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