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SUBJECT: Santiago Feb. 5 Media Report
February 5
Lead
1. Fear over the instability of Europe's economies and numbers
that did not fulfill the expectation of financial analysts caused a
drop in stock markets worldwide. Investors sought refuge in the
dollar (Financial daily Diario Financiero, 2/5)
Chile-U.S.
2. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and Chilean Finance
Minister Andr????s Velasco signed a tax treaty between Chile and the
United States that will end taxation of Chilean citizens and
businesses in the United States. At the signing ceremony Geithner
underscored Chile's economic progress to justify the agreement
(Conservative, influential El Mercurio, 2/5).
3. Negotiations for the bilateral tax agreement between Chile and
the United States began ten years ago, but finally concluded due to
the changes made to Chilean legislation as part of the process
required to join the OECD (Conservative, afternoon La Segunda,
2/4).
4. Chilean Ambassador to United Nations Heraldo Mu????oz awarded
Barbara Walters the O'Higgins Medal for her contributions to
journalism, gender equality, and her close ties to Chile and
President Bachelet (La Tercera, 2/5).
5. Article on PAS International Visitor Leadership Program: The
former presidents of the student federation of the University of
Chile, University of Concepcion, and the director of Marco
Enriquez-Ominami's digital presidential campaign Federico Huneeus,
Francisco Rodriguez, and Javier Sajuria, respectively, are visiting
the United States invited by the Department of State to learn about
the U.S. political system. Highlights of their program thus far
have been a meeting with president Obama's campaign chief David
Plouffe and their visit to the Newseum to listen to Secretary
Clinton speak on Internet Freedom. This was the same speech that
enraged China for its decision to censor Google (Diario Financiero,
2/5).
U.S.-Brazil
6. President Obama will travel to Brazil in the second half of
2010, due to the differences with Brazil regarding the crisis in
Honduras and the deployment of U.S. troops to military bases in
Colombia (Diario Financiero, 2/5).
Haiti
7. The civilian chief of the U.N. Mission to Haiti (Minustah),
Edmond Mulet, said the international community must change the way
it is operating in Haiti if it wants to solve the problems with the
distribution of aid (Government-owned, La Nacion, 2/5).
8. The U.N. named Chilean General Carlos Mezzano deputy commander
of the U.N. military force in Haiti. He will replace General
Ricardo Toro (La Nacion, 2/5).
9. The ten Americans detained for trying to illegally remove 30
children from Haiti were charged with abduction of minors and
associating with criminals. Since the crime was committed in the
island, "they will be tried in Haiti," said Justice Minister Paul
Denis (La Nacion, 2/5).
Chile Economy
10. Ernst & Young rated Chile the most globalized country in Latin
America and 27th worldwide. The ranking considers variable such as
commercial openness and capital flow - where Chile ranked very well
- and exchange of technology and ideas and cultural integration,
where it ranked poorly (La Tercera, 2/5).
Editorial
11. "The Obama administration is at a crossroads. It must balance
the need to keep the fiscal stimulus programs launched last year...
to counter the effects of the economic crisis, while at the same
time not let the national debt expand to the point where it
threatens the country's economic competitiveness, which could
weaken its position as a world power. The need to control the debt
to maintain the economic foundation of U.S. power must be Obama's
most important goal, but thus far we see no glimpse of a consensus
or political will in the population at large to accept the
sacrifices necessary to face the problem" (Conservative, afternoon
la Segunda, 2/4).
URBAN