VZCZCXYZ0022
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSG #1573 2021943
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211943Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9643
INFO RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 3123
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ JUL CARACAS 1019

UNCLAS SANTIAGO 001573 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR IIP/G/WHA, INR/R/MR, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA 
 
AMEMBASSY FOR PAO/IO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO CI AR BL VE
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - MERCOSUR SUMMIT 
 
 
¶1. On July 21, conservative, independent "La Tercera" (circ. 
102,000) carried a column by correspondent Alvaro Vargas Llosa 
entitled, "Chile's Three Fronts in Cordoba."  Quotes: 
 
"The Mercosur summit began yesterday offering Chile three elements 
of tension: Evo Morales, Nestor Kirchner, and Hugo Chavez....  With 
regard to Chavez...Chile is under Washington's pressure to try to 
block Venezuela's candidacy (to the UNSC) and under pressure from 
Caracas to facilitate it....   Mercosur..., which is already pitiful 
because of its internal problems, has now incorporated Chavez, and 
the main course for this Summit...is the signature of an agreement 
with Cuba....  For Chile, which is part of the 'reasonable' 
governments in Latin America, this is not good news.  Because one 
thing is to show Chavez and Castro affection and avoid ideological 
confrontations, but it is a completely different matter to form part 
of a strategy to take Mercosur down a political path in which 
Santiago has no interest. 
 
"What interests Santiago is to become part of the Latin America 
club, extend its ties to different fronts, and resolve energy 
problems.  But this is not what the Venezuelan President wants. 
What Chavez wants is to form an anti-U.S. political platform...and 
take South America and the Caribbean along a path of political 
animosity with Washington....  Castro's arrival in Cordoba shows the 
degree of political energy that Chavez is already deploying in the 
South American bloc....  The Castro-Chavez-Morales trio will attend 
the alternative counter-Summit in Cordoba, and after that Chavez 
will begin a tour to other countries...to gain votes...and win the 
battle he is waging with Washington over Venezuela's candidacy in 
the Security Council....  A Mercosur with members and associate 
countries with diverging goals and contradicting views, as those 
represented by the Chavez-Morales-Castro trio on the one hand, and 
Chile on the other, can hardly be productive." 
 
¶2. On July 21, conservative, influential newspaper-of-record "El 
Mercurio" (circ. 116,807) carried a column by Karin Ebensperger 
entitled, "Bolivia and its Eternal Demand for the Sea."  Quote: 
 
"There is something that is it not explained clearly enough in 
international affairs or repeated often enough.  Chile offered 
Bolivia access to the sea but Peru refused....  The view in the 
international public opinion is that Chile owes Bolivia something, 
and that that country cannot grow because it has no sea.  This view 
is wrong....  Chile has tried to please Bolivia with a corridor, and 
although Bolivia demands that none of its gas sold to Argentina 
reach Chile, the people and all governments in Chile have made 
endless efforts to promote bilateral trade, granting granted Bolivia 
the maximum facilities so that it can export its products through 
the Pacific." 
 
YAMAUCHI