VZCZCXYZ0006
OO RUEHWEB
DE RUEHSO #0935 3251204
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 211204Z NOV 07
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7698
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 8828
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 8454
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 2969
UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000935
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD
DEPT PASS USTR
USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: WESTERN HEMISPHERE, VENEZUELA, CHAVEZ; SAO
PAULO
"A Risk For Mercosul"
The leading editorial in center-right national circulation daily O
Estado de S. Paulo (11/21) maintained: "Venezuela's Mercosul
membership does not interest Brazil at the present moment. There is
no economic or diplomatic justification to receive in the bloc the
nation led by President Hugo Chvez.... There are more than
sufficient reasons to refuse, under today's circumstances,
Venezuela's claim to participate in the bloc. If, agreeing with
President Lula's pressures, the [Brazilian] Congress approves
Venezuela's admittance, it will be complicit in another serious
foreign policy mistake.... Chvez has already declared that he wants
to enter Mercosul to change it. He has not explained what these
changes will be, and President Lula does not seem concerned with
that.... What kind of association accepts on its board a partner who
announces his intention to transform it according to his personal
plans?.... It is irresponsible to evaluate Venezuela's Mercosul
membership without considering its current president's projection of
power and the possibility of a new regime being installed in that
nation soon. It is not a matter of interfering in a neighboring
nation's policy. It is a matter of prudently avoiding a Mercosul
that accepts as a partner a nation that may soon be submitting
itself to a strongly armed new regime capable of threatening
regional stability." White