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R 052150Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0114
INFO RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
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UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000958 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR R/MR, I/PP, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON KMDR KPAO PGOV PREL SNAR EFIN CI
SUBJECT: Santiago October 5 Media Report 
 
Lead Story 
 
-------------- 
 
¶1.      Gas company "Geotermica del Norte" was able to close the 
leak caused by its exploration activities near El Tatio geyser 
field in northern Chile on September 8 (All dailies, 10/5). 
 
 
 
U.S.-Related News 
 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.            Women's National Service (Sernam) Minister Laura 
Albornoz will attend a Department of State meeting on gender issues 
with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  It is foreseen that 
Albornoz will invite the Secretary to attend the launching of the 
OAS Inter-American Women's Year next year (La Tercera, 10/5). 
 
 
 
¶3.            At the G-7 meeting in Istanbul, U.S. Secretary of the 
Treasury Timothy Geithner said that the economy is recovering "with 
more strength and sooner" than initially foreseen, adding that it 
would be a mistake to withdraw economic stimulus programs at this 
stage (La Tercera, 10/4). 
 
 
 
¶4.            Wall Street analysts who are looking closely at 
Chile's December presidential election agree that regardless of who 
is voted into office, Chile's economic model is unlikely to 
experience significant changes (La Tercera, 10/3). 
 
 
 
¶5.            The associate director of SUNY Learning Network, 
Alexandra Pickett, is in Santiago to speak on education 
technologies at professional institute INACAP (PAS program, El 
Mercurio, 10/5).) 
 
 
 
¶6.            Economist Esther Duflo will be in Santiago to 
inaugurate MIT's J-Pal Center, an entity that fights poverty 
through scientific research and evaluation of public policies.  The 
center will be located in the Catholic University (El Mercurio, 
10/4). 
 
 
 
Chile/Peru 
 
------------- 
 
¶7.            Yesterday, President Alan Garcia insisted on 
maintaining the controversy with Chile over the Salitre military 
exercise by criticizing Santiago's invitation for Peruvian 
authorities to attend the exercise. "An invitation to observe 
military maneuvers is not the most satisfactory invitation one 
would hope for.  I hope that in the future there are other types of 
demonstrations having to do with technology, mining, labor, that we 
would be most happy to attend," said Garcia (El Mercurio, 10/3). 
 
 
 
¶8.            La Moneda is concerned that Peruvian President Alan 
Garcia will use his meeting with Pope Benedict in November to 
portray Chile as a country embarked in an arms race and Peru as 
making efforts to maintain peace (El Mercurio, 10/4). 
 
 
 
Military 
 
--------- 
 
¶9.      According to the Stockholm International Peace Research 
Institute (SIPR), South American countries have significantly 
increased their defense expenses in recent years either to replace 
old materiel or for strategic reasons. Brazil and Venezuela lead 
the trend, but there is also Colombia, with its agreements with the 
United States for a permanent supply of weapons and the use of 
military bases. And then there is Chile that has been improving the 
quality of its military for some time. The increase in the price of 
raw materials such as oil, copper, and soybeans has yielded 
benefits for countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, and Chile and would 
be the reason for the increase in military expenses, said SIPR (La 
Tercera, 10/4). 
 
 
 
Honduras 
 
------------- 
 
¶10.  OAS envoy to Honduras John Biehl:  "The de facto government is 
in control....  Repressive incidents do occur, but are not reported 
by the press.... The government has a calm yet strong hold of the 
country, but there are no massive human rights violations at this 
time" (Government-owned La Nacion, 10/4). 
 
 
 
¶11.  De facto President Roberto Micheletti said he had met with OAS 
Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza in a military base north of 
Tegucigalpa at the end of August.  According to the local press, 
U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Hugo Llorens was also at the meeting 
(El Mercurio, 10/3). 
 
 
 
¶12.  Micheletti admitted that it had been "a mistake" to expel 
President Zelaya from the country. "The military in charge should 
have taken him to the court, but instead expelled him to avoid a 
civil war," said Micheletti in an interview with Brazilian magazine 
"Veja" (El Mercurio 10/4). 
 
 
 
¶13.   Challenging the Obama administration, Republican Congressmen 
Jim DeMint, Aaron Schock, Peter Roskam, and Doug Lamborn met 
separately in Honduras with Micheletti, Supreme Court justices, and 
four presidential candidates.  DeMint's spokesperson said this was 
not an endorsement of any of the candidates (El Mercurio, 10/3). 
 
 
 
Indigenous Conflict 
 
------------------------- 
 
¶14.   A Centro de Estudios Publicos (CEP) survey shows the 
following figures for the indigenous Mapuche population in the 
Region of Araucania: 12% illiteracy, 20% poverty and up to 35% in 
some communities, only seven years of schools on the average, and 
with one of the highest inequity rates in the country, where those 
with the highest income earn up to 11 times more that those with 
the lowest (El Mercurio, 10/4). 
 
 
 
Environment 
 
---------------- 
 
¶15.  The Water Directorate issued a report stating that the leak in 
the geyser field El Tatio has damaged the subterranean water 
reserves for the Region of Antofagasta (Financial Diario 
Financiero, 10/5). 
 
Nuclear Weapons 
 
---------------------- 
 
¶16.  Raul Sohr column:  "One of Latin America's achievement is that 
it has not introduced ... atomic weapons.  But this condition is 
now threatened, at least in words....  Last week acting Brazilian 
President Jose Alencar said, 'a nuclear weapon used as deterrent is 
important for a country (such as Brazil) with a 15,000-kilometer 
border'.... In 2007, Army General Jose Benedicto de Barros said 
that Brazil could use atomic weapons to defend its patrimony.  'The 
world lacks water, energy, food and minerals and Brazil is rich in 
all of these,' said the general....  Latin America was a pioneer 
and example when it signed the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty 
in 1967....  Brazil hopes to occupy a permanent seat in the U.N. 
Security Council ... and some of its strategists believe that a 
nuclear device could give it the leverage needed to achieve this. 
But Brazil would be betraying Latin America's call for peace if it 
were to acquire atomic weapons. Worse yet, it would turn into a 
threat for its neighbors by becoming a target for other powers, 
discourage regional integration, and would be used as an excuse for 
others to follow the same destructive path" (La Nacion, 10/4). 
SIMONS