Cablegate: Chile Media Report - September 1

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TAGS: KMDR KPAO PGOV ECON PREL SNAR EFIN CI
SUBJECT: CHILE MEDIA REPORT - SEPTEMBER 1

Lead Story
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1. The National unemployment rate is up to 10.8 percent for
May-July. Valparaiso has the highest rate (18.5 percent), followed
by Angol and Vina del Mar (Conservative, influential
newspaper-of-record El Mercurio, 9/1).

U.S.-Related News
-----------------
2. Austral Capital investment fund will launch the Austral
California program with an office in Palo Alto, California. The
objective is to facilitate the entry of Chilean companies in Silicon
Valley (La Tercera, conservative, independent, 9/1).

Human Rights
-------------
3. On Sunday "La Nacion" reported that the army had rehired several
officers who had been prosecuted for human rights violations.
Defense Minister Francisco Vidal requested all defense branches to
submit a list of its personnel, former members of the military
regime's security organizations, and of those who faced charges for
human rights violations. The reports came in yesterday and show that
14 individuals fit this description. However, yesterday we also
learned that Vidal was informed of this case a month ago. The
Executive Office was not. In light of this information, the Chamber
of Deputies' defense committee summoned Defense Minister Vidal and
Army Commander-in-Chief Oscar Izurieta today (El Mercurio, 9/1)

Indigenous Conflict
-------------------
4. The indigenous Mapuche organization "Coordinadora Arauco
Malleco" (CAM), responsible for the most severe acts of violence in
the Bio Bio and Araucania Regions, is replacing its traditional
leadership with "urban Mapuches," said police intelligence sources.
One reason is that most of its leaders have been arrested over the
past two years. Another is that the leaders of the different Mapuche
communities are following their own strategy or have joined
communities that are negotiating with the government. In this new
scenario, the CAM is recruiting young college professionals and
members of anarchist organizations and providing them with
indoctrination and paramilitary training. The police say that the
CAM has also tightened its security and that some of the e-mails
sent to the local media to claim responsibility for attacks in the
Region of Araucania were sent from Spain or Italy to avoid computer
tracking (El Mercurio, 9/1).

5. A security camera in the roof of a storehouse in a farm in
Pailahueque caught the exact moment in which five hooded
individuals, three of them armed, tried to set fire to a corral with
250 cattle on August 13. The same group set fire to another
storehouse in the same property, burning 40 pieces of farming
machinery. Total losses amount to approximately US$1.5 million (El
Mercurio, 9/1).

Japan
-----
6. Editorial: "Political Change in Japan": "The Japanese
Democratic Party's victory led by Yukio Hatoyama... has been
initially well received in Asia. This is promising, but also raises
expectations regarding the great changes ahead.... There is no doubt
that for the world the most important element here lies in the
possibility to have a competitive policy in Japan that will make the
world's second largest economy in the world more dynamic" (El
Mercurio, 9/1).

SIMONS

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