Santiago Feb. 5 Media Report

UNCLAS SANTIAGO 000152 SIPDIS STATE FOR R/MR, I/PP, WHA/BSC, WHA/PDA, INR/IAA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON KMDR KPAO PGOV PREL SNAR EFIN CI SUBJECT: Santiago Feb. 5 Media Report February 5 Lead ¶1. Fear over the instability of Europe's economies and numbers that did not fulfill the expectation of financial analysts caused a drop in stock markets worldwide. Investors sought refuge in the dollar (Financial daily Diario Financiero, 2/5) Chile-U.S. ¶2. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and Chilean Finance Minister Andr????s Velasco signed a tax treaty between Chile and the United States that will end taxation of Chilean citizens and businesses in the United States. At the signing ceremony Geithner underscored Chile's economic progress to justify the agreement (Conservative, influential El Mercurio, 2/5). ¶3. Negotiations for the bilateral tax agreement between Chile and the United States began ten years ago, but finally concluded due to the changes made to Chilean legislation as part of the process required to join the OECD (Conservative, afternoon La Segunda, 2/4). ¶4. Chilean Ambassador to United Nations Heraldo Mu????oz awarded Barbara Walters the O'Higgins Medal for her contributions to journalism, gender equality, and her close ties to Chile and President Bachelet (La Tercera, 2/5). ¶5. Article on PAS International Visitor Leadership Program: The former presidents of the student federation of the University of Chile, University of Concepcion, and the director of Marco Enriquez-Ominami's digital presidential campaign Federico Huneeus, Francisco Rodriguez, and Javier Sajuria, respectively, are visiting the United States invited by the Department of State to learn about the U.S. political system. Highlights of their program thus far have been a meeting with president Obama's campaign chief David Plouffe and their visit to the Newseum to listen to Secretary Clinton speak on Internet Freedom. This was the same speech that enraged China for its decision to censor Google (Diario Financiero, 2/5). U.S.-Brazil ¶6. President Obama will travel to Brazil in the second half of 2010, due to the differences with Brazil regarding the crisis in Honduras and the deployment of U.S. troops to military bases in Colombia (Diario Financiero, 2/5). Haiti ¶7. The civilian chief of the U.N. Mission to Haiti (Minustah), Edmond Mulet, said the international community must change the way it is operating in Haiti if it wants to solve the problems with the distribution of aid (Government-owned, La Nacion, 2/5). ¶8. The U.N. named Chilean General Carlos Mezzano deputy commander of the U.N. military force in Haiti. He will replace General Ricardo Toro (La Nacion, 2/5). ¶9. The ten Americans detained for trying to illegally remove 30 children from Haiti were charged with abduction of minors and associating with criminals. Since the crime was committed in the island, "they will be tried in Haiti," said Justice Minister Paul Denis (La Nacion, 2/5). Chile Economy ¶10. Ernst & Young rated Chile the most globalized country in Latin America and 27th worldwide. The ranking considers variable such as commercial openness and capital flow - where Chile ranked very well - and exchange of technology and ideas and cultural integration, where it ranked poorly (La Tercera, 2/5). Editorial ¶11. "The Obama administration is at a crossroads. It must balance the need to keep the fiscal stimulus programs launched last year... to counter the effects of the economic crisis, while at the same time not let the national debt expand to the point where it threatens the country's economic competitiveness, which could weaken its position as a world power. The need to control the debt to maintain the economic foundation of U.S. power must be Obama's most important goal, but thus far we see no glimpse of a consensus or political will in the population at large to accept the sacrifices necessary to face the problem" (Conservative, afternoon la Segunda, 2/4). URBAN