Cablegate: Santiago Feb 4 Media Report

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SUBJECT: Santiago Feb 4 Media Report

Lead Story

1. President-elect Pi????era and Bachelet discussed the report
that Chile will submit to the international court of The Hague to
counter Peru's claim to change bilateral maritime borders (All
dailies, 2/4).

Chile-U.S.

2. Ambassador Paul Simons commented on Chile's invitation to join
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD:
"Having a seat at the table and the opportunity to share best
practices with other countries will benefit Chile" (America Chilean
Chamber of Commerce, AmCham, magazine Business Chile, January
edition).

3. Photo coverage and article of the AmCham breakfast for the
Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, and his visit to Chile
(Business Chile).

Chile-Peru

4. The report that Chile will submit to The Hague to counter
Peru's claim to change maritime states that bilateral borders were
defined by the 1952 Border Zone Declaration and 1954 Special Border
agreements. Both treaties, says Chile's report, are in force today.
Chile has exerted sovereignty over the territory that Peru is now
claiming as its own since the time of the treaties. In its border
claim, Peru does not directly address land borders, but does refer
to a land marker which sets the maritime border south of the
current one. With regard to this point, Chile hints in its report
that if Peru has land border issues, the matter should be resolved
by the United States in accordance to the 1929 Lima Treaty
(Conservative, independent La Tercera, 2/4).

Note: The 1929 Lima Treaty establishes borders between the Chile
and Peru and was drafted based on U.S. proposals, which
participated in the solution of the conflict at the request of the
two parties. One of treaty's articles says that that "any
disagreement" will be resolved by the President of the United
States "whose decision cannot be appealed."

Local Politics

5. Minister Secretary General to the Presidency Jose Antonio
Viera Gallo called on the opposition alliance to pass the law on
blind trusts before the swearing-in of President-elect Pi????era (La
Tercera, 2/4).

Haiti

6. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked the organization's
special envoy to Haiti, Bill Clinton, to head the reconstruction
effort in Haiti. U.N. spokesperson Martin Nesirky said Clinton is
"highly involved in Haiti and can mobilize political and business
leaders worldwide" (Government-owned La Nacion, 2/4).

7. The distribution of humanitarian aid in Haiti is
threatening to deepen the crisis in that country. Yesterday,
demonstrators accused the mayor of Port-au-Prince of selling the
aid and of receiving bribes (La Tercera, 2/4).

Weapons to Latin America

8. The Institute for International Strategic Studies (IISS)
based in London reports that Latin America has become the most
important market for Russian weapons. Russian sales to the region
totaled US$4 billion over the past years. One reason for this trend
is the restriction imposed by the United States for sales to
countries such as Venezuela (El Mercurio, 2/4).

OAS

9. The OAS Permanent Council voted to hold the election of its
secretary general on March 24. La Moneda believes that the
proximity of the date will undermine Venezuela and Nicaragua's
efforts to submit a candidate, amid rumors that Venezuela's
Ambassador to the OAS, Roy Chaderton, is a possible candidate (El
Mercurio, 2/4).

Technology

10. Undersecretary of Telecommunications Pablo Bello said the
latest Telecommunications Services Consumer Survey shows that 40.1
percent of homes in Chile have Internet. This is a 7% increase
compared to six months ago and twice as many as in 2006. Bello,
however, underscored that there is still an unequal access to this
service between urban and rural sectors and among the different
social strata. Figures also show that in 2008, 33% of homes had
"paid," i.e., cable, television. This figure also increased 7%
this past semester because the service if offered together with
Internet (Business daily Estrategia, 2/4).

11. Chile became the first Latin American country to test the Long
Term Evolution, or 4G, technology. The tests, conducted by Entel
PCS and the University of Chile, were a success. The new
technology allows wireless transition at a much higher speed than
what is used today. Local experts said that the testing of this
technology is landmark, comparable to the arrival of Internet to
Chile (Financial daily Diario Financiero, 2/4).

China

12. Conservative, influential newspaper-of-record El Mercurio,
2/4, ran editorial entitled, "The U.S. and China": "Once again
relations between Washington and Beijing are facing turbulence.
The U.S. announcement that it would sell weapons to Taiwan... was
an open challenge to Beijing's sovereignty, which has the
non-negotiable policy that there is only one China... and that
Taiwan is only a 'rebel province' .... China is no longer an
aspiring world power: It already is one and is demanding to be
treated as such.... Beijing is not willing to make concessions on
issues that concern its political and economic independence and
with regard to the United States is more a competitor than an
ally."
URBAN

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