MEDIA REACTION: KRAFT FACTORY DISPUTE IN ARGENTINA;

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001090 STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, WHA/EPSC CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: KRAFT FACTORY DISPUTE IN ARGENTINA; HONDURAS; IMF-ARGENTINE TIES; 10/01/09; BUENOS AIRES ¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT Today's leading international stories are focused on the Argentine Government's handling of the conflict at the Kraft factory; the Honduran crisis; and expectations over a rapprochement between the IMF and the Argentine Government. ¶2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS - "Kraft exposes weakness II" An editorial in liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires Herald" reads (10/01),"There will be no solution to the various conflicts mushrooming out of the Kraft factory dispute without a clear position from the government but any such clarity remains lacking. First and foremost, any government is responsible for maintaining public order and the free movement of its citizens, being entrusted with the monopoly of force for precisely that purpose... "But instead of taking control of the situation, the government wavers between the two sides. Its attitude towards the pickets has oscillated from countenancing an abrupt end to the five-week occupation of the Kraft factory last Friday... to its usual indulgence this week. As for its attitude towards the US (since Kraft is a US investment),this has veered from President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner spending an entire week there (a hug with US President Barack Obama included) to scraping a meeting between Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez and the new US Ambassador Vilma Socorro Martinez the day after the president's return. And yet Martinez (a veteran labor lawyer who should find this problem right up her street) was only doing her job in trying to look after US investments (and over 150,000 Argentine jobs in the process). Perhaps even more inexplicable is the fact that in the midst of a white-hot industrial dispute CFK insisted on taking Labor Minister Carlos Tomada to the US with her while ex president Nestor Kirchner stayed behind at the last minute to keep atop of the media bill - a telltale picture of government priorities. "... The Kirchners reached power after the picket situation span out of control with the mid-2002 slayings in Avellaneda - will the cause of their advent also be the cause of their demise?" - "Honduras, isolated in the hemisphere" Leading "Clarin" editorializes (10/01),"The international isolation of Honduras has worsened as a consequence of the institutional rupture and the maintenance of an illegitimate de facto regime... "The clandestine return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya to the country and his taking refuge at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa was not enough to turn the direction of events in his favor. The de facto government is supported by the military, most political leaders and part of the civil society. For his part, Zelaya lacks enough domestic institutional support to be restored to power. The unusual thing in the Honduran situation is the international condemnation including that of the US, whose government has explicitly voiced its support for the re-establishment of democracy. "Nevertheless, the foreign isolation and international statements in favor of democracy have not been enough so far to put an end to the serious crisis in the Central-American country... "The persistence of the Honduran institutional crisis damages its people and the entire region while isolating the country from the rest of the hemisphere, in an anti-democratic, anachronistic move that should not endure." - "The IMF still does not see gestures of rapprochement from Argentina" Silvia Pisani, daily-of-record "La Nacion's" Washington-based correspondent, writes (10/01),"Only 24 hours away from the IMF Annual Assembly in Istanbul, the mystery increases on chances that the Argentine Government will reach an announced agreement with IMF authorities to enable them review national accounts. "The hurdle remains the same - while Economy Minister Amado Boudou says he intends to approach the IMF, he cannot find the way to do it without breaking President Cristina Kirchner's discourse, who claims the IMF should review (the country's accounts) although it should refrain from opining. "... In recent hours, Washington and Wall Street analysts said the rapprochement is imminent. One of them summarized, 'The Argentine Government has so much work to do that it better starts as soon as possible.' He was referring to the goals enumerated by Economy Minister Boudou (reaching an agreement with the IMF, coming to terms with the Paris Club and making a proposal of payment to 'holdouts'). "All three things go together and are part of the same goal of the minister, who wants the country to return to the voluntary capital market... "Expectations over a rapprochement go in parallel with a mounting doubt whether the Minister's good will would be backed by President Kirchner who while at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh again said she was not willing to let the IMF review the country's accounts." To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our classified website at: http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires MARTINEZ