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STATE FOR R/MR, I/PP, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR KPAO PGOV ECON PREL SNAR EFIN CI
SUBJECT:  CHILE MEDIA REPORT - FEBRUARY 7-9 
 
Leading Stories 
--------------- 
¶1.  Dailies had extensive coverage of Bachelet's trip to Cuba, of a 
possible meeting with Fidel Castro, and the disappointment of Cuban 
dissident organizations with whom the President will not meet. 
Dailies also reported on the demonstrations of the people of Chaiten 
in opposition to the government's relocation plan.  Chaiten was 
buried by a volcanic eruption last year.  Also highlighted was the 
6.3% inflation rate, the lowest in many years, and forecasts that 
the Central Bank will lower the interest rate on Thursday. 
 
U.S.-Related News 
----------------- 
¶2.  Senator Antonio Horvath (Aysen) is leading a campaign to stop 
people in the community of Chaiten -- buried by last year's volcanic 
eruption -- from selling their land to to American Douglas Tompkins. 
 Over the past months, Tompkins has bought two more properties in 
Chaiten.  Not long before the eruption, Tompkins bought 98 hectares, 
paying close to $1 million pesos per hectare.  But after the 
eruption, he bought 200 hectares covered in volcanic ashes, but at 
half that price.  The owner of that land, however, assures that the 
negotiations began before the eruption and that the natural disaster 
only sped-up the process.  People in Chaiten say that Tompkins has 
offered to rebuild the homes -- reportedly modeled after his home in 
Palena -- to those who do not want to sell.  But Senator Horvath 
believes the government must buy this land to relocate these people 
as fast as possible and before they sell to Tompkins.  Horvath also 
criticized the government for first asking if a particular piece of 
land belongs to Tompkins, before deciding if the land in question is 
safe for relocation (El Mercurio, conservative, influential 
newspaper-of-record, circ. 129,000, 2/8). 
 
¶3.  Congressmen are urging the government to take some form of 
action to stop people from leaving or selling their land to 
foreigners in Chaiten.  The argument is that inhabiting this part of 
the territory is crucial for sovereignty. Senate Defense Committee 
Chairman Sergio Romero(RN) said the exodus of people is putting 
"Chile's entire southern colonization (effort) in jeopardy" (El 
Mercurio, 2/9). 
 
¶4.  In May 2002, President Bush spoke before the Cuban American 
National Foundation in Miami.  Sitting in the first row was Orlando 
Bosch, one of the most dangerous terrorists that Latin American has 
known.  Bosch is responsible for more than 100 bombings and deaths, 
and for blowing up a Cuban aircraft.  Sitting next to him was Luis 
Posada Carriles, who with Bosch founded the most violent anti-Castro 
organization ever created to harass the Cuban government, called 
Coordinadora de Organizaciones Revolucionarias Unidas (CORU).  FBI 
declassified documents confirm that the CORU had ties with the 
Pinochet dictatorship and an investigation in Chile establishes that 
the organization was responsible for placing the bomb that killed 
Chilean Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., was involved in 
unsuccessful attempts to murder Chilean leftist politicians in 
Mexico and Italy, and negotiated with Pinochet to train its members 
in Chile.  The CORU has left behind it a trail of blood and 
accomplices.  All the anti-Castro terrorists mentioned in this 
article are free and living in the United States (La Nacion, 
government-owned, editorially independent, 2/9). 
 
¶5.  OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said that the global 
financial crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East are higher 
priorities for the new U.S. administration and that, therefore, it 
is unlikely that the United States will present a strong political 
agenda for the region at the Summit of the Americas (El Mercurio, 
2/9). 
 
Cuba 
---- 
¶6.  Laura Pollan, one the founders of the Cuban organization, "Women 
in White," expressed disappointment that the GOC had not made 
arrangements for Bachelet to meet with them during her visit to Cuba 
this week.  "As a woman who suffered the horrors of repression in 
her family," Bachelet can "certainly understand our suffering," said 
Pollan (El Mercurio, 2/9). 
 
¶7.  Cuban Ambassador to Chile Illeana Diaz Arguelles, said 
Bachelet's visit to Cuba "will be an important landmark and 
fundamental step in promoting the kind of cultural, commercial, 
scientific, and political" ties Cuba wants to establish with Chile 
(La Nacion, 2/9). 
 
¶8.  The political affiliation of Chileans investing in Cuba is as 
varied as the types of products they export.  Among them is 
right-winger Gonzalo Vial, owner of Agrosuper (which sells meat, 
pork, chicken and wine), who says:  "this is just business, it's not 
personal."  In a year, Vial sells more than US$2 million to Cuba. 
Then there is Radical Party Congressman Alejandro Sule, and Jurgen 
Paulmann, owner of Sky Airlines, who defines himself as "non 
political."  On the other side of the spectrum is Max Marambio, 
former member of the Revolutionary Leftist Movement MIR.  He has 
investments in real estate, aviation, tourism, and agriculture and 
is considered one of the most influential businessmen on the island. 
 ProChile reports that the commercial flow between the two countries 
totaled US$67.22 million in 2007 and that in 2008, Chile exported 
10.8% more than during the same period in 2007.  Cuban exports to 
Chile, on the other hand, totaled US$4.3 million, which is 56.8% 
more than the previous year (La Nacion, 2/9). 
 
¶9.   Entrepreneur Max Marambio commented on President Bachelet's 
decision not to meet with the dissidence in Cuba:  "It's not 
prohibited to meet with them (the dissidence) but common sense and 
protocol says that this is an official visit and both governments 
work on the agenda.  Cuba would never accept an intervention in its 
internal affairs" (La Tercera, conservative, independent, circ. 
101,000, 2/8). 
 
¶10.  Sebastian Pinera called on those entrepreneurs traveling with 
Bachelet to Cuba to "raise their voices to defend freedom, 
democracy, and the respect for human rights" (La Tercera, 2/8). 
 
Nuclear Energy 
-------------- 
¶11.  A Russian delegation will arrive in Santiago on Tuesday to meet 
with the National Energy Commission and discuss the impact and 
dangers of nuclear electricity generation (La Nacion, 2/9). 
 
SIMONS