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Cablegate: Media Reaction: Honduras

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DE RUEHSO #0642 3081631
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 041631Z NOV 09
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0026
INFO RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0024
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 0017
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 0018
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000642

SIPDIS
STATE INR/R/MR
IIP/R/MR
WHA/PD
DEPT PASS USTR
4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OPRC OIIP XM XR BR XF KMDR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: HONDURAS

"Brazil did all it could; it was little"

Analysis in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (10-31) by columnist Clovis
Rossi states: "[Brazil's actions] was clearly insufficient to solve
the situation, what only ended up happening was when the U.S.
called the coup maker and the ousted President to
talk....Bolivarianism is the main loser in the whole [Honduran]
crisis.

"Less powerful. And indispensable."

Article in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (10-31) by columnist Clovis
Rossi says: "For a country that conventional wisdom condemned to an
inevitable decline, the United States emitted continuing signs of
unsuspected vitality. I'm not saying Washington has stopped losing
strength, but some strength at least. But that's not a reason for
a country to be less indispensable.....all the talk surrounding
Brazil's leadership, all the scenes that Hugo Chavez always makes,
the Bolivarian emergence - none of that has blocked the old empire
from revealing itself again as indispensable. And what's best is
this time for the good."

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"U.S. solution"

Editorial in center-right Folha de S. Paulo (10-31) notes: "....the
outcome [of the Honduran political crisis] leaves the Brazilian
government and regional peers in an uncomfortable situation. Even
though it is praiseworthy to have the claim of Latin American
countries solving regional conflicts in an 'autonomous' way,
without the direct interference of the major global power, the fact
is the deal in Honduras only became viable when the U.S. entered
the scene. The episode is a lesson to Brazil, who performed the
role of a wizard's apprentice in this story...It assumed an
attitude almost of a teenager, inept, intransigent. It made itself
not feasible as a negotiator....Abdicating the role of mediator and
letting the [Brazilian] embassy in Tegucigalpa be turned into the
headquarters of a committee of political agitation, the Brazilian
government showed amateurism in taking on new responsibilities...."


"The ones who can, can"

Op-ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (11-1) by Eliane Catanhede
states: "The crisis in Honduras was a mark in many ways, but the
principal one was to revive Latin American and Brazilian memory of
a reality: the U.S. is the U.S. With Bush, the power lost gradual
importance in Latin America and especially in South
America....[but] since the beginning [of the Honduran crisis] it
was clear that only the U.S. had the resources.....to solve the
crisis.....By luck, the central protagonist of the negotiations is
called Thomas Shannon....A very important bridge between the power
the U.S. never stopped having and the leadership Brazil wants to
have....."

"Deal in Honduras"

Editorial in center-right O Estado de S. Paulo (11-2) says:
"....The Honduran case shows one of the best sides of President
Barack Obama's foreign policy....The U.S. government only
interfered when all the mediation efforts from the OAS failed and
when an impasse was reached. With this, Washington showed that it
supports the action of multilateral organizations and that it is in
the past when it supported right wing dictatorships. But it also
made clear that [the U.S.] will use all its powers of persuasion of
a super power when needed.....U.S. diplomacy performed with
ability, but with energy, with the two sides of the dispute. And
was able to reach a good deal. Brazilian diplomacy did the
opposite...."
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