MEDIA REACTION ON THE OAS, JULY 06, 2005

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001421 SIPDIS FOR IIP/G/WHA AND IIP/T/ES FOR WHA/PDA, WHA/USOAS, WHA/AND, AND WHA/CEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP PREL KPAO PGOV KDEM HO SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON THE OAS, JULY 06, 2005 ¶1. On 07/06 the Tegucigalpa-based liberal daily "La Tribuna" published an editorial entitled "The Most Important Decision of the Summit." "This Summit was similar to many others. It was more noise than anything else. The leaders agreed upon million dollar figures for investment in projects. Some of these are already underway, but disbursement of payments has been slow as countries must meet conditions imposed by the international organizations." "The Plan Puebla Panama is coming along slowly. In addition, it has met with opposition, mostly from indigenous groups in the proposed areas for development. For this reason, there has been little additional financing for new infrastructure projects outside of those that are already a part of the Central American highway funded by the IDB. However, the topic is always brought up each time that Fox meets with his colleagues from the south, as they need something to talk about." "Ideas on topics such as `gangs' have been repeated every time they meet. And as we have said, these issues need more action than words. But perhaps the most important happening of the summit was the decision adopted by the members that `Central America will not recognize any other president in Nicaragua.' This suggests a possible initiative to be presented to the OAS, concerning the recognition of governments that have come to power as a result of coup. This is a good start and will be discussed further in a future article." Palmer