CHILE MEDIA REPORT - AUGUST 3

UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000736 SIPDIS STATE FOR R/MR, I/PP, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR KPAO PGOV ECON PREL SNAR EFIN CI SUBJECT: CHILE MEDIA REPORT - AUGUST 3 Lead Story -------------- ¶1. A Peruvian daily reported that four Chilean Air Force officers were victims of espionage in Lima. The man allegedly responsible is retired Navy officer Elias Ponce Feijo. Peruvian Ambassador Carlos Pareja informed the Chilean Foreign Ministry that Lima would investigate and sanction those responsible, underscoring that the espionage had not taken place during President Alan Garcia's administration. The Chilean Foreign Ministry accepted Peru's explanation (El Mercurio, conservative, influential newspaper-of-record, 8/3). U.S.-Related News -------------- ¶2. Communist Party monthly "El Siglo" reported last Friday that declassified CIA show that the presidential candidate of the right, Sebastian Pinera, fled the country in 1982 with the help of the U.S. Embassy in Santiago to avoid a trail for fraud. Asked to produce the original CIA documents, the journalist who wrote the article, Francisco Herreros, produced a document in Spanish on U.S. Embassy press section letterhead. The document was clearly a photo montage and did not have censored portions as is usually the case with these documents. National Security Archives Director Peter Kornbluh, an expert on U.S. declassified material, said, "It's hard to tell if the document was fabricated or is a mix of real documents that were then translated." He said that unlike the document published by "El Siglo," the CIA's color seal "does not appear on authentic documents." Asked about this discrepancy, the journalist said not all the documents he had used were from the CIA. "They are (also) from the U.S. embassy information section, which put together information for internal use." Asked why would the USG would write a document for internal use in Spanish, Herreros said he had published the document because it "concurred with the information he had on this matter" (The Clinic, 8/3). ¶3. The Chile-California agreement is gaining momentum. University of California-Davis agricultural experts Jill Hill and Mark Bell will speak at a seminar on technology transfer (El Mercurio, conservative, influential newspaper-of-record agricultural magazine, 8/3). ¶4. Photo coverage of the ceremony to launch the "Chile Speaks English" program, the government's "crusade to make Chile a bilingual country," includes photo of Ambassador Simons at the event (La Tercera, conservative, independent; El Mercurio, 8/2). U.S. Military operations in Colombia -------------- ¶5. In an interview with Colombian "El Tiempo," Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said that Bogota's decision to accept U.S. military bases would "hurt stability," because "some" Colombian leaders, "such as Santos, believe they can attack others countries" (La Tercera, 8/3). ¶6. Asked about Colombia's decision to accept U.S. military bases, Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos said, "Our decision has nothing to do with the internal situations in other countries, including Ecuador. It has to do with Colombia's security. U.S. assistance is welcome to fight our enemy, which is terrorism from narcotics trafficking and from narco-guerrillas. We cannot be careless on the issue of security" (La Tercera, 8/2). OAS/Venezuela -------------- ¶7. Chile's Foreign Ministry asked its ambassadors in the region to deliver a letter to the respective foreign affairs ministers asking them to support Jose Miguel Insulza's reelection to the OAS (La Tercera, 8/2). ¶8. The president of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS),John Chipman, will be in Chile this week to speak on Latin America and to discuss with President Bachelet the possibility to hold the Latin American Defense and Security Summit in Chile. On the region, Chipman said that since Obama took office, Venezuela has improved its "practical" cooperation with the United States (Mercurio, 8/2). Indigenous Mapuche Conflict -------------- ¶9. "El Mercurio" reported that from 2005 to 2009, the Public Ministry had issued eight reports warning the government that the indigenous conflict in the Region of Araucania was escalating. The Public Ministry had also requested more policemen and more resources. In light of the information, the opposition alliance announced that the Chamber of Deputies would subpoena Minister of Interior Edmundo Perez-Yoma to explain the government's "indecision" to take action on this matter (El Mercurio, 8/3). ¶10. Indigenous Mapuche leader Juan Catrillanca denounced an incident in which civilians with shotguns fired at a group of Mapuches in Ercilla, injuring two. The Governor of Malleco, Jaime Saffirio, said he was unaware of any such incident in the area (El Mercurio, 8/2). Corruption -------------- ¶11. A preliminary General Comptrollers' Office report revealed that 15 of the 151 individuals who received Ministry of Education scholarships to complete technical studies in Canada and Spain had not fulfilled the minimum requirements to receive this benefit (El Mercurio, 8/3). FARC -------------- ¶12. Editorial: "Evidence shows that the FARC have been able to build a regional support network and to deploy their influence beyond Colombia's border. Now that Bogota is having success in fighting them it is the time for all countries in the region to help end this organization that has made violence its method of political action" (La Tercera, 8/3). Environment -------------- ¶13. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of environmental groups and ordered AES Gener to cease the construction of its thermo-electric plant in the 5th Region. The plant's location is one of the most polluted areas in the country and therefore many of its inhabitants celebrated the court's decision, except the one thousand people who lost their jobs. The court ruled based on the constitutional right to "live in a pollution-free environment" (El Mercurio, 8/1). SIMONS