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Valenzuela echoes investor doubts
Buenos Aires Herald
December 17, 2009

By Michael Soltys

United States President Barack Obama is interested in Latin America because he believes in putting the "multi" into multilateralism, despite greater complications elsewhere in the world, affirmed US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela at the end of a two-day visit no part of the world could be omitted from such truly global problems as climate change and nuclear proliferation and Washington's main aim was partnership over mutual priorities.

The US has no solutions for Latin America, which must find its own, the Chilean-born Valenzuela also said.

His most striking comment came from one of his few directly local references when he quoted the investment doubts of AmCham businessmen with whom he spoke, due to a lack of legal security and an excess of state intervention a mood which he contrasted with the optimism during a 1996 visit.

Yesterday evening the Foreign Ministry hit back, asserting that the Cristina Fern ndez de Kirchner administration "has not received any complaints from US companies with an interest in investing, adding that there were "open and consolidated channels at the disposal of both governments" for dialogue to iron out any problems.

And later last night Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo retorted that Argentina was no longer a country where foreign officials could lecture it as to its interests.

But for the most part in a hasty press conference at the US Embassy here before leaving for Uruguay yesterday afternoon, Valenzuela tended to stick to the big picture, sidestepping both the strictly bilateral relationship and controversy perhaps because of a certain correlation between them.

A couple of press questions attempted to dig out a reaction to the lack of any presidential audience on his first visit (a privilege normally granted to his predecessor Tom Shannon, even if very briefly at times does the presidential couple harbour hitherto unsuspected covert Republican sympathies?) but Valenzuela would not take the bait.

Valenzuela started by saying how pleased he was to be representing Obama in a city where he used to be a frequent visitor (especially in spring), regretting that his delayed Senate confirmation (he was only sworn in five weeks ago after being confirmed in July) prevented an earlier visit. But as it was, Argentina was his first stop after Washington's two NAFTA partners and the South American giant Brazil he was here "to listen" with no fixed agenda, he said.

"No news is good news" as far as Valenzuela's vision of Latin America's present and future is concerned the region was virtually free of the nationalist irridentism plaguing much of the world, advancing economically and consolidating democracy after being almost totally under dictatorships a generation ago, benefitting hugely from the end of the Cold War. He also exemplified the dizzying technological changes under way by contrasting the computer technology now in the State Department with the last time he was there in the Bill Clinton years less than a decade ago.

Valenzuela said that the focus of international relations had changed from the trade and aid of earlier years with social aspects and human capital coming increasingly to the fore. Expanding world trade was still absolutely fundamental for progress but insufficient it was a matter of "trade plus."

The press questions mostly reflected Valenzuela's preference for the regional picture over Argentina as such with Washington's stance on Honduras absorbing much of the short time available. Valenzuela said that from the outset the Obama administration joined its Organization of American States (OAS) colleagues both in condemning the coup illegally ousting President Manuel Zelaya and in suspending Honduras from the OAS. But in his view a democratic solution was both needed and found any coup should be followed by legitimate elections as soon as possible and this is what had happened in Honduras. Yet Valenzuela accepted that the elections (always tricky in extreme situations, as Afghanistan has shown) were a necessary but not sufficient condition for restoring full democracy in Honduras. He pointed out that not everybody in the Obama administration agreed with giving the elections priority over Zelaya's return he also said that some Republican senators had spoken of dropping their opposition to his confirmation if the Democrats retreated from imposing strict conditions on the elections but the Obama administration would never allow coupmongers to hold elections on their own terms.

Valenzuela was also grilled on US bases in Colombia. The State Department official replied that Colombia had set a cap of 800 US troops in the agreement and only around 290 US military personnel were currently in that country numerous other countries had similar arrangements. Other questions concerned Cuba (direct dialogue is sought), a possible Obama regional visit (none is programmed but Argentina's Bicentennial would be a good occasion), the Kraft dispute, Brazil and recent voting in Chile and Uruguay (too many old candidates, not aged 46 like Obama).

The US visitor met with City Mayor Mauricio Macri and lunched with Vice-President Julio Cobos in the US Embassy since his Monday schedule also included a meeting with dissident Peronist Francisco de Narv ez (apart from the critical AmCham businessmen), Valenzuela could almost be said to have spent more time with the opposition than with government officials (of whom Cabinet Chief An bal Fern ndez was the most prominent). Among other issues, Cobos pressed for the renewal of US preferential tariffs for goods imported from Argentina.

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