US Ambassador in Santiago Remains Silent After Confidential Talks with Congress Leaked to the Press – MercoPress

The US ambassador in Santiago remains silent after information about confidential discussions with Congress was leaked to the press

US Ambassador to Santiago Bernadette Meehan told Chilean lawmakers on Wednesday that she would no longer inform them about the South American country's possible exclusion from Washington's visa waiver program, after details of her confidential meeting with parliamentarians were leaked on the website El Mostrador were published.

On April 16, Meehan appeared before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee to explain Chile's situation regarding the travel requirement, after numerous groups supporting former (and possibly future) President Donald Trump requested that Chile be exempted from the list of privileged countries after several Chileans were arrested. Meehan also insisted that El Mostrador's information was inaccurate.

Christian Socialist Congressman Johannes Kaiser read, according to an email from the U.S. mission in Santiago: “We regret to inform you that Ambassador Meehan will no longer be conducting briefings for members of Congress on the Visa Waiver Program.”

“She traveled to Valparaiso on April 16 and met with the House Foreign Affairs Committee to discuss the visa waiver program. Although organizers assured her that the discussion was confidential and would take place behind closed doors, details of the discussion were mistakenly leaked to the press.”

“As such, Ambassador Meehan will not be holding any further briefings on the Visa Waiver Program at this time.”

Kaiser insisted that Meehan was denouncing a crime committed either by a member of the committee or another member of Congress, adding that the case would be referred to prosecutors. “Once the meeting is declared secret, the members of the committee, the members of the team that accompanies that committee, are legally bound to secrecy, regardless of whether they are just passing on cooking recipes.”

“I hope that we can identify those responsible in this case,” Kaiser insisted, while warning that it would not be easy to make amends for this “breach of trust.”

According to El Mostrador, Meehan and Chilean Undersecretaries Manuel Monsalve (Ministry of Interior) and Gloria de la Fuente (Foreign Affairs) appeared before the congressional committee to discuss the visa waiver program. The talks eventually shifted to the topic of Hezbollah operatives in the South American country.

Meehan reportedly told Chilean lawmakers that there were some U.S. lawmakers and groups in the United States who had called for Chile's visa waiver to be removed following millions of dollars worth of break-ins in uninhabited locations. El Mostrador said Chileans found to be involved in these crimes were rare. The website also mentioned that the groups calling for the suppression of Chile were close to America Great Again, a supremacist political movement that has raised concerns among several diplomats in the region and also among the sixteen United States security agencies because of its nationalist ideology.