VZCZCXYZ0002
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSO #0460 1491723
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 291723Z MAY 07
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7003
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 8127
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 8089
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 2790

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000460 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD 
 
DEPT PASS USTR 
 
USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: EUROPE: EU-RUSSIA TENSIONS; WESTERN 
HEMISPHERE: VENEZUELA, CHAVEZ'S REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE; 
SAO PAULO 
 
 
¶1. "Cold War Signs" 
 
Center-right national circulation and influential daily O Estado de S. 
Paulo editorialized (5/28): "In addition to the Middle East horrors, a 
new focus of international tension has continued to expand in recent 
months and weeks. It is the remarkable deterioration of the relations 
between Russia and the West. Without any exaggeration, they have never 
been worse since the collapse of the USSR. The tension, resulting from 
an escalation of misunderstandings and reciprocal accusations, revives 
a phrase that everyone thought buried: 'cold war'.... At the root of th 
new conflict are the Kremlin's trend of imposing itself on former 
vassal Baltic States such as Estonia and Lithuania - which not only 
obtained independence, but also joined NATO - and to influence the 
European Union's policies.... The strategic military problem created by 
the U.S. decision to install anti-missile shields in Poland and the 
Czech Republic must be added to that [worsening]." 
 
¶2. "Ch vez Takes Another Step To Suffocate Any Opposition" 
 
An editorial in business-oriented Valor Economico (5/29) maintained: 
"The closing of Caracas Television represented not only a tough blow 
against the opposition, but also a more significant advance in the 
Venezuelan government's control over the media, one of the basic keys 
of Ch vez's '21th Century's socialism.' Now the government has five 
television networks, while all private networks have given up 
criticizing the government because they fear challenging Ch vez. The 
president has transformed formal mechanisms of democracy into a 
grotesque representation and has cut one by one the chances of a 
political opposition to run for power.... As with all of the opposition 
sectors against the president, the television station participated in 
2002 in the mistaken strategy that resulted in the quasi coup that 
removed Ch vez from the presidency for just two days.... RCTV should be 
given first the right of defense, but nothing happened. Ch vez has 
created all the conditions to make the opposition a mere decorative 
figure, and to pave the way to maintain himself in power for two more 
decades. The rapid changes he has promoted in Venezuela's structures of 
power has put the nation on an irreversible course towards a leftist 
caudillo-type government.... Ch vez is following the example of Stalini 
dictatorships. After creating a political infrastructure that ensures 
his permanence in power, he begins to frequently interfere in private 
life." 
McMullen