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UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000736 
 
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 - AUGUST 3 
 
Lead Story 
---------- 
¶1. A Peruvian daily reported that four Chilean Air Force officers 
were victims of espionage in Lima.  The man allegedly responsible is 
retired Navy officer Elias Ponce Feijo.  Peruvian Ambassador Carlos 
Pareja informed the Chilean Foreign Ministry that Lima would 
investigate and sanction those responsible, underscoring that the 
espionage had not taken place during President Alan Garcia's 
administration.  The Chilean Foreign Ministry accepted Peru's 
explanation (El Mercurio, conservative, influential 
newspaper-of-record, 8/3). 
 
U.S.-Related News 
----------------- 
¶2.  Communist Party monthly "El Siglo" reported last Friday that 
declassified CIA show that the presidential candidate of the right, 
Sebastian Pinera, fled the country in 1982 with the help of the U.S. 
Embassy in Santiago to avoid a trail for fraud. Asked to produce the 
original CIA documents, the journalist who wrote the article, 
Francisco Herreros, produced a document in Spanish on U.S. Embassy 
press section letterhead.  The document was clearly a photo montage 
and did not have censored portions as is usually the case with these 
documents. National Security Archives Director Peter Kornbluh, an 
expert on U.S. declassified material, said, "It's hard to tell if 
the document was fabricated or is a mix of real documents that were 
then translated." He said that unlike the document published by "El 
Siglo," the CIA's color seal "does not appear on authentic 
documents." Asked about this discrepancy, the journalist said not 
all the documents he had used were from the CIA. "They are (also) 
from the U.S. embassy information section, which put together 
information for internal use." Asked why would the USG would write a 
document for internal use in Spanish, Herreros said he had published 
the document because it "concurred with the information he had on 
this matter" (The Clinic, 8/3). 
 
¶3. The Chile-California agreement is gaining momentum.  University 
of California-Davis agricultural experts Jill Hill and Mark Bell 
will speak at a seminar on technology transfer (El Mercurio, 
conservative, influential newspaper-of-record agricultural magazine, 
8/3). 
 
¶4. Photo coverage of the ceremony to launch the "Chile Speaks 
English" program, the government's "crusade to make Chile a 
bilingual country," includes photo of Ambassador Simons at the event 
(La Tercera, conservative, independent; El Mercurio, 8/2). 
 
U.S. Military operations in Colombia 
------------------------------------ 
¶5.  In an interview with Colombian "El Tiempo," Ecuadorian President 
Rafael Correa said that Bogota's decision to accept U.S. military 
bases would "hurt stability," because "some" Colombian leaders, 
"such as Santos, believe they can attack others countries" (La 
Tercera, 8/3). 
 
¶6.  Asked about Colombia's decision to accept U.S. military bases, 
Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said, "Our decision has 
nothing to do with the internal situations in other countries, 
including Ecuador. It has to do with Colombia's security. U.S. 
assistance is welcome to fight our enemy, which is terrorism from 
narcotics trafficking and from narco-guerrillas. We cannot be 
careless on the issue of security" (La Tercera, 8/2). 
 
OAS/Venezuela 
------------- 
¶7. Chile's Foreign Ministry asked its ambassadors in the region to 
deliver a letter to the respective foreign affairs ministers asking 
them to support Jose Miguel Insulza's reelection to the OAS (La 
Tercera, 8/2). 
 
¶8. The president of the International Institute for Strategic 
Studies (IISS), John Chipman, will be in Chile this week to speak on 
Latin America and to discuss with President Bachelet the possibility 
to hold the Latin American Defense and Security Summit in Chile. On 
the region, Chipman said that since Obama took office, Venezuela has 
improved its "practical" cooperation with the United States 
(Mercurio, 8/2). 
 
Indigenous Mapuche Conflict 
--------------------------- 
¶9.  "El Mercurio" reported that from 2005 to 2009, the Public 
Ministry had issued eight reports warning the government that the 
indigenous conflict in the Region of Araucania was escalating.  The 
Public Ministry had also requested more policemen and more 
resources. In light of the information, the opposition alliance 
announced that the Chamber of Deputies would subpoena Minister of 
Interior Edmundo Perez-Yoma to explain the government's "indecision" 
to take action on this matter (El Mercurio, 8/3). 
 
¶10. Indigenous Mapuche leader Juan Catrillanca denounced an incident 
in which civilians with shotguns fired at a group of Mapuches in 
Ercilla, injuring two. The Governor of Malleco, Jaime Saffirio, said 
he was unaware of any such incident in the area (El Mercurio, 8/2). 
 
Corruption 
---------- 
¶11. A preliminary General Comptrollers' Office report revealed that 
15 of the 151 individuals who received Ministry of Education 
scholarships to complete technical studies in Canada and Spain had 
not fulfilled the minimum requirements to receive this benefit (El 
Mercurio, 8/3). 
 
FARC 
---- 
¶12. Editorial:  "Evidence shows that the FARC have been able to 
build a regional support network and to deploy their influence 
beyond Colombia's border. Now that Bogota is having success in 
fighting them it is the time for all countries in the region to help 
end this organization that has made violence its method of political 
action" (La Tercera, 8/3). 
 
Environment 
----------- 
¶13.  The Supreme Court ruled in favor of environmental groups and 
ordered AES Gener to cease the construction of its thermo-electric 
plant in the 5th Region. The plant's location is one of the most 
polluted areas in the country and therefore many of its inhabitants 
celebrated the court's decision, except the one thousand people who 
lost their jobs. The court ruled based on the constitutional right 
to "live in a pollution-free environment" (El Mercurio, 8/1). 
 
SIMONS