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INFO RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SANTIAGO 000279 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA/BSC, WHA/OAS, WHA/EPSC, INR/IAA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2019 
TAGS: EFIN PREL KSUM PGOV ETRD ECON XL XM XS
SUBJECT: CHILE LOOKS TOWARD SUMMIT WITH HIGH EXPECTATIONS 
AND INTEREST IN ECONOMY AND ENERGY (C-AL9-00153) 
 
REF: SANTIAGO 228 
 
Classified By: Political Officer Jennifer Spande for reason 1.4 (b) and 
 (d). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  Chilean officials see President Obama's 
participation in the Summit of the Americas as a critical 
chance for the president to signal his re-engagement with 
Latin America, a region that feels jettisoned by conflicts 
and emerging powers in other regions.  The financial crisis 
and energy will be key themes for Chile.  These "immense 
expectations" will be very hard for the President to meet. 
Despite the intense negotiations taking place over the text 
of the summit declaration, delegations should note 
experiences from other regional leaders' meetings where 
certain Latin American presidents chose to ignore the 
carefully agreed upon text and attempted to negotiate the 
document themselves, despite being unfamiliar with prepared 
drafts.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Ambassador Hector Morales, the OAS Permanent 
Representative and Summit of the Americas Coordinator, 
visited Santiago March 3-4 to discuss preparations for the 
upcoming summit.  Ambassador Morales, accompanied by 
Ambassador Simons and emboffs, met with MFA Undersecretary 
for Political Affairs equivalent Juan Pablo Lira, 
presidential advisor Marcos Robledo, other Chilean officials, 
and an NGO leader working on measuring the impact of past 
summits.  (Note:  Reftel reports on readouts of President 
Bachelet's recent trip to Cuba, which was also discussed in 
many of these meetings.  End Note.) 
 
Obama's Participation a "Super Important" Opportunity for 
Re-Engagement 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶3.  (SBU) President Obama's attendance at the Summit of the 
Americas will be a strong sign of the importance that the 
administration places on relationships with Latin America, 
Ambassador Morales told his interlocutors.  Obama will be 
attending the event within his critical first 90 days in 
office.  The President looks forward to discussing with his 
peers many of the same issues that were important in his 
campaign:  education, social justice, job creation, energy, 
and trade.  Ambassador Morales noted that the focus of U.S. 
participation will be on re-engaging with the hemisphere, and 
to listen, share ideas, and signal a desire to work with the 
region's leaders on the challenges facing Latin America and 
the Caribbean. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) President Obama's participation in the Summit is an 
"opportunity for re-engagement" with Latin America--an urgent 
and "super important" task, presidential advisor Marcos 
Robledo said.  Latin America is a complex and fragmented 
region, MFA Director General Juan Pablo Lira and Robledo both 
explained.  Achieving consensus at this Summit will be far 
more difficult than it was 10 years ago, Robledo noted. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Latin Americans have high expectations of President 
Obama.  "Obama is a complete rock star in Chile," Robledo 
announced.  "The whole world expects him to be their savior," 
Lira opined, repeating several times that there were "immense 
expectations."  "Las personas comun y corriente," roughly 
"average Joes," appreciate Obama's closeness to ordinary 
people and will be most concerned with what the summit and 
the President can deliver in terms of concrete improvements 
in quality of life.  These people may not understand or pay 
attention to the finer political and economic points of the 
summit, but will be looking to see how job creation and a 
robust social safety net affects them and their families. 
 
Economy, Energy Key Summit Themes 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C) The financial crisis will loom over the entire 
summit, Lira said, warning that some countries will be 
tempted to turn towards protectionism.  Robledo urged that 
summit planners need to develop concrete initiatives to be 
implemented to demonstrate to the average worker that the 
summit is something significant and relevant. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Energy is a key issue for Chile--and the 
world--Lira stated, noting that Chile is very energy 
dependent and is a net importer of coal and natural gas. 
National Energy Commission International Affairs Director 
Carlos Pina warned that energy was a "turbulent" theme that 
would not be easy to manage.  The issue can quickly become 
politicized and stuck, particularly if participants focus on 
ambitious and unrealistic oil and gas objectives.  Instead, 
summit participants should be forward-looking and focus on 
 
SANTIAGO 00000279  002 OF 003 
 
 
technology transfer, research and development, and renewable 
energy.  More contentious issues should be shelved for a few 
years until the economic crisis is over. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Note:  Several Chilean officials told us during 
Ambassador Morales' meetings that Chile will host a technical 
experts meeting in between the G20 meeting in London on April 
2 and the Summit of the Americas April 17-19.  This meeting, 
which will focus on possible responses to the global 
financial crisis, is in lieu of earlier plans for Chile to 
host a finance ministerial at approximately the same time. 
End Note. 
 
Words Matter:  Concerns about the Text 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (C) Chilean officials believe that the summit declaration 
will be key to changing the tone of relationships within the 
region and between the U.S. and Latin American countries. 
However, both Lira and Robledo confided that based on recent 
experience--including last year's Rio Group 
summit--presidents in the region could back away from the 
agreed summit language at the last minute.  Lira remarked 
that some presidents "in the neighborhood" have told him that 
their bureaucrats have not performed well in text 
negotiations and that they (the presidents) are reluctant to 
agree to a document they have not read.  Robledo attributed 
this problem to the overly "presidentialized" nature of Latin 
American politics.  Robledo promised President Bachelet's 
support in contacting reluctant presidents directly, if 
needed, to ensure that a solid declaration could be presented 
at the summit.  MFA Multilateral Affairs Director Juan 
Eduardo Eguiguren suggested adding a shorter summary document 
as an official communique to ensure that there was a more 
succinct document that presidents would actually read. 
 
¶10. (C) Ambassador Morales responded to these concerns by 
mentioning the preceding week's productive meetings about the 
text and highlighting U.S. support for a summary document. 
The U.S. is eager to close the document before the summit, 
perhaps by March 31, but will need to work with other summit 
participants to be creative about inserting G20 language that 
is finalized after that date. 
 
¶11. (C) While the U.S. supports an executive summary, summit 
participants will need to consider carefully who should be 
involved in these negotiations and how to avoid negotiating 
the declaration and summary simultaneously.  Negotiating the 
remaining declaration text as a series of packets of 
paragraphs may help overcome deadlocks and make the remaining 
process go more quickly, Ambassador Morales suggested.  He 
left drafts with Chilean SIRG participant Patricio Powell, 
and the two discussed the specifics of the proposed language 
the next day. 
 
Another Summit Leadership Group Trying to Emerge? 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶12. (C) Robledo told us that Colombia is interested in 
forming an informal working group to guide summit 
preparations.  This group would include Peru and Panama, 
among other countries, and so would be distinct from the 
current Amigos group, consisting of past summit hosts plus 
Brazil. 
 
Chilean NGO Heading Network to Monitor Summit Impacts 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) Chile is also worried about how summit commitments 
will be implemented, Eguiguren noted, highlighting the work 
of a Chilean NGO, Participa, that is tracking the extent to 
which governments participating in the summit have 
implemented commitments from previous summits.  Ambassador 
Morales met later in the day with Participa Subdirector 
Catalina Delpiano, who described the organization's work in 
coordinating a network of NGOs monitoring results from past 
summits in 21 of the 34 summit member countries.  Their 
analysis shows that key elements of past summit declarations 
have not translated into significant democratic advances in 
the hemisphere overall.  Some countries, such as Uruguay, 
Guatemala, Barbados, and Chile, have improved their 
performance on summit declaration-linked indicators, such as 
access to public information, decentralization, freedom of 
expression, and civil society participation.  However, these 
gains are tempered by substantial declines in other 
countries, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Peru, and El 
Salvador. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
SANTIAGO 00000279  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶14.  (C) Chilean officials at the Presidential Palace, 
Foreign Affairs Ministry, Finance Ministry, and Energy 
Commission all showed their eagerness to work with the U.S. 
in shaping a successful summit.  Robledo's valuable offer to 
have President Bachelet directly contact other regional 
presidents is a noteworthy example of Chile's willingness to 
quietly encourage its neighbors to contribute to successful 
multilateral initiatives.  Chileans hope that President 
Obama's participation in the Summit of the Americas will mark 
a watershed moment where the new administration launches a 
new round of active engagement with Latin America.  End 
Comment. 
 
¶15.  (U) Ambassador Morales cleared this cable. 
SIMONS