VZCZCXYZ0014
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1189/01 1442009
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 242009Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4667
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001189 
 
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 IRAQ; UN AND GUANTANAMO; 
CHINA; THE US AND LATIN AMERICA; US IMMIGRATION BILL; 
MR. WAYNE AND ARGENTINA; AFGHANISTAN; MERCOSUR 
05/22/06 
 
¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT 
 
Weekend papers cover an interview with journalist 
Robert Fisk on the war in Iraq; the UN asking the US 
to close the Guantanamo prison; the US/Latin American 
ties in the opinion of Argentine President Nestor 
Kirchner; the impact of the USG decision to militarize 
the US/Mexican border; Mr. Wayne's concerns about 
Argentina; the war in Afghanistan; and the current 
fragile status of Mercosur. 
 
¶2. OPINION PIECES AND KEY STORIES 
 
- "'The only thing occupation forces want to do is get 
out of Iraq'" 
 
Eleonora Gosman, on special assignment in Sao Paulo 
for leading "Clarin," makes an interview with Robert 
Fisk, foreign correspondent in the Middle East, who 
opines (05/21) "... 'Many American and British 
soldiers will die before troops leave. Insurgence has 
almost 40,000 men and if Shiites join Sunnis they 
could be 200,000, which is exactly the number of 
occupation forces. Occupying forces are living in real 
fortresses and live under the land.' 
 
"... 'Arabs lost their fear to resist and the US 
project seems exhausted.'" 
 
- "The UN asks the US to close the Guantanamo prison" 
 
Daily-of-record "La Nacion" reports (05/20) "The UN 
Committee against Torture asked the US yesterday to 
close Guantanamo prison in Cuba and asked Washington 
to eliminate all forms of mistreatment against 
detainees, as well as to avoid the use of secret 
prisons in its global war on terrorism. 
 
"... Human rights organizations believe there are some 
460 detainees in Guantanamo, some of whom have stayed 
there for more than four years without any charges 
filed against them." 
 
- "The next empire" 
 
Marcelo Cantelmi, international editor of leading 
"Clarin," writes (05/21) "China is leading a crucial 
change in the world. Its growth is part of a long 
economic cycle that impacts all over the world. 
 
"Oil prices are owed to this capitalistic revolution 
launched by the biggest communist political structure 
of the world. 
 
"In this framework, one should analyze the value of 
the gigantic dam they have just built disregarding 
social or environmental costs. 
 
"The purpose is to attend to the giant's voracity of 
energy and food. 
 
"The question is where the giant will stop. The only 
certainty is that it will be the next empire." 
 
- "The region and the US" 
 
Left-of-center "Pagina 12" carries an interview with 
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who opines 
(05/21) "... I believe there will be an interesting 
political change in the US. I think the role of Brazil 
and Venezuela is very important for the region... The 
US has not even remembered about the region, this is 
reality. It proposes FTAs that are unacceptable in the 
current framework. With a different US, one that could 
be more integrated to the region, everything would be 
easier. 
 
"Asked whether the fact that the US has not set its 
eyes on the region may have been a circumstantial 
relative advantage, Kirchner answers 'It is a relative 
advantage with this policy, and it is a relative 
disadvantage if there is a more integrating policy for 
the region.'" 
 
- "South, a wall, and after that..." 
 
 
 
 
Jorge Elias, columnist of daily-of-record "La Nacion," 
writes (05/21) "... Globalization, ruled by an alleged 
freedom of movement, turned out to the be the victim 
of a cruel contradiction - if Germany's reunification 
and the end of the Soviet Union were reasons to be 
glad, why do the wealthiest countries fence the 
Southern border... vis--vis the virtual risk posed by 
an invasion of those who, due to the lack of 
opportunities in their countries of origin, have to 
abandon their homes and families in search for a 
better future? 
 
"... Every wall means a more or less painful scar that 
protects some while expelling others. Neither the US 
nor Australia, nor Mexico, nor Argentina, nor any 
other country that was generous with immigrants would 
not have conceived of with walls." 
 
- "US: racist groups increase and Hispanics are the 
new target" 
 
Ana Baron, Washington-based correspondent for leading 
"Clarin," writes (05/22) "... The latest pro- 
immigration demonstrations that took place in several 
cities of the US demonstrated the extreme racism still 
prevailing in some US groups. In response to those 
demonstrations, the neo-Nazi Movement, the Ku Klux 
Klan, the Skinheads and other reactionary groups 
openly called to terrorist violence including 
operations with car bombs, attacks with machine guns, 
and murders of members of the US congress and Senate. 
 
"According to a former journalist of The Miami Herald 
and the USA Today who now works for the Southern 
Poverty Law Center, 'The number of neo-Nazi groups 
operating in the US went from 762 in 2004 to 803 in 
¶2005. During the last five years there has been a 33% 
increase. There are many reasons to explain this 
increase, but the increase in the number of Hispanic 
immigrants is the most important one.'" 
 
- "K(irchner)'s Braden" 
 
Jorge Lanata, contributor to centrist "Perfil," writes 
(05/21) "... Mr. Wayne does not speak Spanish and does 
not know our region well but, according to him, during 
his job as US Assistant Secretary for Economic and 
Business Affairs during the Clinton administration, 
'the first thing I used to do in the morning was check 
what was going on with the Argentine economy'... 
 
"Mr. Wayne is concerned about Kirchner's ties with 
Hugo Chavez, although he knows from Argentine 
Government officials that 'with Venezuela we only do 
business, our partnership is not ideological.' 
 
"... According to former diplomat and writer Albino 
Gomez, 'Peron was an opportunist without any ideology, 
not even a fascist. This is why it was highly 
advisable for both Braden and Peron to come to an 
agreement regardless of what could have publicly been 
said about their relationship.' 
 
"... The official history of Braden 'versus' Peron has 
been questioned for good reason - several historians 
agree to make Braden appear as engaged in conflict 
with Peron, while both did good business together 
(just as it has been recently with Kirchner's 
enemies)... Peron granted airline concessions to his 
'enemy' Braden and the two of them reached a deal on 
oil." 
 
- "Afghanistan again" 
 
Liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires Herald" 
carries an opinion piece by contributor Gwynne Dyer, 
who writes (05/229 "The Taliban are back. The 
resurgence of Taliban attacks in the Pashto-speaking 
provinces of southern and eastern Afghanistan means 
that US and other foreign troops in Afghanistan are 
now taking casualties at the same rate as US troops in 
Iraq... This was entirely predictable, but almost 
impossible to prevent given the strategy that the US 
has pursued since overthrowing the Taliban regime in 
 
 
 
late 2001. On the other hand, no alternative strategy 
could have offered a guarantee of success in 
Afghanistan either. 
 
"Afghanistan was always the problem from hell for 
Western strategists, as it was in earlier times for 
British and Russian strategists. It is an easy country 
to invade, but an almost impossible country to occupy 
long-term... 
 
".. Would the situation improve if they all went home? 
No; it will probably just jog along as a low-level 
guerrilla, with occasional peaks of violence like the 
present and no end in sight. Damned if you do, and 
damned if you don't." 
 
- "'One should keep a cautious distance from the US 
and not being hostile to it'" 
 
Telma Luzzani makes an interview with Brazilian 
political analyst Helio Jaguaribe, who opines (05/21) 
"'South American integration cannot be performed with 
a negative, anti-US ideological sign, which will lead 
nowhere. It must be carried out under the sign of 
regional autonomy. And this means to keep a cautious 
distance from Washington, but not being hostile to it. 
Americans have the resources to torpedo this 
integration.'" 
 
- "Why is Mercosur fainting" 
 
Leading "Clarin" carries an op-ed piece by Marta 
Bekerman, professor of Economic Development, School of 
Economic Sciences, National University of Buenos 
Aires, who writes (05/22) "Uruguay's announcement that 
it will start a trade liberalization process with the 
US does nothing but deepen Mercosur's critical 
situation. 
 
"... The process started with the Brazilian 
devaluation and the crisis of neo-liberal policies 
implies the end of a model of Mercosur and a form of 
administration that is typical of the '90s. 
 
"... What this has demonstrated is that trade 
liberalization itself does not have the virtuous 
effect of diluting asymmetries and even less 
structural disparities." 
 
¶3. EDITORIALS 
 
- "The control of hot borders" 
 
An editorial in leading "Clarin" reads (05/22) "The 
tough anti-immigration measures taken by the US in 
recent days reflect an increasing concern about 
illegal immigration and its effects on the US economy 
and society. 
 
"... The USG decision to militarize the US-Mexican 
border targets the police aspect of the problem but 
clearly it does not solve it. It also implies a view 
that could generate discrimination and biases and that 
does not honor the US multicultural tradition." 
 
To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our 
classified website at: 
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires 
 
GUTIERREZ