Cablegate: Global Economy: Venezuela, Closing of Rctv; Sao Paulo

VZCZCXYZ0001
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSO #0490 1571320
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 061320Z JUN 07 ZDK
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7060
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 8173
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 8120
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 2797

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000490

SIPDIS

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 ETRD BR
SUBJECT: GLOBAL ECONOMY: VENEZUELA, CLOSING OF RCTV; SAO PAULO

"Why Chvez Is A Danger"

The lead editorial in influential center-right national circulation
daily O Estado de S. Paulo (6/6) maintained: "Brazil is Venezuela's
second most important trade partner, after the US, and President
Lula takes into consideration Brazilian companies' interests in that
nation to react with less emphasis than appropriate against Chvez's
attacks, even when they directly affect Brazil, as was the case of
the caudillo's charges against the Congress for its motion
protesting RCTV shutdown.... Protests in Latin America against this
recent move by Chvez towards the installation of a dictatorship are
encouraging because they have shown the presence of antibodies
fighting an authoritarian contagion in the region.... If it is
really a fact that Latin Americans are faced with two models of
promised transformation - personified by Lula and Chvez - the
Venezuelan president's angry policies are providing Lula with
another opportunity to reinforce his own image, both in the
Hemisphere and globally, as a leftist leader capable of "doing more
to change the world" - as London's The Guardian said - than Chvez,
whose left wing leanings are a poor disguise for his so far
successful program to transform Venezuela into a caudillo-type
dictatorship."

McMullen

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