Cablegate: Media Reaction - Chavez' Regional Influence

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DE RUEHSG #1421 2411900
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291900Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2070
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 1804
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TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO PGOV PREL VE CI
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - CHAVEZ' REGIONAL INFLUENCE

1. On August 29, conservative, independent, "La Tercera" (circ.
101,000) ran an op-ed by Bolivian analyst Sergio Molina entitled "To
bed with Chavez or Bush?" Excerpts follow:

2. "Will Latin Americans accept a horse with teeth like those tins
cans distributed in Pisco (Peru), bribes of the Bolivian army, and
suitcases with petro dollars in Argentina as well as the redrawing
of the South America energy map and the financing of infrastructure
and even national economies?

3. "Will Latin Americans accept Chavez and his dollars, regardless
of the corruption ... even though they reach regions where the state
stands out for its absence, where poverty is endemic, and where
financial institutions are broke? ... Between the promise of green
ethanol in the future and petro dollars today, is there truly a
choice? ... The U.S. neoconservative policy has not only failed,
but paradoxically, it has killed the Monroe Doctrine, abandoning the
region (giving nothing), leaving the ground fertile for such a
storm.

4. "Venezuela has been subsidizing 50% of the bus tickets of poor
people in London. Its mayor ... in response to criticism ... said
'I prefer to go to bed with Chavez than with Bush, as the British
government does.' One can very well imagine that the same thought
must be crossing the minds of many Latin Americans."

YAMAUCHI

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