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UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000786 
 
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 17 
 
Lead Story 
---------- 
¶1. After three years, President Bachelet will enact the General 
Education Law this week.  The new law answers some of the demands of 
the 2006 student revolt (La Tercera, conservative, independent, 
8/16) 
 
Honduras 
-------- 
¶2. Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez said that in his 
meeting with Thomas Shannon in Washington, he encountered 
"willingness on the part of the United States to carry out a more 
intense activity together to facilitate the mission of foreign 
ministers and of (OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel) Insulza to 
Honduras." Asked about Zelaya's call for the U.S. to take tougher 
action, Fernandez said, "With Shannon we spoke about how to take new 
measures with the OAS if we didn't have enough success" 
(Conservative, influential El Mercurio, 8/17). 
 
¶3.  Interview with President Manuel Zelaya: "I have faith that as 
other nations of Latin America, the United States will take tougher 
penal and commercial action" against the de facto Micheletti 
government (Government-owned La Nacion, 8/16). 
 
Chile-U.S. 
---------- 
¶4.  Photograph of the USS Makin Island that arrived in Punta Arenas 
and is due to sail to the port of Valparaiso (La Tercera, 8/15). 
 
¶5.  Declassified CIA files published today reveal that President 
Richard Nixon plotted with Brazilian dictator Emilio Barrastazu in 
the White House to oust Chilean president Salvador Allende. National 
Security Archives Director Peter Kornbluh said Chile could ask Lula 
da Silva for Brazil to open its files and clarify the events that 
took place at the time (La Nacion, 8/16). 
 
¶6. "Business Week" magazine says there is a growing pattern for U.S. 
technology companies to invest in Chile for research and software 
development.  Among the reasons would be Chile's political and 
economic stability and less competitive salaries (El Mercurio, 
8/15). 
 
¶7.  The first Latin American Intellectual Property Center for 
Agriculture will be in Chile. The entity was created by the Ministry 
of Agriculture with the support of the University of 
California/Davis Public Intellectual Property Resources for 
Agriculture (PIPRA).  This is a network of over forty universities 
and institutes in more than ten countries that develop patents (El 
Mercurio, 8/17). 
 
¶8.  Foreign Ministry International Economic Relations Bureau 
(DIRECO) figures show that since 2003, 92 percent of Chile's exports 
have gone to those countries with which it has free trade 
agreements. The trend has remained unchanged during the economic 
crisis (Financial daily Diario Financiero, 8/17). 
 
Local politics 
------------- 
¶9.  Interview with President Bachelet:  "Most Chileans are 
center-left and the Concertacion bloc represents that segment." 
Asked if Zelaya should be reinstated in office, Bachelet said, 
"There is no doubt about that. The events in Honduras were a serious 
setback for democracy in Latin America" (El Mercurio, 8/16). 
 
¶10.  Interview with independent presidential candidate Marco 
Enriquez-Ominami.  On abortion he said women "own their sexual and 
reproductive rights." He also said he is in favor of "all civil 
unions," whether they are same sex or not. Asked about President 
Hugo Chavez, Enriquez-Ominami disagreed with the expulsion of Human 
Rights Watch Director Jose Miguel Vivanco from Venezuela and Chavez' 
decision to cancel "a private TV station's" license to air. However, 
he said that "the valuable thing about Chavez is that he has put 
forth the concept that not everything that is good for the United 
States is good for everyone else." 
 
Venezuela 
--------- 
¶11.  In the context of last Monday's UNASUR meeting in Quito and 
President Hugo Chavez' remarks on the "winds of war blowing" in the 
region, Chilean and Peruvian Foreign Ministers Mariano Fernandez and 
Jose Garcia Belaunde agreed on the need to continue "exchanging 
views" on the issue(El MercuriO, 8/16). 
 
¶12. The president of Venezuela's Student Movement, David Smolansky, 
visited Chile invited by local student leader Julio Isamit.  He 
spoke to student organizations in Santiago, Concepcion, and Vina del 
Mar. "There is growing repression, persecution, and obstacles to 
freedom of expression," said Smolanksy (El Mercurio, 8/16). 
 
¶13.  Socialist Party sympathizer Claudio Herrera, and former 
Ambassador to South Africa, will travel to Caracas to take office as 
ambassador to that country (La Tercera, 8/15). 
 
Easter Island 
------------- 
¶14.  About 50 Easter Islanders (Rapa Nui) have blocked the airport 
in the island for the past two days. They are demanding the creation 
 
an immigration office to restrict the number of tourists- both 
Chilean and foreigners - who settle on the island. Reportedly, some 
have a criminal record and have altered peaceful co-existence on the 
island. There is also concern with the impact of tourism on the 
island's patrimony and environment; every year approximately 7,000 
Chileans and 25,000 foreigners visit the island. Governor Carolina 
Hotu Hey reached a settlement with the central government to start 
discussing some of these issues (El Mercurio, La Tercera, La Nacion, 
8/17). 
 
Indigenous Mapuche Conflict 
--------------------------- 
¶15.  About two thousand members of Mapuches participated in the 
funeral of Jaime Collio, the Mapuche killed in a clash with the 
police last week.  Several Mapuches at the funeral promised to 
avenge his death. The press was photographed and forced to wait for 
hours, facing the hill, at the wake.  The only incidents occurred 
when some members of the press were hit on their legs with sticks at 
the cemetery.  The Bishop of Temuco, Monsignor Manuel Vial, was 
allowed to visit Collio's family (El Mercurio, 8/17). 
 
¶16.  Photo report by a journalist who spent a week in Temucuicui, 
the area of greatest Mapuche conflict. The journalists "revealed how 
violent Mapuche groups operate, how they invaded a private estate 
they have set on fire three times before, cutting down trees owned 
by a forestry company, and confronting the police."  Yesterday, 
hooded individuals burned a school in Angol and attacked the 
prosecutor responsible for investigating the case as he was on his 
way to the school (La Tercera, 8/16) 
 
¶17.  Some captions of the photo report: "Mapuches use horns to warn 
others that the police is coming and to coordinate on what trees to 
cut to with chainsaws to block-off the police; Mapuches cutting pine 
trees planted by a forestry company; Since 2002, when the government 
bought from the Alaska estate from Forestry Mininco, the Mapuche 
have set their eyes on the 190 hectares owned by Raul Urban; The 
Mapuches use stones and slingshots to fight the police during 
eviction; 8 to 15 cut down trees in land owned by Forestry Arauco. 
They all have chainsaws." Groups of four Mapuches guard their 
communities.  Anyone who is not of their community or is suspicious 
is forced to leave (La Tercera, 8/16). 
 
¶18.  The government has spent approximately US$303 million since 
1995 to buy land and transfer it to Mapuche communities. According 
to the 2006 indigenous survey, 32.1 percent of Mapuches live in the 
Region of Araucania among 1,851 different communities (La Tercera, 
8/16). 
 
SIMONS