MEDIA REACTION SAO PAULO: Cuba-Castro, Iran, and Mercosul

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000233 SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP XM XR XF BR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION SAO PAULO: Cuba-Castro, Iran, and Mercosul 04-18-2009 and 04-19-2009 Media Reaction - Western Hemisphere: Summit of Americas; Venezuela, Cuba, governance, easing of restrictions; South and Central Asia: Iran; Sao Paulo Saturday, April 18 Title- Castro answers Obama Main editorial in center-right O Estado de S. Paulo (4-18) states: "....For the first time in decades, the battered old expression ["times have changed"] have now sounded to Latin American ears like a new password [opening the door] to an effective partnership in the Hemisphere. The problem is the irregularity of expectations that involve the.....end of the economic embargo to Cuba.....Even so, one cannot deny that a wheel was put in motion for what will necessarily be a longer route - and subject to accidents - than what participants of the 5th Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain would like it to be." Title-Brazil and Iran, dangerous relations Op-Ed in center-right O Estado de S. Paulo (4-18) by Unicamp Professor Roberto Romano states: "Brazil is preparing itself to host Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....in May....We walk through a route opposed to that of Iran....What can we learn from this regime? Brazil and other emerging democratic countries do not have reasons to get closer to authoritarian governments like Iran....Brazil should get closer to responsible leaders in the Middle East, never demagogue tyrants." Title- CUBA and Ipanema Op-Ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (4-18) by columnist Clovis Rossi notes: "It is evident that a countdown to the end of the U.S. Embargo to CUBA has started...or by extension to the reintegration of the island to the Inter-American system, from which it has been suspended for 50 years.....There is no reason for the two countries....not to resume relations, once they were interrupted due to a phenomena, the Cold War, which ended two decades ago." Sunday, April 19 Title- A meeting in the Caribbean Op-Ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (4-18) by columnist Clovis Rossi says: "I don't know, and nobody does, if the future that Obama promises will really be one of prosperity for all. But what I do know is that the capitalism won the ideological battle, whether you like the result or not. I also know that now what it is missing is to demonstrate whether [capitalism] is capable of winning the other and more important war, the one to be able to improve the national gross happiness index, which is more important than that of the Gross Domestic Product, which it knows, almost always, how to make it grow." Title- Mercosul, Venezuela and the democratic clause Op-Ed in center-right O Estado de S. Paulo (4-18) by former Foreign Minister Celso Lafer states: "[Brazil's] Senate is evaluating Venezuela's Admission to Mercosul Protocols....The entrance of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela in the trade bloc does not fit because it will represent not only the presence of a normal conflict of interests in the integration process, but a significant conflict of conception about the purpses of the integration....This type of conflict wil add new tensions to Mercosul, which has alreadybeen compromised by significant conflicts of interests between its curren members.....To keep god economic and political cooperation with a neigbor like Venezuela is in Brazil's interest....Noneheless, incorporate, at this moment, Chavez' Venezuela into Mercosul is to contribute and condemn a innovative integration project to irrelevance and dissolution." WHITE