WikiLeaks Issues Second
Wave of Disruption in Latin America
According to this continental roundup
by Rogelio Núñez of Spain's Infolatam, in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Chile,
Columbia and Guatemala, newly released U.S. diplomatic cables are impacting
presidential elections, angering heads of state, and sparking local political
squabbles that are likely to have significant consequences.
Madrid: The storm
over WikiLeaks now rages over Latin America. Newspapers Página 12 of Argentina,
El Espectador of Colombia, El Comercio of Peru, and La Jornada
of Mexico have begun publication of a new batch of documents leaked by the WikiLeaks
site that refer to relations between the United States and Latin America.
El Espectador has more than 16,000 cables, El Comercio of
Peru some “4,000 pages of classified documents from the U.S. Department of
State,” and Página 12 has in its hands over 2,000 of the classified
cables. The majority of the documents don't constitute major updates about what
was known or suspected, but nevertheless, they have sparked major controversies
in some countries in the region.
WikiLeaks in Peru
Due to the proximity of presidential elections to be held in April, the
WikiLeaks revelations have had a huge impact in Peru. Even Alejandro Toledo,
the favorite to win the elections, has admitted: “The (WikiLeaks) documents are
disrupting the electoral process, because they don't allow the candidates to concentrate
on discussing their proposals.”
From among all that is
already known, one thing that stands out are the alleged maneuvers engaged on
by the Toledo Administration to prevent a victory by Ollanta Humala. Humala accused
Toledo of being behind a request that the U.S. destroy his image in 2006. The
charge was based on a Wikileaks cable on the Peruvian elections of that year.
The cable from
the U.S. Embassy in Lima details a meeting with Toledo's former interior
minister, Fernando Rospigliosi, in which Rospigliosi suggested organizing a
campaign to halt Humala's progress.
“He [Rospigliosi] didn't
hesitate, took no shame in resorting to a foreign power to ask that it intervene
in an electoral process that belongs to all Peruvians,” Humala said, in
reference to Toledo, who has emphasized that at the time, Rospigliosi was not
in his administration [translated quotes].
[Editor's Note: According to
the newspaper Living in Peru, cable
46333, dated November 29, 2005, says Rospigliosi and Rubén Vargas, former director
of national defense, 'expressed concern over prospects that ultranationalist
Ollanta Humala is establishing himself as a political force to be reckoned
with.' ... Rospigliosi offered ideas about 'how to arrest Humala's rise,' and
even suggested that the U.S. should 'review its options,' proposing that the
U.S. Embassy “should expand the role of its communications contractor Nexum to
monitor coverage of Humala and promote anti-Humala news and commentary in the
coca regions.”]
As global analyst Ariel Segal
pointed out to the La República newspaper, “with WikiLeaks, the Peruvian
election is complicated not by the U.S., but by media that paid for this
information. And now that its available, candidates are panicking because they
know about them and they can be made public at any time, depending on what
suits the owners of this or that media or interest group.”
“I’m not ashamed or sorry
about anything,” said Fernando Rospigliosi, referring to his meeting to stop
the candidacy of Ollanta Humala with the U.S. ambassador.
WikiLeaks in Mexico
The new
WikiLeaks revelations reveal the obvious: the great
concern on the part of the U.S. about Mexico's ongoing fight against narco-traffickers.
The documents indicate Felipe Calderón’s weakness upon assuming the Presidency
in 2006, and how the Mexican leader recognized that, “there are areas in which
they have already lost control and there isn't even time to secure [state]
institutions" before Calderón's administration ends. The cable goes on, “This
is damaging Mexico’s international reputation, harms foreign investment, and gives
the impression of a government that is powerless" [translated quotes].
Via Twitter in December, President
Felipe Calderón had already criticized the leaking of [U.S. State Department] documents
(“I categorically condemn the unlawful disclosure of documents attributed to U.S.
diplomacy”).
But now, in an interview for the newspaper
El Universal, he has aimed his fire at U.S. Ambassadors: ambassadors
"want to raise their own agendas with their own bosses, and they've done a
lot of damage with the stories they tell.”
In reference
to [current] Ambassador Carlos Pascual (photo, right), Calderón criticized talk
of a “lack of coordination between different agencies. I don't have to tell
U.S. ambassadors how many times I meet with the Security Cabinet or what I say.
The truth is that it's none of their business. … The ignorance of the gentleman
translates into a distortion of what is occurring in Mexico that has had an
impact and irritates our team.”
WikiLeaks in Chile
The WikiLeaks documents had a
concrete impact on Chile when a cable was made public which revealed that the United
States believed that we will never know the truth about the death of former President
Eduardo Frei
Montalva (1964-1970).
For that reason, the Chilean
government will submit a judicial complaint that seeks to clarify the causes of
death of the former president in 1982.
President Sebastián Piñera
said that, “in this way, our government seeks to collaborate on the death of a president,
and so the case of former President Eduardo Frei Montalva doesn't remain in the
shadows."
Furthermore, the cables have
revealed that the Chilean government is afraid that the International Court of
Justice at The Hague will rule in favor of Peru in their bilateral
maritime dispute.
A Chilean Foreign Ministry official
has spoken of his government's concern about the two rulings that the Court in
The Hague has already issued on the maritime dispute between Nicaragua
and Colombia, which is similar to the case of Peru and Chile.
The Chilean official at The
Hague, Albert Van Klaveren, has denied these reports: “We are very calm. We
believe that not only are the treaties in our favor, but that the very
systematic jurisprudence of The Hague recognizes the primacy of the treaties on
subjects like those we are confronting. We have no doubts about our position.”
Now the focus is more on minute
local politics. So, U.S. Embassy officials have heard [Buenos Aires Mayor] Mauricio Macri's
criticism of the “aggressive style” of the Kirchner marriage. And Mayor Macri also
questioned Chile's foreign policy, before asking diplomats to “adopt a tougher
line stance” toward the government.
WikiLeaks in Colombia
The newspaper El
Espectador began publishing nearly 16,000 diplomatic documents on Colombia.
The newspaper has learned that 3 political leaders, aides to former President
Álvaro Uribe, feared losing their American visas because of complaints about "para-politics"
[government officials colluding with right-wing paramilitaries] and links with
groups in the service of drug traffickers.
This includes former Senator Mario Uribe, (cousin of the
former President Álvaro Uribe), former Interior and Justice Minister Carlos Holguín and
the current Governor of Antioquia,
Luis Alfredo Ramos.
Also, former member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
alias "César," (captured during Operation
Jacque that freed 15 hostages), offered the Colombian government a deal in exchange
for the release of Ingrid Betancourt, as reported by the U.S. Embassy in Bogota
in June 2008.
The newspaper El País said
yesterday that, “In 2009, the United States pressed then President Álvaro Uribe
to undertake a thorough cleansing of the Administrative
Department of Security (DAS)," the spy agency that reports directly to
the nation's president.
The State Department cables
leaked by WikiLeaks reveal how U.S. Ambassador to Bogota, William R.
Brownfield, threatened
then Vice President Francisco Santos with toughening his country’s
relationship with the Colombian Secret Services.
Santos acknowledged that
Uribe didn't fully understand the gravity of the crisis and asked the ambassador
to speak directly to Uribe in order to convince him of the need to take
effective action with respect to the DAS.
WikiLeaks in Guatemala
According to WikiLeaks, the U.S.
fears that Guatemala is becoming a narco-state. Carlos Castresana, former head
of the International
Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, told U.S. Deputy Secretary of
State Julissa Reynoso that 60 percent of the country's territory is in the
hands of the cartels.
As we knew, the United States
has also been concerned about Sandra
Torres, wife of President Álvaro Colom, and a potential
candidate for the presidency in September. The cables show that she's regarded
as being “to the left of her husband,” a “more capable government administrator”
and “rude” in her relations with subordinates and ministers. She is linked to an
“inner circle” that would include former [FARC] guerillas like Orlando Blanco
and Jorge Ismael Soto, aka/“Pablo Monsanto.”
