VZCZCXYZ0004
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0232/01 0371802
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061802Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7200
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 5917
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 5766
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 6154
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 0167
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000232 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA/BSC AND WHA/EPSC 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/OLAC/PEACHER 
USDOC FOR 3134/USFCS/OIO/WH/MKESHISHIAN 
USDOC FOR 4320/ITA/MAC/WH/DAS/WMBASTIAN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD BESP AR
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR WAYNE VISITS CORDOBA, ARGENTINA'S 
SECOND CITY 
 
REF: BUENOS AIRES 02580 
 
¶1. (U) This cable is sensitive but unclassified, and not for 
Internet distribution. 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶2. (U) Ambassador Wayne used a two-day trip to Cordoba, 
widely considered Argentina's second city, to build ties with 
provincial administrators, U.S. companies operating locally, 
cultural and scientific leaders, youth and NGOs, and the 
local media.  The ambassador concentrated on four themes 
throughout the trip:  He stressed to his audiences the value 
of establishing and maintaining a positive investment 
climate; he encouraged and praised U.S. companies that 
exhibit social responsibility; he reminded interlocutors of 
the longstanding and mutually beneficial cultural and 
scientific ties between the U.S. and Argentina; and he 
demonstrated by example the importance of transparency in 
government.  Outreach highlights included a visit to a food 
distribution project for poor children run by Caritas and 
Wal-Mart and a meeting with Junior Achievement leaders.  End 
Summary. 
 
-------- 
The Trip 
-------- 
 
¶3. (U) The ambassador fit twelve distinct events into the 
February 1-2 trip.  In chronological order, he visited a 
Motorola software development center; met with local young 
people involved with Junior Achievement; had lunch with 
AMCHAM Cordoba (companies represented included Apex, EDS, 
Intel, Lockheed Martin, LG&E International, Motorola, 
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, RAR Autoparts, Sheraton, Prudential, 
and Wal-Mart); visited a noted observatory co-founded in the 
nineteenth century by a U.S. citizen scientist; participated 
in a Wal-Mart-sponsored food and toy distribution at a local 
center for underprivileged children managed by Caritas; 
exchanged views with University of Cordoba officials; visited 
the IICANA bi-national English language center to meet with 
students and U.S. grantees; dined with the governor of 
Cordoba; held a sit-down with local media editors and owners; 
called on Cordoba's mayor; visited Argentina's primary 
satellite control facility; and toured the Lockheed Martin 
aircraft production and maintenance facility. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
Emphasizing the Importance of a Good Investment Climate 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Ambassador met with Cordoba governor Jose Manuel 
De la Sota, whose mandate expires this year, and also with 
the two frontrunners to succeed him, and used those meetings 
to stress the importance of and advantages accruing from a 
good investment climate.  During dinner February 1 with De la 
Sota and vice governor Juan Schiaretti, who is running to 
replace De la Sota, and during a February 2 meeting with 
Cordoba mayor Luis Alfredo Juez, another contender for 
governor, Ambassador Wayne urged the provincial officials to 
address concerns voiced during the ambassador's earlier 
meetings with U.S. companies. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Several of the companies with which the ambassador 
had met had praised the De la Sota administration's use of 
incentives to attract U.S. technology companies to Cordoba, 
which has spurred Cordoba's status as a burgeoning high-tech 
center.  All the U.S. companies speaking to the ambassador 
characterized the governor and his administration as 
business-friendly.  Two of the U.S. company subsidiaries have 
already achieved world class results in their Cordoba 
operations.  The news was not all good, however, with some of 
the same companies complaining that some of the promised 
incentives had not yet been delivered.  Those companies also 
cited structural problems that limit the local economy's 
ability to produce sufficient numbers of adequately trained 
or skilled human resources. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The ambassador raised those concerns with De la Sota 
and Schiaretti, who agreed on the importance of improving 
provincial education and of establishing a legible and 
 
transparent operating framework for businesses.  They also 
explained in detail their hopes to build stronger economic 
and educational ties with the U.S., and to seek law 
enforcement training for provincial security forces.  Mayor 
Juez, De la Sota's political rival, had received less 
positive marks from the U.S. business community.  In keeping 
with that assessment, Juez appeared less enthusiastic than 
the governor had been when asked about taking steps to 
improve Cordoba's investment climate.  Instead, most of the 
formal meeting Juez hosted for Ambassador Wayne was taken up 
by the reading of a lengthy proclamation naming the 
ambassador an honored guest of the city, and by the mayor's 
joking attempts to cadge a statement of support for his 
candidacy for governor from the ambassador.  The mayor did, 
however, stress the importance of building a strong sister 
city relationship wiht Atlanta, including university level 
ties. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Lauding Examples of U.S. Corporate Responsibility 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶7. (U) Ambassador Wayne emphasized the importance of 
corporations acting as responsible members of the community 
in all of his interactions with U.S. corporate 
representatives in Cordoba.  Local U.S. companies appear to 
be taking those responsibilities seriously, and the 
ambassador heard a number of inspiring stories about company 
commitments to educational, nutritional, and environmental 
campaigns.  Some stories told of an astonishing degree of 
community social responsibility.  For example, Lockheed 
Martin Aircraft Argentina President Alberto Buthet told the 
ambassador that his company had continued to pay wages and 
benefits to 1,100 workers for over a year during Argentina's 
2001-2001 economic crisis, despite having no contract. 
 
¶8. (U) With U.S. companies providing such a positive example, 
the ambassador took pains to cite their good works to each of 
his Argentine interlocutors, especially members of the press. 
 As part of that effort, the ambassador participated in an 
event involving needy children at a Wal-Mart-subsidized soup 
kitchen run by Caritas in a disadvantaged neighborhood. 
Several hundred children jammed the building as Wal-Mart 
volunteers and the ambassador served a snack and handed out 
toys.  The presence of the ambassador attracted media 
coverage of the moving event, which served to showcase 
throughout the region Wal-Mart's volunteer efforts and the 
commitment by U.S. companies to their communities. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
Reinforcing Cultural, Educational, and Scientific Ties 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶9. (U) The ambassador dedicated a significant portion of the 
trip to publicizing and solidifying the cultural, 
educational, and scientific ties between Argentine 
institutions in Cordoba and U.S. counterparts.  First on his 
agenda was a roundtable with participants in the Junior 
Achievement program, which in Cordoba dates from 1994.  That 
meeting began with the ambassador offering words of 
encouragement to the assembled young people, then listening 
as each described his or her particular project.  The 
projects were ambitious and inspiring, ranging from a 
business startup that used profits to take underprivileged 
children on vacation to organizing the upcoming International 
Forum of Entrepreneurs (FIE) conference, scheduled for May 
14-19 in Cordoba, and for which young people from eighteen 
nations are expected.  The Junior Achievers honored 
Ambassador Wayne by asking him to be keynote speaker at the 
conference. 
 
¶10. (U) Administrators at the University of Cordoba, 
Argentina's oldest university (founded in 1613), were eager 
to discuss with the ambassador ways to improve U.S.-Argentina 
educational exchanges.  According to those officials, such 
exchanges have been relatively insignificant compared to the 
relationships Argentine universities enjoy with their 
European counterparts.  Dr. Hugo Juri, a professor at the 
university and a former Argentine education minister, assured 
the ambassador that that circumstance is not a result of 
animosity or ideology.  Rather, it is the result of 
immigration patterns and other historic factors. 
 
¶11. (U) Argentine universities are very interested in beefing 
up exchange relationships, according to Juri.  Ambassador 
Wayne agreed that many possibilities exist to augment 
exchanges, and offered to assist the University of Cordoba 
with points of contact within U.S. institutions.  The 
educators were also interested when the ambassador mentioned 
the proposed Global Science Partnerships for the 21st Century 
program (GSP21) as a way to build ties.  That proposed 
program was first presented in Argentina to Minister of 
Education Filmus in November 2006 by Science Adviser to the 
Secretary George Atkinson (reftel). 
 
SIPDIS 
 
¶12. (U) The ambassador's visit to the IICANA bi-national 
center also contributed to the goal of promoting existing 
cultural and educational cooperation.  At IICANA, Ambassador 
Wayne spoke with grantees of U.S. exchange programs, 
congratulated outstanding students of English, announced the 
creation of a new scholarship for ten English language 
students of limited means (the Sarmiento-Mann Scholarship), 
and spoke with television and radio reporters. 
 
¶13. (U) Two of the ambassador's events were designed to 
highlight U.S.-Argentina scientific cooperation, which dates 
to 1871.  That was the year that Argentine president 
Sarmiento, working with the Massachusetts astronomer Benjamin 
Apthorpe Gould, opened the Argentine National Observatory. 
The ambassador visited the observatory, now a museum, to 
honor Gould.  The ambassador also traveled to Argentine space 
agency CONAE's Cordoba land station, approximately forty 
kilometers south of the city, to underline the positive state 
of the current U.S.-Argentina scientific partnership.  CONAE 
is an important NASA partner, and NASA is investing 
approximately USD 250 million in a joint satellite project 
(SAC-D/Aquarius, scheduled for launch in 2009). 
 
-------------------------------- 
Press Freedom and Local Politics 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (U) In keeping with his practice of openness to the 
press, Ambassador Wayne made contact with local media 
following each of his scheduled events.  The resultant 
interviews and press releases attracted local media interest, 
resulting in television, radio, and newspaper coverage of the 
business, social, and educational elements of the visit.  In 
a frank, off-the-record session, media owners and editors 
offered insights into local politics, and noted that 
anti-Americanism in Cordoba was less significant a phenomenon 
in Cordoba than in Buenos Aires, and also that it is now less 
intense than in the past.  The editors did lament the 
government's use of official advertising to influence the 
press, but said that there is still a wide variety of 
opinions expressed in the Cordoba press. 
 
¶15. (U) The ambassador arrived in Cordoba on the same day 
that Governor De la Sota gave his final annual state of the 
province address, which was a difficult story to compete 
against.  Still, following dinner with the governor that 
evening and a meeting with the mayor (the governor's 
political rival) the following morning, the city's leading 
newspaper -- La Voz del Interior -- picked up the 
ambassador's press release.  That release reflected the 
Embassy's neutrality vis-a-vis the ongoing political dispute 
between the governor and the mayor, and focused on the U.S. 
objectives of protecting and enhancing the development and 
expansion potential of U.S. information technology companies 
in Cordoba. 
WAYNE