Media Reaction Rio de Janeiro: Risk of Contagion (Chavez and

UNCLAS RIO DE JANEIRO 000422 SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR IIP/R/MR WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR OIIP ETRD XM XR BR SUBJECT: Media Reaction Rio de Janeiro: Risk of Contagion (Chavez and Mercosul and Brazilian Foreign Policy) Risk of contagion Rio-based center-right daily O Globo writes: "Approved by a commission in the Senate, due to strong pressure from Planalto [the Brazilian presidency] and the actions of business lobbies, Brazil's approval of Venezuela's entry to Mercosul could be voted on in the coming days. (...) There are those in Brasilia who consider the Chavist regime to be a democracy simply because it holds elections and referendums. This is a mistake because democracy is more than that: it allows freedom of speech and freedom of the press, legal security and independent and solid republican institutions. None of these exist in Venezuela. Other fallacious arguments try to pretend that the increasing volume of Brazilian exports to Venezuela (...) could become even bigger if Ch????vez receives a free pass to sit among the current partners in the trade bloc. This could happen independently of the results of the vote in the Senate. For this, Venezuelan economy just needs to expand --which, by the way, will be difficult, given the crisis of the Chavist economic model (...). Mercosul needs to resume strategic commercial negotiations with the European Union and begin them with other regions of the world, including the U.S., with the advantage of not giving Ch????vez veto power (...) The GOB, time and again, proposes to resume the Doha round (...). Without Doha, there are just bilateral negotiations and in them Ch????vez will act as an obstacle. (...) In case there are any doubts on the issue, one should analyze the dividends obtained by Brazil in accepting the Chavist project of smuggling Zelaya back to Honduras and converting the Brazilian Embassy into a bunker for agitation and propaganda against the interim government of Roberto Micheletti. Dividends, only negative ones, including for Lula himself, who is a partner in a project that only aims to convert Honduras into a Bolivarian possession. Alliances with Ch????vez are contagious." (Dec 7, page 6) HEARNE