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