U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make an unexpected visit to Buenos Aires Monday to meet with Argentine President Cristina Fernández.

The visit, announced just hours ago by Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela on his Twitter page, seems to be an attempt by both sides, though particularly by the U.S. to improve relations.

The exact Tweet was: “In San Juan, refueling. Never dull moment w SHRC-adding stop tmrw pm-Buenos Aires, to meet w Pres. of Argentina de Kirchner.”

Fernández, who spoke very highly of U.S. President Barack Obama a year ago, was critical of him a few days ago.

“The expectations we had haven’t been met,” Fernandez said. “There is a sensation in the region of lost opportunity. There was a lot of hope for Obama.”

Valenzuela responded by saying that everyone has a right to voice his or her opinion about U.S. foreign policy. He added that Obama is more popular in the region than are some presidents in their own countries. That was interpreted by some as a dig at Fernández, who declined to meet with Valenzuela on his last visit to Argentina.

Fernández is one of the least popular leaders in Latin American with an approval rating that, according to recent polls, hovers around 20%. She downplays such polls, however, saying they are carried out by anti-government conspirators.

Fernández says the government conducts its own polls, which it has never published, and that those surveys show her to be much more popular.

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Where on earth is Carlos Menem?

Argentina’s political establishment was asking itself that question Wednesday after the ex-president-turned-senator failed to show up for a key Senate meeting.

Opposition Senators had agreed to meet Wednesday to divvy up power on a wide range of Senate committees, leaving the ruling Frente Para la Victoria party in the minority for the first time since it came to power in 2003.

The opposition needed all 37 of its senators present to rest power from the Kirchners and the FPV party. Having the 37 votes would have given the opposition a slight edge over the FPV, which now has just 36 senators.

But Menem, who was supposed to appear and vote with the opposition, was nowhere to be found. I called Menem’s spokesman to ask about the senator’s whereabouts.

“I haven’t talked with him for two months,” said the spokesman, seeming somewhat embarrassed. “One person who saw him recently told me that he had gone to the airport in La Rioja this morning to travel to the capital for the vote. Another said Menem would only travel if his vote was crucial. Nobody knows anything about him. I spoke with Menem’s brother, too, and even he didn’t know where the senator was. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more information for you. Nobody in Menem’s office has had any contact with him. I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything else.”

What?

Did I really just have that conversation? Very odd. How is this possible? How could Menem’s office and spokesman not have a clue about his whereabouts?

Local media have reported that the government has been trying to woo the former president into ditching the opposition, even if just momentarily, so that the FPV can conserve its power in the Senate.

Whatever the case, Argentina’s controversial ex president was nowhere to be found Wednesday, one more indication that the once omnipresent, virtually omnipotent politician has fallen far from the pinnacle of power he occupied less a decade ago.

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Argentina, like Winston Churchill once said of Russia, is “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”

The country is hard to understand, harder to explain and impossible to predict. Its bursts of economic growth and progress are consistently interrupted by fits of frustration every decade or so.

Over the past 50 years Argentina has seen 17 years of recession and another 17 of hyperinflation, according to a recent Deutsche Bank report.

In 1913 Argentina was the world’s 10th richest nation. In the U.S. in the 1930s people used to describe an exceptionally wealthy person as “rich like an Argentine.” But since then Argentina has stumbled in and out of trouble, failing to capitalize on its vast natural resources and educated population.

Between 1950 and 2003, Argentina’s per capita gross domestic product actually shrank 19% to US $3,760 from US $4,656. In the same period, Chile’s per capita GDP rose 173%, Mexico’s jumped 201% and Brazil’s soared 269%. Though these three nations’ growth started from a much lower base, they all made consistent progress while Argentina declined. Clearly, something went wrong.

What? (more…)

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The appearance of impropriety in public life can be as damaging to a person’s reputation – and to a public’s trust – as impropriety itself.

That’s why newly-elected public officials in many countries are required by law – or tradition – to cede control of their investments to a blind trust, which oversees the investments during the officials’ time in office. This is what Canadian and U.S. leaders do when taking office.

Earlier this month Sebastian Pinera, Chile’s new president-elect, moved to sell a stake he owns in the Chilean airline LAN. The stake has been estimated to be worth $1.5 billion. Pinera had pledged during his campaign to sell it before taking office next month.

The pledge aimed to allay concern about a possible conflict of interest if Pinera were elected and had to make a decision affecting LAN or his investment in it.

Pinera’s move aims not only to avoid a conflict of interest, but also to avoid the mere appearance of one. Critics have charged that Pinera hasn’t moved fast enough, or ceded control of enough of his assets, to avoid all potential conflicts of interest.

But his move regarding LAN indicates that both he and the Chilean people recognize the value of avoiding conflicts of interest, even the mere appearance of them. (more…)

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Al Jazeera does it again, this time taking a look at Argentina’s oddest new law.

The law could force hundreds of people to give DNA samples in a bid to find out who their real parents were and if they were kidnapped during the Dirty War.

The law raises profound ethical questions and shows how, three decades later, Argentina is still trying to deal with its past.

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More than a quarter century after the military dictatorship fell and Argentina returned to democracy in 1983, the country suffers from a climate of fear and censorship that permeates certain aspects of public and private life.

This climate is largely imperceptible to many people, especially tourists, expats and others who don’t pay close attention to politics or current events. For these people, and for those who don’t read the newspapers or watch political talk shows, life simply goes on as usual, as it should. People go to work, go out to eat, attend concerts and live as usual.

But for some who work in business, in government or in journalism, the atmosphere of fear and censorship is a tangible reality that can affect life in significant ways.

For journalists, the climate affects our ability to speak with sources and quote them on the record. Opposition to the Kirchners and their policies is both deep and pervasive. The overwhelming majority of private sector CEOs, finance officers, corporate spokespeople, and diplomats speak negatively about the Kirchners off the record. People say one thing in private, another in public. To a vastly lesser degree, this kind of thing happens in other countries, especially with diplomats, who are famously tight-lipped.

But in Argentina, concern about government retaliation is so great that many officials, including even some – mainly lower-ranking – government officials themselves, don’t dare to say anything that could possibly be interpreted negatively by President Cristina Fernández or her husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner.
(more…)

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Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri on Friday moved to allow a gay couple to get married in the city.

In a video published simultaneously on his YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages, Macri said his government would not appeal a court order that allowed for gay marriage. The order, issued earlier in the week by Judge Gabriela Seijas, declared that two articles in the city’s civil code were unconstitutional. The ruling sets a new legal precedent in Latin America that allows for same-sex marriage, according to the city government.

Judge Seijas issued the ruling after a gay couple, Alex Freyre and José María Di Bello, asked the court to approve their marriage.

“We’ve decided not to appeal the ruling,” Macri said. “I feel this is a step forward. What we have to do here is learn to live freely without impinging upon the rights of others. This case is about allowing people to be happy based on their own decisions. We have to live together, accept this reality and realize that the world is moving in this direction. I’m happy that the government is not going to appeal this and I hope they will be happy together.”

Macri’s decision comes as some members of the Argentine Congress are pushing a bill that would allow for same-sex marriage nationwide.

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Though Argentine businessmen maintain an almost dead silence about all things political, two of the country’s most influential entertainers recently spoke out about violent crime in the country.

Mirtha Legrand, host of an exceptionally successful and long-running daytime lunch show, called on Argentina’s president to give a nationalized televised speech to the country about crime. You can see her comments here in the following YouTube video.

Mirtha’s comments followed related comments by Marcelo Tinelli, host of the wildly popular ShowMatch program on Canal 13. Without naming names, Tinelli made a desperate appeal for government officials to do more to stop what seems to be a new crime wave.

Tinelli says his comments weren’t aimed “against anyone,” but he implicitly criticized President Cristina Fernández for her constant talk about “human rights,” implying that while she spends her time talking about human rights, Argentines are getting slaughtered in the streets by violent criminals who kill with almost complete impunity.

The comments made by both of these celebrities seem to reflect pervasive sentiment in the broader society, a society that – justified or not – has become outraged about what it feels to be complete and total government inaction on life and death issues like deadly crime.

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A trial began this week for Argentina’s last dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, and others accused of kidnapping, torture, murder or other abuses of power during the dark days of Argentina’s dictatorial regime.

This new video by Al Jazeera provides a brief overview of the story.

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If you’re not familiar with the story behind Argentina’s troubled relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and what this has to do with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center here, then you’d be wise to check out this video from Al Jazeera which looks at the issue.

The 1994 bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, or AMIA, was the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history. It killed 85 people and injured hundreds.

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Famous for its beef and tango, Argentina is also infamous among diplomats and investors for what they say is its deeply manic approach to public policy.

For good or bad, when Argentine leaders come into power, they often undo or reverse their predecessors’ policies. This is often true to a much greater extent here than it is in other countries.

Unlike Brazil or Chile, Argentina doesn’t have a long tradition of a stable, respected and professional civil service that ensures continuity in public policy regardless of who occupies the “sillón de Rivadavia,” or the presidential throne.

Examples of Argentina’s public policy vicissitudes abound.

The 1976-1983 military junta was followed by the democratically-elected government of President Raúl Alfonsín. To restore a sense of justice and clamp down on the impunity that reigned during the dictatorship, Alfonsín in 1985 set up the Trial of the Juntas, ensuring that at least some of those responsible for crimes against humanity were punished for their deeds.

The trial won Alfonsín international accolades. But in some ways it was all for naught. Alfonsín’s successor, Carlos Menem, pardoned those involved in the Dirty War.

(more…)

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Most Argentines consider the Falkland Islands to be an important issue, according to a new survey.

According to the polling firm Ibarómetro, 79% of those polled said the islands – known here as Las Malvinas – are either pretty or very important to the country.

Almost 84% of those surveyed said “the United Kingdom is violating Argentina’s sovereign right to the islands.”

Interestingly, about 53% said they don’t know if they agree with the 1982 dictatorship’s decision to go to war with the UK over the islands. Thirty-three percent said they agree while 15% disagree.

Finally, although Argentines think the issue is important, they’re not all convinced that it’s necessary to vote for political candidates who harbor on the issue.

Less than half of those polled (47%) said they vote based on a candidate’s position regarding the Falklands. Thirty percent said they don’t care about a candidate’s stance while 23% said “it’s not the most important issue” when voting.

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