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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4491
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
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UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001141 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, 
WHA/EPSC 
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY; ALBA SUMMIT; THE 
FIGHT ON DRUG TRAFFICKING; 10/19/09 BUENOS AIRES 
 
¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT 
 
Weekend international opinion pieces are related to President 
Obama's policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan; the outcome of the ALBA 
summit, which was held in Cochabamba, Bolivia; and the evolution of 
drug cartels during the last 30 years. 
 
¶2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS 
 
- "The doubt" 
 
Left-of-center "Pagina 12's" international columnist Santiago 
O'Donnell writes (10/18), "(Obama) waited the whole week and he will 
continue doing so and he will let the doubt grow - what to do in 
Afghanistan? Obviously enough, the commander-in-chief of the 
invading power and brand-new Nobel Peace Prize winner has a plan. 
This is the conflict that will define his presidency. 
 
"According to the 'Time' magazine, he will make a decision on this 
in late November... 
 
"The problem is that regardless of what Obama will do he cannot do 
much. He cannot escape some realities. Democrats who claimed the 
withdrawal of troops from Iraq have supported the war from scratch. 
Allied countries, which do not want to send more troops, do not 
support an immediate withdrawal or anything of the kind either. 
 
"... In addition to the emotional side, what public opinion 
questions is the central premise of the mission - that it is 
necessary to defeat the Afghan Taliban regime to protect the US from 
terrorist attacks. 
 
"Now, the priority is to consolidate the Pakistani regime while 
taking care of its nuclear arsenal. This is why the US mass media 
speak of 'the Af-Pak war.' This is why Obama cannot leave 
Afghanistan just like he is doing in Iraq. 
 
"Obama already knows what he will do. So do the people in his 
entourage. First and foremost, he will wait, open the debate, and 
tackle the health care reform (his main domestic initiative). 
 
"After that, according to columnist Joe Klein, Obama will accept the 
request from his military chief in Afghanistan and send him the 
nearly 40,000 troop he asked for, although he will say those troops 
will be used to train the Afghan army, which of course is not true. 
 
"While the support for the war slumps and corpses pile up, Obama 
goes ahead. 
 
"(He goes ahead) with the 9/11 specter and with the votes which 
supported his proposal to withdraw from Iraq and win the war in 
Afghanistan. This is why the Nobel Peace Prize winner will have to 
wait. This is why he doubts." 
 
- "Chavez' petro-dollars are used to oppose Washington" 
 
Matias Marini, international columnist of centrist "Perfil" 
newspaper, comments (10/18), "Yesterday, Venezuelan President Hugo 
Chavez charged against the US:'the US wants to turn Colombia into 
the Israel of Latin America.' Chavez again talked about the 
US-Colombian agreement, which is aimed at performing joint military 
exercises. Chavez launched his critical statement in front of a 
friendly audience, the presidents of the Bolivarian Alliance for 
America (ALBA), which met yesterday in Bolivia for the seventh time. 
Chavez said: 'The empire's wish is a threat against all of us.' He 
pressured to create a Defense Council among the nine ALBA 
nations... 
 
"... Chavez now intends to add a military profile to his strong 
energy expansion in Latin America through Petrocaribe, the 
Chavez-led oil alliance established among some Caribbean countries. 
 
"The initiative allows Chavez's allied Caribbean nations to purchase 
Venezuela's subsidized oil under preferential payment terms... 
 
"As per the Petrocaribe agreement, Venezuela provides oil supply to 
countries such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Barbuda, 
the Bahamas, Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, 
Guyana, Honduras (before the coup d'etat), Jamaica and Surinam... 
 
"It is not the first time the Venezuelan president leads the anti-US 
feeling in the region. In 2005, during the Mar del Plata Fourth SOA, 
Chavez waged a media battle to defeat the FTAA initiative. 
 
"Then, it was Republican George W. Bush who had to backtrack on the 
FTAA initiative due to the Bolivarian offensive in Argentina, which 
was supported by former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner." 
 
 
 
- "Drug trafficking shows a new face" 
 
Daily-of-record "La Nacion" carries an opinion piece by Cesar 
Gonzalez-Calero, who writes (10/17), "Chameleonic, drug cartels have 
adapted to current times and they have become major crime 
multinational corporations in a globalized world. New routes to skip 
border controls; sophisticated means of transportation; new markets; 
transnational alliances; diverse illegal businesses; secured funds 
in tax havens... Drug trafficking (more violent, segmented and bold 
than ever) has lost some battles but it is still winning the war. 
 
"... In spite of the high expenditures incurred in the fight on drug 
trafficking (some 100 billion dollars per year), cartels do not seem 
to have been affected too much. They have simply reinvented 
themselves. The producer-to-consumer vertical organization has 
disappeared to become what Ivan Briscoe, researcher at a Spanish 
think tank (Fundacion for International Relations and foreign 
Dialogue), terms 'baby cartels,' which relentlessly fight in search 
of new markets. 
 
"... The experts consulted (except Amado Philip, from the UN) agree 
that 30 years of war against drug traffickers have been 
unsuccessful.. The UN believes the governments should implement the 
already existent international agreements related to the struggle 
against organized crime, while some independent experts think some 
other kinds of measures should be taken, such as the progressive 
decriminalization of soft drugs, the implementation of harm 
reduction policies for both producers and consumers, and a 
determined governmental action against tax havens." 
 
To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our 
classified website at: 
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires 
 
MARTINEZ