FOREIGN MINISTER ON FEBRUARY 22-23 RIO GROUP SUMMIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTO DOMINGO 000067 SIPDIS AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PASS TO AMCONSUL RECIFE AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PASS TO AMCONSUL QUEBEC AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN PASS TO AMEMBASSY GRENADA E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/25 TAGS: PREL OAS KSUM KPIN DR SUBJECT: FOREIGN MINISTER ON FEBRUARY 22-23 RIO GROUP SUMMIT REF: MEXICO 127 CLASSIFIED BY: Alexander Margulies, Pol-Econ Counselor, State, ECOPOL; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) ¶1. (C) Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, in a 24 February 2010 meeting with Charge, dismissed the recent Rio Group summit in Cancun as, "useless." He characterized the nascent Community of Latin American and Caribbean States as just, "one more bureaucracy," that would result in additional wasted time and resources for regional governments. Morales added in jest that Latin American and Caribbean leaders will need to live on airplanes as they will be spending most of their time jetting from one summit to another. ¶2. (SBU) The Foreign Minister said that the chief practical benefit of the summit for the Dominican Republic was in obtaining the commitment of several regional leaders, including Chavez and Uribe, to attend the planned 2 June 2010 Haiti Reconstruction Conference in Santo Domingo. Morales added that 14 heads of state have confirmed their attendance at this meeting, including several unnamed Africans. ¶3. (U) The Presidency, in its public pronouncements on the Rio Group summit, emphasized the Group's appointment of President Leonel Fernandez to head the Group of Friends of Colombia and Venezuela, which is tasked with mediating the differences between those two countries, as well as Fernandez's proposal that a commission be created to develop a "complete project" for implementing the proposed Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. The Presidency also highlighted Fernandez's support for Argentina's claim to "Las Malvinas" and his continued opposition to the U.S. "blockade" against Cuba. ¶4. (U) Minimize considered. Lambert