM AMEMBASSY LIMA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9489
    INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 2045
    RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 6083
    RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 7956
    RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 3500
    RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 1248
    RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ OCT 5008
    RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO PRIORITY 9597
    RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 2135
    RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 2039
    RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
    RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL PRIORITY

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 001707

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2018
    TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR SOCI SENV SNAR APECO BO PE
    SUBJECT: PUNO UPDATE: WATER ISSUES ADD TO INSTABILITY

    REF: A. LIMA 0997
         ¶B. LIMA 0460
         ¶C. 07 LIMA 22...

    id: 175010
    date: 10/23/2008 22:56
    refid: 08LIMA1707
    origin: Embassy Lima
    classification: CONFIDENTIAL
    destination: 07LIMA2000|07LIMA2236|08LIMA460|08LIMA997
    header:
    VZCZCXYZ0002
    PP RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHPE #1707/01 2972256
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    P 232256Z OCT 08
    FM AMEMBASSY LIMA
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9489
    INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 2045
    RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA PRIORITY 6083
    RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 7956
    RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 3500
    RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 1248
    RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ OCT 5008
    RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO PRIORITY 9597
    RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 2135
    RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO PRIORITY 2039
    RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
    RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL PRIORITY

    ----------------- header ends ----------------

    C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 001707

    SIPDIS

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2018
    TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR SOCI SENV SNAR APECO BO PE
    SUBJECT: PUNO UPDATE: WATER ISSUES ADD TO INSTABILITY

    REF: A. LIMA 0997
         ¶B. LIMA 0460
         ¶C. 07 LIMA 2236
         ¶D. 07 LIMA 2000

    Classified By: Ambassador P. Michael McKinley
    for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

    ¶1.  (C) Summary: The southern highland region of Puno, one of
    Peru's most isolated and impoverished areas, is notorious for
    wide-open smuggling along its extensive border with Bolivia,
    sporadic outbreaks of political violence and affinity for
    extremist leaders and ideologies (refs).  Its proximity to
    Bolivia and similar ethnic composition (about sixty percent
    of the population is indigenous Aymara or Quechua) make it
    susceptible to some of the radical events taking place in
    that country.  Environmental degradation is an area of
    growing concern, especially as it relates to insufficient
    amounts of potable water, irrigation and the contamination of
    historic Lake Titicaca.  Water issues are becoming a source
    of social conflict and add to Puno's instability.  Emboffs
    examined some of these issues while attending the recent
    Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) youth event in Puno.
     End Summary.

    --------------------
    APEC Youth Camp 2008
    --------------------

    ¶2.  (U) Poloff attended portions of the APEC Youth Camp 2008
    event entitled, "Caring for the Sustainable Development of
    the Asia-Pacific Region" held in Puno, October 1-5.
    Thirty-three APEC youth representatives from sixteen APEC
    economies attended a series of lectures and field trips that
    focused mainly on climate change and water issues, with a
    special emphasis on shared Lake Titicaca.  At the end of the
    Youth Camp event, delegates signed a declaration urging the
    private sector and civilian society to play a more active
    role in ensuring compliance with their social obligations.
    The recommendations contained in the document also seek to
    motivate governments, companies, and private individuals to
    do more to protect the environment, particularly vital water
    resources.  At the national level, the APEC Youth Camp
    received positive press coverage.

    ¶3.  (SBU) One thousand police were deployed to protect the
    Youth Camp event according to Col.Castillo, a retired police
    official in charge of APEC security. The tight security and
    costs associated with the gathering caused some mild
    grumbling among local residents we spoke with, although
    evidence of outright opposition to the event were few.  For
    example, on October 2, a single "reservista" (an Antauro
    Humala follower dressed in military garb) attempted to rally
    a crowd in the main downtown square of Puno City.  As he
    marched around with a bullhorn, a supporter followed him
    carrying the checkered indigenous flag ("wipala"). The
    reservista trumpeted, "While the mining town of La Rinconada,
    with 30,000 people, is waiting to build its first police
    station, (President) Garcia sends a thousand policemen to
    protect 33 foreign kids at a fancy hotel."

    ¶4.  (C) At the conference, poloff spoke with Luis Quesada,
    the MFA's Director General for Asia-Pacific Affairs, who said
    Puno was chosen as the venue for the APEC event in part to
    highlight Lake Titicaca's unique features and to call
    attention to the threats to its fragile ecosystem.  He
    confided that Peru hoped that publicity surrounding Youth
    Camp might help attract international donor support for
    projects in the area.  Quesada noted that while Peru's
    establishment of a Ministry of Environment was a recent
    development, the government of Peru is increasingly cognizant
    about the links between environmental issues, economic
    prosperity and social stability.  He added that the
    government was deeply concerned about the effects of global
    warming and the melting of glaciers that fed water to the
    city of Lima.

    Puno's Mayor
    ------------

    ¶5.  (C) For a hands-on perspective of how water issues are
    impacting the city of Puno (same name as the region), poloff
    called on its mayor, Luis Buitron Castillo on October 2.
    Buitron (National Restoration Party - PRN) said that for most
    people in the region, deep poverty and harsh climate meant
    that the struggle for survival took precedence over anything
    else.  As a result, education was not a priority. The
    illiteracy rate for the region is 22 percent, and is
    differentiated by area and gender. Health problems are also
    related to the endemic poverty and to attendant problems such
    as poor nutrition, lack of clean water and sanitation, damage
    to the fragile ecosystem, and the absence of credit and
    investment to help people improve their livelihoods. All
    these factors contributed to Puno's underlying social unrest,
    he said.

    ¶6.  (C) The mayor said that his city's population of 230,000
    represented the largest human settlement on the lake's shore,
    including the Bolivian side. Though its citizens have greater
    access to services than most other parts of the region, where
    on average only about one in five has access to potable water
    or a proper sewage system, the Puno municipality is blamed
    for the majority of the pollution in the lake. (Note: The
    October 3 edition of the local daily "Los Andes" carried an
    article stating that the municipality was being charged with
    "environmental crimes" for polluting Puno bay. End Note.)
    Buitron said the causes of the city's pollution are twofold:
    First, there are high amounts of untreated city sewage and
    urban runoff (during heavy rain) that are dumped directly
    into the bay.  Secondly, the bay is mostly enclosed and
    shallow, which inhibits water exchange. Buitron said that the
    city is also critically short on potable drinking water and
    needs funding to pipe water from mountain sources many
    kilometers away.  He expressed hope that the November APEC
    meetings in Lima would result in funding for needed water
    supply and treatment projects.

    Regional President
    ------------------

    ¶7.  (C) On October 3, poloff met with the enigmatic Regional
    President of Puno, Pablo Hernan Fuentes Guzman of the "Avanza
    Pais" party.  Fuentes began the interview (he had an
    assistant film it) in a darkened room with two questions:
    whether or not poloff was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and
    what was going to happen to the United States after its
    second Great Depression?  After some rambling about Quechua
    nationalism, Fuentes ducked several questions such as his
    controversial call for Puno to become a more autonomous
    federal state.  He acknowledged that Puno was region prone to
    violent unrest and recalled the April 2004 lynching of the
    mayor and his assistant in the nearby town of Ilave.  He
    blamed most of the region's problems on central government
    and NGO neglect, however, and for their failure to provide
    the funds necessary to repair crumbling infrastructure,
    including water for drinking and irrigation.  With respect to
    pollution of Lake Titicaca, he blamed mayor Buitron and gold
    mining activities for most of its contamination.  Fuentes
    concluded the meeting by saying that he would welcome any
    U.S. development assistance to Puno.

    Tourists
    --------

    ¶8.  (C) On October 3, Poloff spoke with a group of American
    and foreign tourists who had returned from a one-day boat
    excursion on Lake Titicaca. They complained that they were
    each required to pay a $100 "visa fee" for visiting the Isla
    del Sol, even though the trip into Bolivian territory was for
    only for a few hours.  One tourist said he was told by an
    island resident that, "If any thing happens to Evo (President
    Morales), you Americans will be in big trouble."  The same
    tourist, who claimed to have visited Lake Titicaca several
    times previously, said that the north of the lake was
    becoming something of a "no-man's land", unfriendly to
    tourists.  He said that smuggling seemed much in evidence
    throughout the area, and while passing through the town of
    Moho, he was told that no hotel accommodations were available
    for tourists, "because they are all out of towels."

    Comment
    -------

    ¶9.  (C) Water problems are adding to Puno's unstable mix of
    grinding poverty, inept local government, narcotics smuggling
    and racial animosities.  Such conditions are ripe for
    attracting radical actors should they decide to expolit the
    situation for their own political purposes.  There is some
    evidence that this may already be happening. For example, on
    October 20, Puno protesters began to "indefinitely" block the
    major highway linking the Bolivian town of Desaguadero with
    the Peruvian regions of Moquegua and Tacna, over rumors that
    recent government dectrees will tax farmers on irrigation
    water.  Such road blockages are fairly common in Puno and
    other indigenous regions, and often amount to naught. But it
    is worth noting that the Ombudsman's office was recently
    quoted as saying that,"political interests are behind the
    protests."  The police also reported having spotted Bolivian
    and Ecuadorian activists among the indigenous protesters.
    MCKINLEY

    =======================CABLE ENDS============================

`