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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1717/01 3540935
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190935Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2721
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 1834
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 1913
RUEHGE/AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN 0034
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 2371
RUEHPO/AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO 0020
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 1127
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA 0090

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001717 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SENV ECON PHUM CU AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA'S HOPES TO OVERCOME URUGUAY'S OBJECTIONS 
TO NESTOR KIRCHNER QUASHED AT BRAZIL UNASUR MEETING; CFK 
PLANS VISIT TO CUBA 
 
REF: BUENOS AIRES 1595 AND PREVIOUS 
 
¶1. (SBU) The Argentine press on December 17 focused on the 
failure by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to 
achieve what had previously been described by Administration 
sources to the press (and to the Embassy) as her top priority 
for the December 16-17 regional summit meetings in Brazil: 
the selection of her husband and former President Nestor 
Kirchner (NK) as Secretary General for the South American 
Union of Nations (Unasur).  Instead, Uruguayan President 
Tabare Vazquez remained unbending in his objection, and 
several nations (including Chile and Paraguay) reportedly 
rejected the proposal supported by Venezuela and Ecuador to 
abandon the requirement for consensus among Unasur members in 
the selection of a Secretary General.  The question was put 
off until April, 2009, with Chilean Foreign Minister Foxley 
saying that if consensus was not achieved then it would be 
time to consider another candidate (a sentiment also 
implicitly expressed by Paraguayan President Lugo, according 
to the press). 
 
¶2. (U) One local columnist, Mariano Obarrio of La Nacion, 
reported that the GOA also believed that Colombia and Peru 
were opposed to NK's candidacy and were supported in this by 
the United States.  Another columnist, Eduardo van der Kooy 
of "Clarin," opined that the Kirchners' diminished political 
standing in Argentina had made Vazquez's rejection easier to 
sustain. 
 
¶3. (SBU) GOA sources and press reports over the weekend of 
December 13-14 described continuing GOA efforts to secure 
NK's selection, including a direct dialogue with Uruguay to 
assuage President Vazquez's objections based on Argentina's 
continuing failure to end the two-year old roadblock by 
Argentine protesters of the Gualeguaychu to Fray Bentos 
bridge across the Uruguay river (reftel).  Argentine media 
reported that Uruguayan Foreign Minister Gonzalo Fernandez 
said Uruguay would quit Unasur if the grouping ignored GOU 
objections and decided to select Kirchner by some means other 
than consensus. 
 
¶4. (U) In a related development, Entre Rios Governor Sergio 
Urribarri, a member of the Kirchners' political coalition, on 
December 14 was reported in the press to have stated that 
there was no evidence that the controversial Botnia pulp mill 
on the Uruguayan side of the river Uruguay river was 
polluting the river and that the protesters who had shut down 
the international bridge at Gualeyguaychu therefore had no 
justification for continuing to block traffic.  Gualeguaychu 
mayor Juan Jose Bahillo sharply disputed this statement the 
following day, citing a study sponsored by the municipality 
based on Botnia's public disclosures.  Urribarri responded 
again on the 16th, reiterating that the blockades needed to 
be lifted. 
 
To Cuba 
------- 
 
¶5. (U) Following a meeting with Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro 
on the 16th, President Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) announced 
in Brazil that she will travel to Cuba in early 2009, 
reportedly in the January 12-15 timeframe.  CFK said that "we 
are going to reaffirm our historic ties of friendship with 
Cuba." 
 
¶6. (U) The following day, December 17, CFK called publicly 
for an end to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba by the incoming 
Obama administration.  "We are hopeful that the new 
Administration of Obama will take a different view of Latin 
America and will take measures that diminish tension and will 
end the blockade (sic), which is a disgraceful policy." 
According to newspaper La Nacion, CFK brushed aside reporter 
Mariano Obarrio's question over how the GOA would deal with 
the case of dissident Cuban doctor Hilda Molina, whose 
request for a passport from her government to visit family in 
Argentina has been a bilateral issue for several years. 
Obarrio quoted GOA sources drawing the U.S. embargo into the 
Molina case, suggesting that Raul Castro needed a signal from 
the U.S. on the trade embargo before he would have the 
political strength to address brother Fidel's harder line on 
Molina. 
 
¶7. (U) La Nacion contacted Dr. Molina in Cuba and printed a 
short interview with the dissident in which she asked that 
CFK, "with her history of defending human rights, not forget 
my case."  Asked whether she thought the GOC refusal was 
related to a fear that she would speak out against the regime 
while abroad, Molina said that "the political, critical Hilda 
Molina, who will continue criticizing the Government of Cuba, 
lives in Cuba.   I wish to go to Argentina as a mother and 
grandmother." 
WAYNE