MEDIA REACTION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL; WESTERN

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000545 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL; WESTERN HEMISPHERE: US IMMIGRATION POLICY, BORDER FENCE; HAITI; SAO PAULO ¶1. "Provincial Machiavellis" International affairs analyst Demetrio Magnoli commented in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (5/18): "The good news is that Brazil was the nation that received more votes among those who will represent Latin America in the recently created UN Human Rights Council. The bad news explains that supposed achievement: the votes Brazil received were negotiated in a bazaar of mutual support with Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Algeria and Cuba. These nations have been included in all impartial reports as cruel and massive violators of basic human rights.... The Lula administration's cowardly fraternal union with some of the worst political regimes in the world cannot be explained by the logic of ideology, but by profound conceptions of international relations.... The art of identifying the nature of issues at stake distinguishes statesmen. Our provincial Machiavellis have failed this test. They lacked tough words in the crisis with Bolivia, but showed extreme contempt for principles in the election for the Human Rights Council.... The current Brazilian administration has betrayed the most valued national principles by offering the support of its vote to dictators and their machines of repression and torture.... The US, which did not run for the Council, is discreetly celebrating Brazil's vote. The Bush administration will have nothing to fear when Saudis, Chinese, Algerians, Cubans and Russians are called to opine on the network of torture centers of the 'war against terror.'" ¶2. "The Wall" Economist Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. opined in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (5/18): "Our American friends are masters of double standards. On the one side, they want the widest liberty possible for their corporations, through the FTAA or bilateral free trade agreements.... They want to establish an empire of free competition and free markets in Latin America. On the other hand, Washington refuses to apply the principle of freedom in sectors where the US economy has problems competing internationally (agriculture and several traditional industrial sectors). In addition, economic freedom is not applicable for Latin American workers. Their access to the US labor market will be subject to increasingly tough restrictions.... President George W. Bush addressed the nation this week on the problem of immigration control.... The USG will build hi-tech fences in urban corridors and new barriers in rural areas.... Radical sectors in the Congress, especially in the Republican Party, want to go even farther.... In a speech delivered on July 1987 near the Berlin Wall, then President Ronald Reagan made a dramatic appeal: 'Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!' Latin American leaders would do well to gather in Nogales or in any other Mexican city near the US border to launch another appeal: 'Mr. Bush, tear down that wall!'" ¶3. "New Haitian Government" Liberal Folha de S. Paulo (5/18) editorialized: "Ren Prval was inaugurated Sunday as Haiti's president, and his task is nothing simple. His main challenge is to stabilize the poorest nation in the Americas and consolidate its fragile institutions. To make things even more difficult, he will have to do so with practically no resources.... Prval has the support of the elections' legitimacy.... [But] if after a few months there is no perception of improvements, this major support will tend to vanish.... It is up to Brazil to help Prval in the task of restructuring the police. Brazil can also help the new government by transferring bio fuel technology.... Brazilian diplomacy can help Prval to demand from the rich world the promised, but not sent, financial assistance." Wolfe