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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BUENOS AIRES 001636 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WHA/PDA FOR JOHN DICKSON, CHARLOTTE PETERSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL OEXC OIIP SCUL KPAO AR PGOV
SUBJECT: Public Diplomacy Best Practices: Focusing on Social Issues 
in Argentina 
 
Ref:  Reftel:  (A) BA 001588; (B) BA 000533 
 
¶1. SUMMARY.  The United States is often criticized in Latin America 
for its lack of attention to social issues.  To fight this 
perception during the last two years, the U.S. Embassy in Buenos 
Aires has led efforts to spotlight the major social issues in the 
city and country, bringing media attention to bear on heroic efforts 
to address problems which otherwise would have gone largely 
unnoticed.  We share below some of our best "lessons learned" and 
most successful practices in our attempts to shed some light on 
these critical issues with the minimal aid resources we have 
available to us.    END SUMMARY. 
 
Highlighting the Battle Against 
Human and Drug Trafficking 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Human and drug trafficking are major problems in Argentina. 
Argentina is a source, transit, and destination country for men, 
women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual 
exploitation and forced labor.  It has also now moved from being a 
largely drug-trade-transit country to a growing destination and 
drug-consuming society.  While we have no formal development 
assistance program, Embassy Buenos Aries has found that we could be 
a major catalyst for enhanced public attention to these scourges by 
shedding light on and supporting the actions of courageous 
individuals and effective organizations combating them. 
 
¶3.  Embassy Buenos Aires has used Department calls for nominations 
for the International Women of Courage (IWOC) award to highlight the 
challenges Argentina faces in the areas of human and drug 
trafficking.  For example, we converted the IWOC nomination and 
selection for anti-TIP activist Susana Trimarco de Veron into a 
campaign to spotlight her valiant efforts to rescue hundreds of 
trafficking victims in the search of her daughter, Marita, who is 
believed to have been kidnapped by human traffickers for the 
purposes of sexual exploitation.  The Ambassador made a trip 
hundreds of miles from Buenos Aires to the Province of Tucuman to 
deliver remarks at the inauguration of Susana's Fundacion Maria de 
Los Angeles.  The event was widely reported in the Argentine media. 
We encouraged other local media to focus on Trimarco's work.  The 
positive attention that we showered on the activist captured the 
imagination of Argentina's cultural elites.  Within a few months of 
our IWOC nomination for Susana, there was a soap opera on national 
television based on her story that soon became one of the top-rated 
programs in the country.  It just won an Emmy, and the Foreign 
Minister told us up to 300 women and girls were freed as a result of 
this program showing in Argentina.  To continue our efforts, for the 
International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women on November 
25, the Ambassador issued a statement praising the UN's decision to 
host the premiere of the play Mika (based on the story of Susana 
Trimarco de Veron's efforts on behalf of human rights) in New York. 
Earlier this year, CNN International broadcast a piece across the 
globe that emphasized Susana's relationship with the Embassy as key 
to the progress made in Argentina on the issue.  Her story may never 
have become a cause celebre if we had not recognized and publicized 
her efforts. 
 
¶4.  Other inspiring citizens -- including those fighting the scourge 
of drug abuse in Argentina -- have received increased public 
recognition and support as a result of Embassy social outreach 
efforts.  In 2008, for example, we nominated "Mothers Against Paco" 
founder Maria Rosa Gonzalez for the IWOC award.  This woman from the 
slums has waged an uphill but brave battle to help young people - 
including two of her own sons - addicted to "paco," a 
cocaine-derivative similar to (and as devastatingly pernicious as) 
crack.  Mothers Against Paco have helped to raise awareness that 
Argentina is now a destination country for narcotics, with 
ever-increasing domestic consumption and accompanying social ills. 
Acknowledging their efforts has helped help elevate the profile of 
Mothers Against Paco's cause, and has enhanced prospects for 
strengthened counter-narcotics cooperation from the Argentine 
government as new drug trafficking challenges, such as the up-tick 
in illegal ephedrine sales, emerge.  One recent press editorial 
praised the Ambassador's visit to Maria Rosa Gonzalez's slum on the 
occasion of International Children's Day, and urged the Argentine 
government to pay greater attention to this emerging epidemic, while 
a weekly magazine this month highlighted her efforts and the 
harrowing experiences of her now drug-free son. 
 
Taking Advantage of the Resources At hand 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  The Mission's efforts to include other federal agencies in 
pursuing our public diplomacy agenda on the TIP issue have also been 
effective.  For example, Post's Immigration and Customs Enforcement 
(ICE) Attache Office brought down two ICE experts to address three 
conferences on trafficking in persons (TIP) in June.  Over the three 
conferences, and working with federal and provincial officials, the 
ICE experts trained over 500 civil society participants and 500 
 
BUENOS AIR 00001636  002 OF 003 
 
 
prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials at the federal, 
provincial, and Mercosur levels.  In September 2007, an ICE official 
from Washington addressed the First National Trafficking in Persons 
Conference in Mar del Plata.  The official addressed the importance 
of establishing TIP victim centers, and gave advice on how to get 
the centers up and running. 
 
¶6.  We have also looked for opportunities to engage DOD outreach 
efforts in order to shed light on and assist in addressing various 
social ills in Argentina.  In October, for example, the Defense 
Attach's Office conducted a Humanitarian Airlift Mission to deliver 
clothing, toys, and money to the small indigenous town of Santa 
Victoria del Este, in the extreme northeast region of Salta, a few 
miles from the Paraguay/Bolivia/Argentina border.  The donations 
were made to an order of Catholic missionary nuns called the 
"Hermanas Franciscanas Misioneras de Santa Teresa del Este," who 
work day and night providing food and shelter to the numerous 
transient indigenous of the area.  A special DOD flight brought a 
monetary donation to repair radio equipment the nuns use to 
broadcast public service announcements, educational information, and 
spiritual support to the surrounding population. 
 
¶7.  In another case, a visiting U.S. ship delivered an ambulance as 
a gift from a U.S. Rotary Club to a rural Argentina town.  Also, 
through the innovative use of Southern Command's Humanitarian 
Assistance Minimal Cost Project Funds, the Embassy's Military Group 
has donated a refrigerator, beds, and linens for 2007 IWOC winner 
Susana Trimarco's victim shelter.  In another case, the Military 
Group bought furnishings for a children's center focused on drug 
prevention directed by 2008 IWOC Nominee Maria Rosa Gonzalez in one 
of the capital's most dangerous districts. 
 
Highlighting Good Works:  NGOs 
and Corporate Social Responsibility 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Bringing together Argentine NGOs and other organizations to form 
ties that would lead to socially beneficial projects and 
public-private partnerships is another Mission priority.  In April 
2008, the Buenos Aires NGO Fair (reftel B) brought together 60-plus 
NGO representatives from across Argentina at the Ambassador's 
residence to meet with 40 representatives from embassies, 
international and domestic companies, and foundations.  Following 
two lively presentations on NGO development, the invitees 
participated in a two-hour Fair in which funding sources hosted 
booths, which were then visited by the NGOs.  Both the NGOs and 
business community were extremely happy with the event.  As a result 
of the event, one of our implementing partners, the Argentine 
International Cooperation Network (RACI), recognized the need for 
smaller NGOs to learn how to access international funding for their 
projects.  In November, they published a manual for NGOs on how to 
apply for grants.  Inspired by the success of the Embassy-sponsored 
fair, the U.S.-based Ashoka Foundation sponsored its own fair 
featuring socially conscious Argentine businesses in November. 
 
¶9.  Embassy Buenos Aires also visibly supports corporate social 
responsibility.  U.S. companies are important contributors to the 
Argentine economy, with more than 500 U.S. firms active in the 
country.  Embassy Buenos Aires has worked hard to highlight the 
positive CSR efforts U.S. companies have initiated to help support 
communities in order to demonstrate the value of our commercial ties 
and the positive impact U.S. firms have, nationally and locally. 
 
¶10.  The Ambassador's schedule regularly includes events to 
highlight good corporate citizenship, which we emphasize in our 
regular press releases, and which often garner extensive and 
positive media coverage.  Events in which the Ambassador has 
participated include a visit to the Argentine Food Bank with primary 
Bank-supporter Kraft Foods; participation in a "shoe drop" for 
disadvantaged children with U.S.-based TomsShoes; a visit to a 
reading room in San Juan Province financed by Clorox; and the 
serving of Big Macs in support of Ronald McDonald House.   To call 
more public attention to the good works of U.S. firms, the Embassy 
conducted its inaugural CSR Awards event in December 2007, in which 
the Ambassador honored the Embassy's five nominations for the 
Secretary of State's Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE).  The 
event took place at the Ambassador's residence and was attended by 
numerous public and private officials, business contacts, and, of 
course, prominent members of the media.  A second edition of this 
event is planned in December for the 2008 nominees. 
 
Reaching out to Youth and the Disadvantaged 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  The Mission's Community Action Program (CAP) is designed to get 
the Ambassador and other Mission personnel out into the community 
(schools, charitable institutions, community organizations), where 
they make donations (books, computers, other materials); interact 
with young people, community leaders and journalists; and project a 
different image than the one most people expect of American 
 
BUENOS AIR 00001636  003 OF 003 
 
 
diplomats.  In the last two years, the Ambassador has visited NGOs, 
public schools, and homeless shelters in many under-privileged areas 
of the city of Buenos Aires and the provinces, donating a total of 
approximately $23,000 in books, computers, appliances and 
educational materials.  Press releases are generated for visits when 
CAP recipients are amenable, and events have received wide radio, 
TV, and press coverage.  In all cases, photos and stories about the 
CAP donations are prominently displayed on the Embassy website. 
Feedback from elites and slum dwellers alike has been very positive 
-- many have said they were impressed that we would even venture 
into these areas.  One NGO, Por Decir, sent the Ambassador a letter 
thanking him for visiting their drug rehab center.  In the letter, 
the NGO's leaders indicated that, as a result of this visit, they 
had received numerous phone calls from concerned citizens asking how 
they could help.  The latest of our forays was in early December. 
The Embassy partnered with an Argentine Foundation to install a 
computer training center in a very tough Buenos Aires neighborhood 
in a cooperative center with a local NGO and a continuing education 
center. 
 
¶12.  Perhaps the Mission's most innovative program, our Music 
Outreach Program, has leveraged Argentine fascination with American 
popular music to promote good local causes.  A Music Committee 
staffed by Embassy volunteers reaches out to the many U.S. pop, 
rock, jazz, and Latin acts that visit Buenos Aires with requests to 
join the Ambassador and other Mission staff in a community outreach 
activity.  The scale of the outreach activity varies from inviting 
underprivileged youth to attend a concert; meet-and-greets with the 
artists to benefit concerts; and even abbreviated concerts in soup 
kitchens or other social organizations.  The activity ultimately 
depends on the comfort level of visiting performers and local 
concert promoters. 
 
¶13.  Highlights of our music outreach include: 
 
-- a Cyndi Lauper concert in which the artist not only talked 
backstage with HIV-infected youth, but invited them onstage to dance 
and sing along to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"; 
 
-- a Black Eyed Peas concert at the Pepsi Music Festival where the 
band met with a group of young students (none of whom had ever been 
to a concert before) from Virreyes, a poor barrio in Greater Buenos 
Aires, and talked with them about building a good future for 
themselves; 
 
-- a concert at a soup kitchen by country singer Brandon Pruitt, 
which introduced kids and parents to this type of music in an open 
and friendly manner; 
 
-- a master class by world class violinist Joshua Bell held at the 
Ambassador's residence with members of the youth orchestra of Buenos 
Aires made up of underprivileged kids; 
 
-- performances at a soup kitchen, drug rehabilitation clinic and 
the Ambassador's residence by Latin-fusion groupQzoMatli, which 
inspired kids with music and the band members' own stories of 
overcoming hardship; 
 
-- meetings between Grammy Award-winning band Toto, guitar hero Joe 
Santini, and alternative Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and young 
musicians in which band members answered their questions about 
becoming music professionals; and 
 
-- a master class for more than 400 music students conducted by the 
talented banjo player Bela Fleck and electric bass player Victor 
Wooden, which wowed the kids with friendly and inspiring 
instruction. 
 
Keeping the Focus on Social Issues 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶14.  Post will continue to use whatever public diplomacy tools we 
can find to expand our focus on and involvement in the critical 
Argentine social issues mentioned above.  For example, we are 
significantly expanding our English-teaching program throughout the 
country, particularly to strong students who cannot otherwise afford 
to study the language.  We will also continue to act as a conduit - 
spotlighting for the media worthwhile causes and heroic efforts to 
address the social ills the country faces.  In this way, we will 
show a side of the United States with which many in Latin America 
are unfamiliar.  In our view, this approach is an effective way to 
reduce anti-Americanism in the region despite the fact that we have 
very few financial resources to devote to our projects.  It is also 
the kind of diplomacy that feels good to carry out - which is why 
we've managed to support most of these activities with Mission 
volunteers. 
 
WAYNE 
081201 social outreach cable draft