MEDIA REACTION - VENEZUELA'S AGREEMENT TO ASSIST BOLIVIA

UNCLAS SANTIAGO 002117

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR IIP/G/WHA, INR/R/MR, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC PREL KMDR KPAO PGOV VE BR PA PE CI
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - VENEZUELA'S AGREEMENT TO ASSIST BOLIVIA
BUILD MILITARY BASES NEAR ITS BORDER


1. Summary: Revelations of an agreement between Venezuela and
Bolivia to build military bases along Bolivia's frontier with
Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, and Chile generated considerable public
commentary in Santiago. Chile's Senate Foreign Relations and
Defense Committees summoned the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and
Defense to review the pact. President Bachelet's spokesman
downplayed the Venezuelan-Bolivian agreement, stating that it is
"similar to those Chile has with other countries...."
End summary.


2. Conservative, influential newspaper-of-record "El Mercurio"
(circ. 129,000; 10/10) headline: "Venezuelan Foreign Minister
Nicolas Maduro: 'Everything is part of a U.S. Campaign.'" Maduro
said the controversy in Chile over the military agreement between
Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales is the result of a U.S. campaign to
"antagonize" Chile and Venezuela directed from sectors in the United
States.


3. Government-owned, editorially independent "La Nacion" (circ.
4,200): "One way or another (the controversy) is part of a campaign
financed and directed from the U.S. by sectors that through
intrigue...and manipulation want to antagonize our countries," said
Maduro. He called to "cease the anti-Venezuela campaign that we are
sure is fed and encouraged by sectors that do not want our people
and government to have good relations."


4. Conservative, influential newspaper-of-record "El Mercurio"
(circ. 129,000; 10/9-10/10) reactions: House Foreign Relations
Committee chairman Jorge Tarud (PPD): "This kind of activity is a
threat for regional stability.... The military intervention of a
third country in Bolivia is evidently a concern."

House Defense Committee Chairman Patricio Hales (PPD) said the
military agreement between Chavez and Morales is "highly disturbing
and contrary to cooperation agreements that exist among countries in
the region."

Former Undersecretary of Aviation Nelson Haddad said the agreement
is a "threat to the region's stability," creates "unnecessary
suspicion" between Bolivia and Chile and "constitutes a new form of
intervention in the internal affair of a Latin American country."

Former Army Commander-in-Chief Juan Emilio Cheyre said the agreement
was "unacceptable" and labeled it "rupturing interventionism."

Government spokesman Ricardo Lagos Weber, however, said the military
agreement between Venezuela and Bolivia is similar to those Chile
has with other countries, adding that Bolivia's border protection
policy is "no secret." He said countries sign agreements to develop
military infrastructure and that the Chavez-Morales military
agreement is normal, traditional cooperation.

KELLY