Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09SANTIAGO279
2009-03-23 20:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Santiago
Cable title:  

CHILE LOOKS TOWARD SUMMIT WITH HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Tags:  EFIN PREL KSUM PGOV ETRD ECON XL XM XS 
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P 232053Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4690
INFO RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SANTIAGO 000279 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/BSC, WHA/OAS, WHA/EPSC, INR/IAA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2019
TAGS: EFIN PREL KSUM PGOV ETRD ECON XL XM XS
SUBJECT: CHILE LOOKS TOWARD SUMMIT WITH HIGH EXPECTATIONS
AND INTEREST IN ECONOMY AND ENERGY (C-AL9-00153)

REF: SANTIAGO 228

Classified By: Political Officer Jennifer Spande for reason 1.4 (b) and
(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SANTIAGO 000279

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/BSC, WHA/OAS, WHA/EPSC, INR/IAA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/09/2019
TAGS: EFIN PREL KSUM PGOV ETRD ECON XL XM XS
SUBJECT: CHILE LOOKS TOWARD SUMMIT WITH HIGH EXPECTATIONS
AND INTEREST IN ECONOMY AND ENERGY (C-AL9-00153)

REF: SANTIAGO 228

Classified By: Political Officer Jennifer Spande for reason 1.4 (b) and
(d).


1. (C) Summary: Chilean officials see President Obama's
participation in the Summit of the Americas as a critical
chance for the president to signal his re-engagement with
Latin America, a region that feels jettisoned by conflicts
and emerging powers in other regions. The financial crisis
and energy will be key themes for Chile. These "immense
expectations" will be very hard for the President to meet.
Despite the intense negotiations taking place over the text
of the summit declaration, delegations should note
experiences from other regional leaders' meetings where
certain Latin American presidents chose to ignore the
carefully agreed upon text and attempted to negotiate the
document themselves, despite being unfamiliar with prepared
drafts. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Ambassador Hector Morales, the OAS Permanent
Representative and Summit of the Americas Coordinator,
visited Santiago March 3-4 to discuss preparations for the
upcoming summit. Ambassador Morales, accompanied by
Ambassador Simons and emboffs, met with MFA Undersecretary
for Political Affairs equivalent Juan Pablo Lira,
presidential advisor Marcos Robledo, other Chilean officials,
and an NGO leader working on measuring the impact of past
summits. (Note: Reftel reports on readouts of President
Bachelet's recent trip to Cuba, which was also discussed in
many of these meetings. End Note.)

Obama's Participation a "Super Important" Opportunity for
Re-Engagement
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) President Obama's attendance at the Summit of the
Americas will be a strong sign of the importance that the
administration places on relationships with Latin America,
Ambassador Morales told his interlocutors. Obama will be

attending the event within his critical first 90 days in
office. The President looks forward to discussing with his
peers many of the same issues that were important in his
campaign: education, social justice, job creation, energy,
and trade. Ambassador Morales noted that the focus of U.S.
participation will be on re-engaging with the hemisphere, and
to listen, share ideas, and signal a desire to work with the
region's leaders on the challenges facing Latin America and
the Caribbean.


4. (SBU) President Obama's participation in the Summit is an
"opportunity for re-engagement" with Latin America--an urgent
and "super important" task, presidential advisor Marcos
Robledo said. Latin America is a complex and fragmented
region, MFA Director General Juan Pablo Lira and Robledo both
explained. Achieving consensus at this Summit will be far
more difficult than it was 10 years ago, Robledo noted.


5. (SBU) Latin Americans have high expectations of President
Obama. "Obama is a complete rock star in Chile," Robledo
announced. "The whole world expects him to be their savior,"
Lira opined, repeating several times that there were "immense
expectations." "Las personas comun y corriente," roughly
"average Joes," appreciate Obama's closeness to ordinary
people and will be most concerned with what the summit and
the President can deliver in terms of concrete improvements
in quality of life. These people may not understand or pay
attention to the finer political and economic points of the
summit, but will be looking to see how job creation and a
robust social safety net affects them and their families.

Economy, Energy Key Summit Themes
--------------


6. (C) The financial crisis will loom over the entire
summit, Lira said, warning that some countries will be
tempted to turn towards protectionism. Robledo urged that
summit planners need to develop concrete initiatives to be
implemented to demonstrate to the average worker that the
summit is something significant and relevant.


7. (SBU) Energy is a key issue for Chile--and the
world--Lira stated, noting that Chile is very energy
dependent and is a net importer of coal and natural gas.
National Energy Commission International Affairs Director
Carlos Pina warned that energy was a "turbulent" theme that
would not be easy to manage. The issue can quickly become
politicized and stuck, particularly if participants focus on
ambitious and unrealistic oil and gas objectives. Instead,
summit participants should be forward-looking and focus on

SANTIAGO 00000279 002 OF 003


technology transfer, research and development, and renewable
energy. More contentious issues should be shelved for a few
years until the economic crisis is over.


8. (SBU) Note: Several Chilean officials told us during
Ambassador Morales' meetings that Chile will host a technical
experts meeting in between the G20 meeting in London on April
2 and the Summit of the Americas April 17-19. This meeting,
which will focus on possible responses to the global
financial crisis, is in lieu of earlier plans for Chile to
host a finance ministerial at approximately the same time.
End Note.

Words Matter: Concerns about the Text
--------------


9. (C) Chilean officials believe that the summit declaration
will be key to changing the tone of relationships within the
region and between the U.S. and Latin American countries.
However, both Lira and Robledo confided that based on recent
experience--including last year's Rio Group
summit--presidents in the region could back away from the
agreed summit language at the last minute. Lira remarked
that some presidents "in the neighborhood" have told him that
their bureaucrats have not performed well in text
negotiations and that they (the presidents) are reluctant to
agree to a document they have not read. Robledo attributed
this problem to the overly "presidentialized" nature of Latin
American politics. Robledo promised President Bachelet's
support in contacting reluctant presidents directly, if
needed, to ensure that a solid declaration could be presented
at the summit. MFA Multilateral Affairs Director Juan
Eduardo Eguiguren suggested adding a shorter summary document
as an official communique to ensure that there was a more
succinct document that presidents would actually read.


10. (C) Ambassador Morales responded to these concerns by
mentioning the preceding week's productive meetings about the
text and highlighting U.S. support for a summary document.
The U.S. is eager to close the document before the summit,
perhaps by March 31, but will need to work with other summit
participants to be creative about inserting G20 language that
is finalized after that date.


11. (C) While the U.S. supports an executive summary, summit
participants will need to consider carefully who should be
involved in these negotiations and how to avoid negotiating
the declaration and summary simultaneously. Negotiating the
remaining declaration text as a series of packets of
paragraphs may help overcome deadlocks and make the remaining
process go more quickly, Ambassador Morales suggested. He
left drafts with Chilean SIRG participant Patricio Powell,
and the two discussed the specifics of the proposed language
the next day.

Another Summit Leadership Group Trying to Emerge?
-------------- --------------


12. (C) Robledo told us that Colombia is interested in
forming an informal working group to guide summit
preparations. This group would include Peru and Panama,
among other countries, and so would be distinct from the
current Amigos group, consisting of past summit hosts plus
Brazil.

Chilean NGO Heading Network to Monitor Summit Impacts
-------------- --------------


13. (SBU) Chile is also worried about how summit commitments
will be implemented, Eguiguren noted, highlighting the work
of a Chilean NGO, Participa, that is tracking the extent to
which governments participating in the summit have
implemented commitments from previous summits. Ambassador
Morales met later in the day with Participa Subdirector
Catalina Delpiano, who described the organization's work in
coordinating a network of NGOs monitoring results from past
summits in 21 of the 34 summit member countries. Their
analysis shows that key elements of past summit declarations
have not translated into significant democratic advances in
the hemisphere overall. Some countries, such as Uruguay,
Guatemala, Barbados, and Chile, have improved their
performance on summit declaration-linked indicators, such as
access to public information, decentralization, freedom of
expression, and civil society participation. However, these
gains are tempered by substantial declines in other
countries, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, Peru, and El
Salvador.

Comment
--------------

SANTIAGO 00000279 003 OF 003




14. (C) Chilean officials at the Presidential Palace,
Foreign Affairs Ministry, Finance Ministry, and Energy
Commission all showed their eagerness to work with the U.S.
in shaping a successful summit. Robledo's valuable offer to
have President Bachelet directly contact other regional
presidents is a noteworthy example of Chile's willingness to
quietly encourage its neighbors to contribute to successful
multilateral initiatives. Chileans hope that President
Obama's participation in the Summit of the Americas will mark
a watershed moment where the new administration launches a
new round of active engagement with Latin America. End
Comment.


15. (U) Ambassador Morales cleared this cable.
SIMONS