MEDIA REACTION - VENEZUELA'S UNSC CANDIDACY

UNCLAS SANTIAGO 001696 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR IIP/G/WHA, INR/R/MR, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO PGOV CI VE SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - VENEZUELA'S UNSC CANDIDACY On August 7, conservative, afternoon daily "La Segunda" (circ 31,834) carried an editorial entitled, "Tour and Turns in the President's Trip." Quote: "President Bachelet began yesterday a trip to Colombia and Ecuador.... The program will conclude at the end of the month with Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley's trip to Peru to sign an FTA with the Garcia administration.... We can see a design and strategy in these activities...whereby Chile is giving priority to the Latin American continent.... But there is a change as to where it is looking in the continent and to whom.... What we can see is that the Foreign Ministry has begun looking to nations of the Pacific coast...with a program that includes all kinds of contacts, but especially entrepreneurial and commercial ones, to strengthen ties. "This alternative is much more attractive than that of following the ups and downs of the relationship with Argentina's Kirchner, the demanding Hugo Chavez, and even Evo Morales.... But the pragmatism of the strategy mentioned above will be tested with Chile's decision regarding Venezuela in the Security Council. The Foreign Ministry has been clever in delaying this decision until the last moment... because it has given time for those for and against Chavez to confront each other. The dynamics of events could in the end give way for other alternative. In this sense, Bachelet's trip...could be a chance to get a sense of the level of consensus or dissent over Chavez' bid for the Security Council." KELLY