VZCZCXYZ0009
OO RUEHWEB
DE RUEHBU #1090/01 2741425
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 011425Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4418
INFO RHMFISS/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT
UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001090
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC,
WHA/EPSC
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: KRAFT FACTORY DISPUTE IN ARGENTINA;
HONDURAS; IMF-ARGENTINE TIES; 10/01/09; BUENOS AIRES
1. SUMMARY STATEMENT
Today's leading international stories are focused on the Argentine
Government's handling of the conflict at the Kraft factory; the
Honduran crisis; and expectations over a rapprochement between the
IMF and the Argentine Government.
2. OPINION PIECES AND EDITORIALS
- "Kraft exposes weakness II"
An editorial in liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires Herald"
reads (10/01), "There will be no solution to the various conflicts
mushrooming out of the Kraft factory dispute without a clear
position from the government but any such clarity remains lacking.
First and foremost, any government is responsible for maintaining
public order and the free movement of its citizens, being entrusted
with the monopoly of force for precisely that purpose...
"But instead of taking control of the situation, the government
wavers between the two sides. Its attitude towards the pickets has
oscillated from countenancing an abrupt end to the five-week
occupation of the Kraft factory last Friday... to its usual
indulgence this week. As for its attitude towards the US (since
Kraft is a US investment), this has veered from President Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner spending an entire week there (a hug with US
President Barack Obama included) to scraping a meeting between
Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez and the new US Ambassador Vilma
Socorro Martinez the day after the president's return. And yet
Martinez (a veteran labor lawyer who should find this problem right
up her street) was only doing her job in trying to look after US
investments (and over 150,000 Argentine jobs in the process).
Perhaps even more inexplicable is the fact that in the midst of a
white-hot industrial dispute CFK insisted on taking Labor Minister
Carlos Tomada to the US with her while ex president Nestor Kirchner
stayed behind at the last minute to keep atop of the media bill - a
telltale picture of government priorities.
"... The Kirchners reached power after the picket situation span out
of control with the mid-2002 slayings in Avellaneda - will the cause
of their advent also be the cause of their demise?"
- "Honduras, isolated in the hemisphere"
Leading "Clarin" editorializes (10/01), "The international isolation
of Honduras has worsened as a consequence of the institutional
rupture and the maintenance of an illegitimate de facto regime...
"The clandestine return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya to the
country and his taking refuge at the Brazilian Embassy in
Tegucigalpa was not enough to turn the direction of events in his
favor. The de facto government is supported by the military, most
political leaders and part of the civil society. For his part,
Zelaya lacks enough domestic institutional support to be restored to
power. The unusual thing in the Honduran situation is the
international condemnation including that of the US, whose
government has explicitly voiced its support for the
re-establishment of democracy.
"Nevertheless, the foreign isolation and international statements in
favor of democracy have not been enough so far to put an end to the
serious crisis in the Central-American country...
"The persistence of the Honduran institutional crisis damages its
people and the entire region while isolating the country from the
rest of the hemisphere, in an anti-democratic, anachronistic move
that should not endure."
- "The IMF still does not see gestures of rapprochement from
Argentina"
Silvia Pisani, daily-of-record "La Nacion's" Washington-based
correspondent, writes (10/01), "Only 24 hours away from the IMF
Annual Assembly in Istanbul, the mystery increases on chances that
the Argentine Government will reach an announced agreement with IMF
authorities to enable them review national accounts.
"The hurdle remains the same - while Economy Minister Amado Boudou
says he intends to approach the IMF, he cannot find the way to do it
without breaking President Cristina Kirchner's discourse, who claims
the IMF should review (the country's accounts) although it should
refrain from opining.
"... In recent hours, Washington and Wall Street analysts said the
rapprochement is imminent. One of them summarized, 'The Argentine
Government has so much work to do that it better starts as soon as
possible.'
He was referring to the goals enumerated by Economy Minister Boudou
(reaching an agreement with the IMF, coming to terms with the Paris
Club and making a proposal of payment to 'holdouts').
"All three things go together and are part of the same goal of the
minister, who wants the country to return to the voluntary capital
market...
"Expectations over a rapprochement go in parallel with a mounting
doubt whether the Minister's good will would be backed by President
Kirchner who while at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh again said she
was not willing to let the IMF review the country's accounts."
To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our
classified website at:
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires
MARTINEZ