MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ: SADDAM'S DEATH; WESTERN HEMISPHERE:

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000005 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: IRAQ: SADDAM'S DEATH; WESTERN HEMISPHERE: BOLIVIA'S COCA LEAVE CULTIVATION POLICY; SAO PAULO ¶1. "Good For The US, Not For Justice" Liberal largest national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo's Washington correspondent Sergio Davila commented (12/30): "Saddam Hussein's execution served the USG's interests, the White House's will to be able to leave Iraq in the least shameful way possible and George W. Bush's plan for revenge prior to September 11. Those who won were the hawks who continue in power in the US and the leaders of the Iraqi Shiite majority, of which Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki is the institutional face.... The trial to which the former leader was submitted was a fraud rehearsed two years ago in London, where Iraqi judges and magistrates were trained by their American counterparts. Saddam leaves life and enters an infamous side of history without responding to all crimes he committed, which were as grave as or even more serious than the killing of 148 Shiites in 1982.... The former Baath leader committed crimes against humanity. The US and Baghdad's puppet government denied the right to mankind to see such crimes clarified and punished in courts. Saddam Hussein deserved to spend the rest of his days in a multinational force-led jail. Executed, he will be transformed from murderer to martyr at least for a significant part of Iraq, the Sunnis. He will be a martyr also for many in the Arab world who see another reason for radicalization. Democracy is the least bad among political regimes. But the current US democracy is not. It is the democracy George W. Bush and his friends are trying to implant by force in the Middle East. One of its least commented pillars is the death penalty, as the world remembers today." ¶2. "Saddam Hussein's Execution Center-right national circulation daily O Estado de S. Paulo's editorialized (1/1): "Saddam Hussein was a brutal and bloody dictator.... But he was not judged and condemned by a special court for the most serious crimes he committed, such as the attack with chemical weapons against Kurds that resulted in the death of 100,000 people.... Saddam's execution is a fact that will not pacify tribal and religious hatreds or increase the violence against the population. On the day his hanging was announced, there were four bomb attacks in Iraq that resulted in 72 dead. Those who believe that such a figure represents an escalation of violence in response to the execution are misled.... There is a civil war in Iraq, and Saddam Hussein was no longer a protagonist of that episode, although he has been the main person responsible for the creation of the conditions that led Iraq to disaster. Therefore, his execution will not necessarily mean the reconciliation of the factions or the worsening of the conflict. However, it may open a window though which at least a blow of rationality and common sense can penetrate in a conflict marked by savagery.... For those who believe that the world cannot be ruled by the law of the jungle, that the people have a right to life and basic liberties, and who hate crimes against humanity, the execution was unquestionably an act of justice.... The occupation forces are today a minor problem in Iraq, where a freely elected government is working. There is a civil and religious war there, caused by other foreign agents such as Al Qaeda, Iran and Syria." ¶3. "Bolivian Coca" Liberal, largest national circulation daily Folha de S. Paulo (1/2) editorialized: "Two weeks ago, Bolivian president Evo Morales decreed the enlargement from 12,000 to 20,000 hectares the coca leave cultivation area in that nation. Brazil, one of the nations that will suffer most the impact of the measure, pretended that the decision would not affect it and did not react. It was up to the US to react against Morales. Washington did not wait two days to announce a 25% reduction in the anti-drug aid it gives to Bolivia. The fact is that the Bolivian cocaine is much more a Brazilian - and European - than an American problem. The US market has been supplied mainly by Colombia. Less than 1% of the Bolivian cocaine reaches the US. Brazil receives something between 80% to 90% of the Bolivian product. Part is consumed here and the rest goes to Europe.... The responsibility of controlling the drug supply is not solely of the producing nations. Brazil, for example, could do much more. Bolivia, Colombia and Peru do not produce most of the chemicals needed to refine the drug. They are smuggled from Brazil, whose control over such products is inefficient." Wolfe