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UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000135 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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 13 
 
Leading Stories 
--------------- 
¶1.  Front-page news highlighted the Central Bank's decision to lower 
the interest rate to 4.75% (lowest in three years) and President 
Bachelet's meeting with Fidel Castro yesterday afternoon.  Dailies 
also reported that private clinics failed to notify the central 
health authority of 104 HIV/AIDs cases, as required by law. 
 
Bachelet Criticizes U.S Embargo in Cuba 
--------------------------------------- 
¶2.  In the opening of the Chile-Cuba business seminar Bachelet said: 
"Chile has always opposed extended discriminatory practices in 
trade, and in this instance, it is permanent and has acquired 
special urgency given today's international financial and economic 
crisis.  Wwhat I am specifically referring to is the U.S. "blockade" 
against Cuba, which seriously hurts living conditions of the people 
of Cuba, particularly in today's crisis.  Chile has always opposed 
the embargo and has thus expressed it in all multilateral 
institutions and entities in which it participates....  In the last 
decades Chile has promoted open, but also fair trade" (La Segunda, 
conservative, afternoon, circ. 33,000, 2/12; La Tercera, 
conservative, independent, circ. 101,000, 2/13). 
 
Bachelet meets with Fidel Castro 
-------------------------------- 
¶3.  Cuban President Raul Castro unexpectedly pulled President 
Bachelet from a ceremony at the Salvador Allende memorial so that 
she could meet with Fidel Castro.  Bachelet said Fidel was in "very 
good health and fully informed of events taking place in Chile.  He 
had much statistical information and was interested in hearing about 
Chile's economic development and exchanged views on how to expand 
commercial ties."  Bachelet said they had had an "important 
dialogue" on the challenges that the region and Latin America face 
in the context of the international economic crisis (El Mercurio, 
conservative, influential newspaper-of-record, circ. 129,000, 2/13). 
 
 
¶4.  Fidel dedicated his regular column "Reflexiones" to Bachelet's 
visit.  In that column, Fidel said Bachelet "has the merit that she 
was elected by the majority vote of the Socialist party," adding 
that, "For the first time in Latin America, a leftist organization 
obtains the victory without the money, the weapons, or publicity of 
the Yankee apparatus."  His words have been interpreted as a sign 
that Castro does not consider Ricardo Lagos -- the first socialist 
elected after Allende -- a true socialist.  It would also show his 
disapproval of Lagos, who never visited Cuba or tried to establish 
close ties with Havana.  Castro also wrote that he and Bachelet had 
discussed an array of topics, including Bolivia.  On that subject, 
he wrote that the 1879 Pacific War (where Bolivia lost the territory 
that gave it access to the sea) had been a "historic humiliation" 
for La Paz, criticized Chile's "oligarchy" for taking from Bolivian 
its access to the sea, and he endorsed Bolivia's hope for a passage 
to the Pacific (La Tercera, El Mercurio, 2/13). 
 
¶5.  Bachelet said that she and Fidel Castro had a lengthy 
conversation that "was positive in the exchange of ideas" and 
covered "how Chile sees and does things, and she also listen to 
Fidel's reflections."  Asked about Fidel's health, Bachelet said, 
"Anyone who can talk for one hour and a half is doing very well.  He 
is active as always" (La Nacion, government-owned, editorially 
independent, circ. 4,200, 2/13). 
 
Cuba:  Science and Business 
--------------------------- 
¶6.  Vivian Heyl, President of Chile's National Scientific and 
Technological Research Commission (Conicyt) signed an agreement with 
Cuba's Ministry of Science, Technology Science, and Environment for 
the exchange of scientists and joint work in the area of 
biotechnology, renewable energy and rehabilitation (La Nacion, 
2/13). 
 
¶7.  Rafael Guilisasti, president of Chile's Trade and Production 
Confederation (CPC) and one of the several entrepreneurs with 
Bachelet in Cuba, said there is potential for trade with Cuba in the 
area of pharmaceuticals.  "Its part of globalization to be able to 
have the widest and most open trade possible, and therefore, we will 
promote this area, said Guilisasti.  He then dismissed any political 
interests in this trip.  "We don't politically label any of the 
government's official visits or political priorities.  Our agenda is 
very specific and we will follow it here or any other opportunity we 
have when the authorities invite us," he concluded (La Nacion, 
2/13). 
 
Environment 
----------- 
¶8.  The Waterkeeper Alliance, a well-known environmental 
organization founded by Robert Kennedy, Jr., opened an office in the 
VII Region last year and has already begun opposing the AES Gener 
project to build a thermoelectric plant in Punta Pacoco (Que Pasa, 
conservative, influential newsweekly, 2/13). 
 
Narcotics 
--------- 
¶9.  The Investigations Police (PDI) conducted an internal 
investigation that led to the arrest of three of its own 
counternarcotics detectives working in a border unit.  The three 
individuals are allegedly involved in the same operation for which 
vice-sheriff Gonzalo Araya was arrested last week.  Araya was 
selling narcotics that had been confiscated during operations.  (La 
Segunda,2/12). 
 
Human Rights/Anti-Terrorism Law 
------------------------------- 
¶10.  Minister of Interior Edmundo Perez Yoma said the request for 
asylum filed in Switzerland in favor of 11-year old Mapuche girl 
Relmutrya Cadin on the grounds that her family is being persecuted 
is "inadmissible."  He said the child's family is detained for 
committing "common crimes," such as assaulting a prosecutor.  The 
executive will ask the Swiss government to dismiss the asylum 
request (El Mercurio, 2/13). 
 
¶11.  Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said the government will apply the 
Anti-terrorist Law in the case of Mapuche activist Miguel Tapia 
Huenulaf.  The Carabineros police arrested Tapia this week and 
seized two of his homes.  The material found at those addresses -- 
military gear, guns, ammunition, detonators, explosives, machine 
guns, and bullet-proof vests -- would show intention of forming a 
terrorist organization, said Perez-Yoma.  The importance in this 
case lies in that the government has objected to applying this 
Anti-terrorist Law to any previous cases involving Mapuche activists 
(La Tercera, 2/13). 
 
SIMONS