CHILE MEDIA REPORT - AUGUST 17

UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000786 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 17 Lead Story -------------- ¶1. After three years, President Bachelet will enact the General Education Law this week. The new law answers some of the demands of the 2006 student revolt (La Tercera, conservative, independent, 8/16) Honduras -------------- ¶2. Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez said that in his meeting with Thomas Shannon in Washington, he encountered "willingness on the part of the United States to carry out a more intense activity together to facilitate the mission of foreign ministers and of (OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel) Insulza to Honduras." Asked about Zelaya's call for the U.S. to take tougher action, Fernandez said, "With Shannon we spoke about how to take new measures with the OAS if we didn't have enough success" (Conservative, influential El Mercurio, 8/17). ¶3. Interview with President Manuel Zelaya: "I have faith that as other nations of Latin America, the United States will take tougher penal and commercial action" against the de facto Micheletti government (Government-owned La Nacion, 8/16). Chile-U.S. -------------- ¶4. Photograph of the USS Makin Island that arrived in Punta Arenas and is due to sail to the port of Valparaiso (La Tercera, 8/15). ¶5. Declassified CIA files published today reveal that President Richard Nixon plotted with Brazilian dictator Emilio Barrastazu in the White House to oust Chilean president Salvador Allende. National Security Archives Director Peter Kornbluh said Chile could ask Lula da Silva for Brazil to open its files and clarify the events that took place at the time (La Nacion, 8/16). ¶6. "Business Week" magazine says there is a growing pattern for U.S. technology companies to invest in Chile for research and software development. Among the reasons would be Chile's political and economic stability and less competitive salaries (El Mercurio, 8/15). ¶7. The first Latin American Intellectual Property Center for Agriculture will be in Chile. The entity was created by the Ministry of Agriculture with the support of the University of California/Davis Public Intellectual Property Resources for Agriculture (PIPRA). This is a network of over forty universities and institutes in more than ten countries that develop patents (El Mercurio, 8/17). ¶8. Foreign Ministry International Economic Relations Bureau (DIRECO) figures show that since 2003, 92 percent of Chile's exports have gone to those countries with which it has free trade agreements. The trend has remained unchanged during the economic crisis (Financial daily Diario Financiero, 8/17). Local politics -------------- ¶9. Interview with President Bachelet: "Most Chileans are center-left and the Concertacion bloc represents that segment." Asked if Zelaya should be reinstated in office, Bachelet said, "There is no doubt about that. The events in Honduras were a serious setback for democracy in Latin America" (El Mercurio, 8/16). ¶10. Interview with independent presidential candidate Marco Enriquez-Ominami. On abortion he said women "own their sexual and reproductive rights." He also said he is in favor of "all civil unions," whether they are same sex or not. Asked about President Hugo Chavez, Enriquez-Ominami disagreed with the expulsion of Human Rights Watch Director Jose Miguel Vivanco from Venezuela and Chavez' decision to cancel "a private TV station's" license to air. However, he said that "the valuable thing about Chavez is that he has put forth the concept that not everything that is good for the United States is good for everyone else." Venezuela -------------- ¶11. In the context of last Monday's UNASUR meeting in Quito and President Hugo Chavez' remarks on the "winds of war blowing" in the region, Chilean and Peruvian Foreign Ministers Mariano Fernandez and Jose Garcia Belaunde agreed on the need to continue "exchanging views" on the issue(El MercuriO, 8/16). ¶12. The president of Venezuela's Student Movement, David Smolansky, visited Chile invited by local student leader Julio Isamit. He spoke to student organizations in Santiago, Concepcion, and Vina del Mar. "There is growing repression, persecution, and obstacles to freedom of expression," said Smolanksy (El Mercurio, 8/16). ¶13. Socialist Party sympathizer Claudio Herrera, and former Ambassador to South Africa, will travel to Caracas to take office as ambassador to that country (La Tercera, 8/15). Easter Island -------------- ¶14. About 50 Easter Islanders (Rapa Nui) have blocked the airport in the island for the past two days. They are demanding the creation an immigration office to restrict the number of tourists- both Chilean and foreigners - who settle on the island. Reportedly, some have a criminal record and have altered peaceful co-existence on the island. There is also concern with the impact of tourism on the island's patrimony and environment; every year approximately 7,000 Chileans and 25,000 foreigners visit the island. Governor Carolina Hotu Hey reached a settlement with the central government to start discussing some of these issues (El Mercurio, La Tercera, La Nacion, 8/17). Indigenous Mapuche Conflict -------------- ¶15. About two thousand members of Mapuches participated in the funeral of Jaime Collio, the Mapuche killed in a clash with the police last week. Several Mapuches at the funeral promised to avenge his death. The press was photographed and forced to wait for hours, facing the hill, at the wake. The only incidents occurred when some members of the press were hit on their legs with sticks at the cemetery. The Bishop of Temuco, Monsignor Manuel Vial, was allowed to visit Collio's family (El Mercurio, 8/17). ¶16. Photo report by a journalist who spent a week in Temucuicui, the area of greatest Mapuche conflict. The journalists "revealed how violent Mapuche groups operate, how they invaded a private estate they have set on fire three times before, cutting down trees owned by a forestry company, and confronting the police." Yesterday, hooded individuals burned a school in Angol and attacked the prosecutor responsible for investigating the case as he was on his way to the school (La Tercera, 8/16) ¶17. Some captions of the photo report: "Mapuches use horns to warn others that the police is coming and to coordinate on what trees to cut to with chainsaws to block-off the police; Mapuches cutting pine trees planted by a forestry company; Since 2002, when the government bought from the Alaska estate from Forestry Mininco, the Mapuche have set their eyes on the 190 hectares owned by Raul Urban; The Mapuches use stones and slingshots to fight the police during eviction; 8 to 15 cut down trees in land owned by Forestry Arauco. They all have chainsaws." Groups of four Mapuches guard their communities. Anyone who is not of their community or is suspicious is forced to leave (La Tercera, 8/16). ¶18. The government has spent approximately US$303 million since 1995 to buy land and transfer it to Mapuche communities. According to the 2006 indigenous survey, 32.1 percent of Mapuches live in the Region of Araucania among 1,851 different communities (La Tercera, 8/16). SIMONS