SUBJECT: MYTH VS. REALITY IN CHILE'S MAPUCHE CONFLICT

[rabs]

Now it is Chile's turn.

Pinera will likely be pissed off that the U.S. Embassy made fun of him for saying "Araucania is in flames."

This cable from U.S. Embassy is a good roundup of the Mapuche claims for their ancestral lands in southern Chile. It blames the Chilean press for overstating the conflict. The AP, Reuters and other media then picked up the sensational reporting and spread it worldwide.

"Guerrilla tourism" :rofl:

Poloffs = embassy political officers

----------------------------------

Classified By: A/DCM Laurie Weitzenkorn for reason 1.4 (B).

1. (C) Summary: Despite sensationalist press coverage and a
popular image of bloody conflict in Chile's southern Mapuche
heartland, poloffs found that relations between indigenous
and non-indigenous communities were largely non-violent, if
often tense and distrustful. Three people -- all Mapuche
activists -- have died in the so-called Mapuche conflict over
the past ten years. Arson, vandalism, and peaceful protests
and non-violent activism have been far more common.
Opposition politicians have alleged links between the Mapuche
and foreign terrorist organizations FARC and ETA, but
government officials downplay these connections as mere
"guerrilla tourism." End Summary.

3. (SBU) A casual observer of Chilean news coverage could be
forgiven for thinking that violent Mapuche activists with
strong and active links to the FARC and ETA are killing
innocent civilians each week in the so-called "Mapuche
conflict." Opposition presidential candidate Sebastian
Pinera has declared that "Araucania is in flames." Chile's
major newspapers, which are generally conservative in their
political outlook, frequently run reports of conflict related
to indigenous concerns prominently on the front page.
Destruction of property -- which accounts for the vast
majority of all illegal Mapuche action -- is often displayed
in full color and with bold headlines, sometimes beating out
coverage of more severe crimes committed by non-indigenous
Chileans. Moreover, positive or less incendiary news from
indigenous communities -- resolution of localized conflicts,
peaceful protests, meetings, or other actions taken to
address Mapuche political concerns -- are often not covered
at all.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Cable/embajador/EE/UU/Chile/critica/candidato/opositor/Sebastian/Pinera/elpepuint/20101213elpepuint_11/Tes

-----------------------

[Peace Patriot]

1. That's a damn good summary!

Clearly stated, objective, informative, intelligent, not fooled by bullshit from rightwing blowhards and corpo media. A summary that's meant to be useful in creating decent U.S. policy. Date: March 2010.

I was beginning to wonder, reading some of these cables, just how much damage the Bushwhacks had done to the foreign service, the dept. of justice, FEMA, the forest service, NASA, USGS, the FDA, the Center for Disease Control, our state national guards, and God knows where else, in the agencies of our government, upon which so many people depend, with their stupid Christian-ideologue and Bushwhack appointments and promotions. With 8 years to do it, they could have gone very deep into the civil service like the wrecking crew they were. We had a lethal example of their deliberate creation of incompetence with Katrina. The cables I've seen so far have had a strange, hard to describe impression on me. It's as if the cable writers' heads are stuck inside a tin can in which bits of rightwing ideology and "talking points" and corpo-fascist media illusions are bouncing around distracting their brains from its chief conscious functions: observation of the real world and rational thought about the real world. They can't think! They spout "talking points" they've heard--the safest bet if you can't think.

As for OBSERVING what's really going on in a country, and putting together some clear, fresh, helpful THOUGHTS about it, I've seen only two cables that have done that--this one and the one about the socialist Arepo restaurant in Venezuela. The cable on the restaurant alone tells you almost all you need to know about the Bolivarian Revolution and WHY it has lasted and WHY Venezuelans vote for Chavez.

That's the kind of diplomatic/foreign service information **I** would want, if I were trying to make good U.S. policy. What's REALLY going on in a country? But it's rare among the cables.

Another problem, of course, is that the recipients of the information--those who are making policy--have been Bushwhacks, and are now not all that much better than Bushwhacks--Democrats trying to please their multinational corporate/war profiteer handlers. So the cable writers--the people "out in the field" are writing TO people who very likely are NOT interested in making decent, good U.S. policy in many of these places. The recipients are biased so the cable writers write to those biases. What does the boss want to hear? So, just like an Associated Pukes reporter, they go out and find the rightwing groups that the USAID is funding and use those ideologues as their sources. Rather than observing reality, they are tailoring the cables a certain way, to fit pre-conceptions.

All of this is just to say that I liked this cable and thanks for posting it. This and the restaurant cable don't exactly restore my respect for the U.S. government. (It would take quite a revolution to do that.) But it's nice to know that there is some rational thought and basic competence going on, in a few spots anyway.

[naaman fletcher]

2. my opinion of the cables,

has actually been surprisingly positive. It appears that around the world we have good dedicated people on the ground, however most of their advice and input seems to be ignored by the politicians.

[Peace Patriot]

3. I haven't read enough of them to say for sure. I've just seen some notable lemons,

full of ill thought out garbage aimed at (or derived from) bad policy. But you may be right. Can't make a final assessment until I read a much larger sampling.

I am not disposed to pre-judge the civil service. I know they have been under very serious assault, as to providing objective and reliable information and other public services. It's possible some have fought back (in fact we know some have) and probably many were just hanging tight, riding out the onslaught, but not giving up their commitment to serving the people. However, a lot of havoc can be created in eight years of promotions and appointments--a lot of good people lost, a lot of bad organizational things put in place. The Republicans are now completely untrustworthy as to basic government competence. They've been taken over by far rightwing billionaires who believe in "drowning government in the bathtub," not to mention trying to create a stupid, uninformed, anti-science, manipulable population. If they get back into executive power without internal party reform, that will be the end of the U.S. government as a functioning, credible entity. I'm profoundly angry at the Democratic Party leadership for a number of things, but they do generally promote "good government." Big difference there. They didn't promote it on the voting machines, though. Damndest thing I've ever seen them do, except maybe the Vietnam War.