VZCZCXYZ0021
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0158/01 0202010
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 202010Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3176
INFO RHMFIUU/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000158 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, 
WHA/EPSC 
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION US AMBASSADOR TO BUENOS AIRES 
US-ARGENTINE RELATIONSHIP CHAVEZ IRAN MICELI TO 
WASHINGTON US-URUGUAYAN FTD AFTERMATH OF THE VISIT OF 
A/S THOMAS SHANNON TO BUENOS AIRES OUTCOME OF CHILEAN 
ELECTIONS 01/17/06 
 
 
  ¶1.   SUMMARY STATEMENT 
 
Weekend international stories include: Michele 
Bachelet winning Chilean presidential elections and 
considering relations with Argentina "strategic" for 
Chile; US President George W. Bush and German 
Chancellor Angela Merkel's joint statement to put 
mutual pressure on Iran in a bid to halt Tehran's 
nuclear ambitions; former Spanish President Felipe 
Gonzalez' statements that there is not such a tilt to 
the left in Latin America; Washington hindering the 
sale of Spanish airplanes to Venezuela; Argentine 
Ambassador to the US Jose Bordon's statement that the 
visit of A/S Shannon contributed to more visibility in 
the US-Argentine relationship; an alleged US military 
and technological blockade on Venezuelan President 
Hugo Chavez; and Argentine Ambassador to UN Csar 
Mayoral's statement that Argentina adopted the "wait 
and see" policy at the UN Security Council regarding 
possible sanctions on Iran due to the nuclear issue. 
 
¶2. OPINION PIECES AND KEY STORIES 
 
- "No replacement for Gutierrez as US ambassador to 
Argentina has been decided" 
 
Ana Baron, Washington-based correspondent for leading 
"Clarin," writes (01/15) "The replacement of a US 
ambassador to Argentina not only unleashes expectation 
in our country but also in Washington. And, obviously, 
the replacement of Lino Gutierrez is not an exception 
to the rule. 
 
"Since last December there is an insistent rumor that 
current US Assistant Secretary for Economic and 
Business Affairs, Earl Anthony Wayne, will be 
appointed as such. But, according to a US source, 
while Wayne is the favorite at the US State 
Department, he has not received the White House's 
approval. 
 
"According to a US diplomat, 'there must be some 
political candidate interested in the position that is 
lobbying to obtain it.' 
 
"According to the US State Department's bio, Wayne was 
one of those who led the efforts to organize rescue 
packages for Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. 
Furthermore, Wayne has also contributed significantly 
to drafting and implementing the international energy 
policy, including the Western Hemisphere. He has also 
played a role in economic and trade liberalization 
negotiations. 
 
"... Everything indicates that the White House has not 
OK'd Wayne... This means that Gutierrez is likely to 
stay longer in his position." 
 
- "The US has a public and a private discourse on its 
ties with Argentina" 
 
Ana Baron, Washington-based correspondent for leading 
"Clarin," writes (01/14) "It is  not hard to find out 
that the Bush administration has currently a double 
discourse about the Kirchner administration. In 
public, it says that bilateral ties are excellent, and 
that the SOA was a success. In fact, this is what A/S 
Shannon said during his visit to Buenos Aires. 
However, in private, there is criticism of Kirchner 
inside the US State Department corridors. Many USG 
officials feel disappointed due to what happened at 
the SOA... 
 
"... Two former US ambassadors to Argentina, James 
Cheek and Manuel Rocha, said that today the US State 
Department has no choice. 'They cannot publicly 
recognize that the SOA was a failure.' 
 
"According to Rocha, 'Diplomats never say anything 
negative except when ties with a country start to 
break, and this has not happened yet.'" 
 
- "Bush's blockade on Chavez will be the landmark of 
Brasilia summit" 
 
 
 
 
 
Carlos Pagni, columnist of business-financial "Ambito 
Financiero," comments (01/17) "Perhaps, Nestor 
Kirchner will discover in Brazil the strategic sense 
of A/S Shannon's cordiality during his visit last 
Thursday. Kirchner will meet there with Lula... They 
will speak about the somewhat fictitious entry of 
Venezuela into Mercosur... However, the main topic of 
talks will be the USG decision to start a 
technological and military blockade on the Chavez 
administration. 
 
"Last Friday, the US State Department made two 
important decisions... It vetoed the sale of Spanish 
and Brazilian airplanes to Caracas. 
 
"... It is the first time the USG took into practice 
its so far rhetoric criticism of the Bolivarian 
regime." 
 
- "While the White House is sleeping" 
 
Daily-of-record "La Nacion" carries an op-ed piece by 
writer Tomas Eloy Martinez, who opines (01/14) "... 
The new Latin American leaders no longer fear the US. 
When they rule, they think less of hurting Washington 
than of defending national interests. 
 
"This creates confusion because what the US newspapers 
call left and right wing are simplifications of a much 
more complex reality. 
 
"... However, Latin America's economic growth is high, 
and democracy is consolidated; it's not only what the 
US calls a shift to the left that is changing the 
atmosphere of the region. Conservative leaders (such 
as in Chile and Mexico) have also appeared and they 
will make others rethink national projects. At last, 
George W. Bush's long nap, which is full of Babylonian 
and remote dreams, is letting Latin America find 
itself." 
 
- "Iran: no need to panic" 
 
Liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires Herald" 
carries an opinion piece by contributor Gwynne Dyer, 
who writes (01/16) "... The current US campaign to 
impose UN sanctions on Iran is doomed to fail, because 
Iran is not breaking the law. As a signatory of the 
NPT, it is fully entitled to develop nuclear power for 
peaceful purposes, including the technology for 
enriching uranium, even though that also takes it much 
of the way to a nuclear-weapons capability. In any 
case, it is practically unimaginable that all the veto- 
holding powers on the UN Security Council would agree 
to impose sanctions on a major oil-producer on the 
mere suspicion that it ultimately intends to break the 
law." 
 
- "Miceli will receive Washington's criticism of price 
controls" 
 
Martin Kanenguiser, economic columnist of daily-of- 
record "La Nacion," writes (01/16) "The criticism that 
Economy Minister Felisa Miceli will receive during her 
trip to the US will basically be focused on the 
sustained inflation increase and the trouble to 
capture long-term investment. 
 
"US analysts and investors gladly note the strong 
Argentine growth but they are not very impressed by 
the payment of the debt to the IMF and they sway 
between disbelief and fear due to the strategy to 
fight inflation. This is why Miceli is expected to 
hear skeptical comments in Washington regarding price 
controls. 
 
"For her part, Miceli will attempt to convince her 
interlocutors... that Argentina will maintain a high 
fiscal surplus as the best test of her conviction to 
put a brake on inflation." 
 
- "Uruguay 'aspires' to US trade deal" 
 
 
 
 
Liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires Herald" 
(01/14) "Uruguay aspires to a free-trade deal with the 
US but it will only be able to achieve this if it 
receives permission from its Mercosur partners and the 
US accepts to negotiate sensitive products, Uruguay's 
Foreign Minister Reinaldo Gargano said yesterday. 
 
"'If the US eliminates the list of 300 sensitive 
products, why shouldn't I support a FTD that would 
enable us to enter a market as important as the US one 
with zero tariffs?' the minister said in a report 
published by the online edition of 'El Observador.'" 
 
- "A new round with Washington?" 
 
Eduardo van der Kooy, political columnist of leading 
"Clarin," comments (01/15) "... The White House has 
decided to focus its attention again on Nestor 
Kirchner based on scare rather than love. Not scare of 
Kirchner, but doubts about the future role to be 
played by his administration in a chaotic region that 
increasingly impairs US interests. 
 
"Evo Morales is an unchangeable reality in Bolivia... 
 
"... According to diplomatic and military sources, 
there is an increase in Chilean military budget... 
 
"Perhaps, all this explains why Washington has again 
focused its attention on Argentina. Brazil is a 
natural leader in the region, which Shannon did 
underscore, but its power seems insufficient to 
stabilize a chaotic region of the world. Our country 
should play a role in it, which Shannon told 
Kirchner." 
 
- "Shannon loves me, loves me not" 
 
Left-of-center "Pagina 12's" columnist Mario Wainfeld 
writes (01/15) "... The US idea that Argentina and 
Brazil should guarantee the regional stability surely 
does not sound the same South and North of Rio Bravo. 
Shannon, who is termed as 'the most 'dove' among 
hawks' by members of the Argentine foreign Minister, 
will go to La Paz and will surely congratulate the 
president-elect in his excellent Spanish. But, while 
in Argentina he did not deprive himself of commenting 
on his concern over an axis of the region..., which 
includes Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Ollanta Humala... 
 
"... Fidel Castro has lost his number one public enemy 
role to the hands of the Venezuelan president." 
 
- "Shannoningans in BA" 
 
Martin Gambarotta, political columnist of liberal, 
English-language "Buenos Aires Herald," writes (01/15) 
"... The immediate impression to get from Shannon's 
visit is that the US is not interested in antagonizing 
Kirchner unless he deliberately wants to pick a real 
fight. Kirchner... has said nothing about the way Bush 
goes about dealing with things in Iraq - that makes 
Argentina acceptable visiting ground for 
Republicans... 
 
"Shannon and the US senators said they were impressed 
by what can only be now described as sustained 
economic growth. Shannon urged Miceli to assure clear 
market rules to woo potential US investors." 
 
- "End of pinochetism" 
 
Claudio Uriarte, left-of-center "Pagina 12's" 
international analyst, writes (01/15) "These Chilean 
elections... are important because Chile has ended its 
'normalization' process, and because the ghost of 
Pinochet is fading away... Would a victory of Bachelet 
imply a tilt to the left in Latin America, which 
Washington fears? Not completely, firstly because 
Bachelet represents continuity of an also socialist 
outgoing president, Ricardo Lagos, and secondly 
because Chile, with all its social inequalities, is 
still the 'best pupil' (perhaps, the only one) of the 
so-called  Washington consensus in the region..." 
 
 
 
 
 
- "The US believes (Chile) sets an example for the 
region" 
 
Hugo Alconada Mon, Washington-based correspondent for 
daily-of-record "La Nacion," comments (01/15) 
"According to USG officials, diplomats and political 
and financial analysts, Chile is the exception; the 
lonely example in Latin America, which the US would be 
happy to see multiply all through the hemisphere... 
 
"A/S Tom Shannon and his staff do worry about other 
leaders in Latin American countries. First of all, 
they are concerned over Hugo Chavez, after him, Evo 
Morales and, to a lesser extent, about Peru, Ecuador, 
Nicaragua, Mexico, and, to a minimal extent, 
Argentina. 
 
"According to a Republican source at the strategic US 
Senate foreign Relations Committee, 'What we still 
cannot understand is why the rest of Latin America 
does not take Chile as a model of what should be 
done.' 'And it is not because Chileans play in favor 
of our interests - they voted against us at the UN 
Security Council on the invasion of Iraq, but they are 
predictable, and this is an asset.'" 
 
¶3. EDITORIALS 
 
- "The 'leash' policy had a break" 
 
Business-financial "El Cronista" editorializes (01/16) 
"Start from scratch? Based on the visit of A/S Thomas 
Shannon to Buenos Aires, the US-Argentine political 
and economic relationship seems to have taken the road 
of rationality... 
 
"... Obviously enough, intentions should be seen in 
the framework of the regional scenario. The Southern 
Cone, in which Washington seems to be finding 
hostility, is in political turmoil - made up of the 
well known confrontation between Bush and Chavez, Evo 
Morales taking over in Bolivia, the Peruvian and 
Chilean elections, and Brazil and Argentina's decision 
to pay off their debt to the IMF. 
 
"Uruguay's intention to negotiate a FTD with the US is 
a clear sign that regional partners are not willing to 
abandon pragmatism beyond their center-left 
identification. 
 
"Is Argentina in a position to disregard the important 
US markets, or the possibility of new investment? It 
is true that a prominent debate on the FTAA and farm 
subsidies was necessary, but Argentina should put 
aside its taste for the tribune and hold firm 
negotiations in the framework of a more constructive 
diplomacy." 
 
- "And quiet flows the Shannon" 
 
Liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires Herald" 
editorializes (01/15) "If the Washington State 
Department's new man for Latin America Tom Shannon has 
a much smoother style of public diplomacy than his 
predecessors Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, this is 
entirely apposite to current needs - the US is not out 
to antagonize Argentina with so much trouble brewing 
elsewhere in the region and the world at large. It is 
easy to scoff at the notion that Shannon's flying 
visit last Thursday was a success simply because he 
said so but in point of fact there was a clear will on 
both sides to make it a success... 
 
"The mutual goodwill seems reflected in the third 
country chosen to costar in the agenda along with 
bilateral ties, almost by common consent - not Bolivia 
or Venezuela but normally peaceful Uruguay and its 
debate over a US trade alliance... 
 
"But if Argentina cannot beat Uruguay's interest in 
the US, why not join it? Shannon left here impressed 
by three years of nine-percent growth, the twin fiscal 
and trade surpluses and the debt repayment to the IMF 
 
 
 
 
earlier this month. Doubts continue about legal 
security... and the very fact of US interest in energy 
and infrastructural investments points to flaws in 
these areas but now seems as good a time as any to go 
wooing the US." 
 
- "Responsible relations with the US" 
 
Leading "Clarin" editorializes (01/15) "The 
improvement of the US-Argentine relationship is a 
positive step that should pave the way for diplomacy 
oriented towards the defense of national interests 
while developed with practicality and responsibility. 
 
"... In this framework, the country could play a 
moderating role that will contribute to shared 
regional interests and to building a relationship with 
the US that is based on mutual respect instead of 
strident rhetoric." 
 
To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our 
classified website at: 
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires 
 
The Media Reaction Report reflects articles and 
opinions by the cited news media and do not 
necessarily reflect U.S. Embassy policy or views.  The 
Public Affairs Section does not independently verify 
information.  The report is intended for internal U.S. 
Government use only. 
 
GUTIERREZ