Cablegate: Santiago Sept. 16 Media Report

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TAGS: ECON KMDR KPAO PGOV PREL SNAR EFIN CI
SUBJECT: Santiago Sept. 16 Media Report

Lead

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1. Presidential candidates are preparing for their first
television debate that will be aired by National Television TVN on
September 23, at 10:40 p.m.. The debate will last 90 minutes and
will be conducted by one journalist. One part of it will be for
the candidates to answer a few questions submitted by the general
public prior to the debate (Conservative, influential
newspaper-of-record, El Mercurio, 9/16).

U.S.-Related News

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2. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke will attract significant
attention at the Americas Competitiveness Forum. Lock is a man of
vast experience in his field. As Governor of Washington for two
terms, he created the Competitiveness Council with entrepreneurs
and union leaders, which improved the state's competitiveness and
created 280,000 new jobs. He also has helped eliminate tariff
barriers for U.S. exports, led ten commercial missions abroad, and
doubled exports from Washington state to China (Financial Diario
Financiero, 9/16).

3. Claudia Munzemayer is receiving significant support for her
work and interest in African dance. The Department of State invited
her to participate in a cultural program that will start on
September 19 and will take her to Washington, D.C., Virginia, New
York, Louisiana, and Miami (Government-owned La Nacion, 9/15).

4. Editorial "An Unpopular Afghanistan": "Everything indicates
that as Iraq marked George W. Bush, Afghanistan will mark Obama....
Over 60 percent of Germans, 64 percent of the French, and one of
every ten Americans want their troops to withdraw from
Afghanistan.... No government in the west wishes to lose popularity
due to its military presence in Afghanistan , but stabilizing that
country will take at least 10 or 15 years and that is a very high
cost in lives and money that many U.S. allies do not seem willing
to pay" (El Mercurio, 9/16).

Unasur

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5. At the Unasur meeting of defense and foreign affairs ministers
in Quito yesterday, Peru proposed implementing a system to ensure
transparency in military expenses and the signature of a
"non-aggression military pact" among South American countries.
Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez supported the proposal
on transparency, noting that two years ago Chile began talks with
Peru to standardize military expenses, but that these had stalled.
Fernandez, however, disagreed with the signature of a
"non-aggression pact," stating that "this is language of countries
on the border of a military conflict." "We have moved forward
enough and should be using language related to cooperation and
associations," said Fernandez (Conservative, influential
newspaper-of-record, El Mercurio, 9/16).

6. Minister Fernandez said Secretary of State Clinton had written
to Unasur offering to discuss the controversy over the
U.S.-Colombia military agreement. Chile expressed support for such
eventual meeting (El Mercurio, 9/16).

7. Yesterday's Unasur meeting was an opportunity to improve trust
on security matters. But the discussion was dominated by verbal
attacks between Colombia and Venezuela over U.S. military presence
in the region. Brazil also restated its concern, demanding
guarantees that the U.S. activities will be restricted to Colombian
territory (La Nacion, 9/16).

8. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Venezuela to
be clear on its weapons acquisitions because they "create fear of
an arms race" in the region. "There should be regulations and
mechanisms to ensure that weapons bought are not deflected to
insurgent or illegal organizations," said Clinton (La Nacion,
9/16).

Mapuche Indigenous Conflict

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9. Mapuches have occupied several privately-owned estates in the
area of Temuco. Their goal is to pressure the government into
buying land and transferring it to Mapuche communities. A Temuco
agricultural association expressed concern with the increasing
number of illegal land occupations and attacks (El Mercurio, 9/16).
SIMONS

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