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Syndicated News from ArgentinaFarmers extend protest 6 more daysDate Added: Fri, 16 May 2008 14:38:58 GMT
Conciliation does not mean reconciliationDate Added: Fri, 16 May 2008 15:13:11 GMT
Just not getting ITDate Added: Tue, 13 May 2008 12:43:10 GMT
Austrian PM visits ArgentinaDate Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 13:34:01 GMT
Argentina´s Max Richeze out of Giro d´Italia after failing dope testDate Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 13:18:26 GMT
Something?s gotta give (or somebody)Date Added: Mon, 12 May 2008 18:59:42 GMT
When all sides are a minorityDate Added: Sat, 10 May 2008 13:34:05 GMT
Isolation Means FrustrationDate Added: Mon, 05 May 2008 13:14:07 GMT
Kosherlat give Travel Kosher Consulting ServicesDate Added: Mon, 05 May 2008 20:29:57 GMT
Their blood on whose hands?Date Added: Sun, 04 May 2008 14:33:01 GMT
Results 1 - 10 of 9 Headlines for Argentina
Argentina HeadlinesResults Page: 1,SITUATION REPORTSDate Added: Sunday, January 19th, 2003Contributed by: RCN Administrator
18:36 GMT - Union Radio Network reports one or two deaths and approximately 25 injuries due to gunfire and projectiles, such as rocks, at a protest march against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the industrial and low-income area of Valles del Tuy outside Caracas. The injured included both supporters and opponents of Chavez.
Police officials on-site told Union Radio that pro-Chavez civilian groups there had outnumbered the police. They attacked the anti-Chavez protesters with handguns and rocks. As a result, national guard troops were brought in to restore order. 17:10 GMT - Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov overhauled the government on Jan. 18, naming two new ministers of Health and Communications. He also replaced the head of the state justice council and dismissed several regional leaders. The reshuffling might signal the start of a governmental crackdown on corruption, or simply might be a presidential attempt to reinforce his political position at the expense of members of the former Islamic opposition with whom he shares power. 16:50 GMT - Records from an Indian trading company are providing evidence that Iraq obtained materials necessary for producing weapons of mass destruction over the last four years, GulfNews reports. Exports from NEC Engineering Private Ltd. between September 1998 and February 2001 included items like atomized aluminum powder and titanium centrifugal pumps. The exports were valued at nearly $800,000. The company is the first to be traced specifically to illicit Iraqi procurement since 1998, and it might provide the sort of evidence the pro-war faction of the international community needs to bolster its case for military action against Iraq. 16:39 GMT - Recent opinion polls show Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party likely will win the Jan. 28 general election. The right-wing Likud party is projected to win at least 12 seats more than the center-left Labor Party, falling short of a parliamentary majority -- though Likud might form another coalition government. The election outcome is expected to be a major factor in determining the Israeli approach to the nearly 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for an independent state. 16:35 GMT - Delegates from five Middle Eastern countries -- Syria, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- are expected to gather in Ankara on Jan. 23 at Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul’s invitation, to discuss a peaceful solution to the Iraq issue. The Syrian government also has called a meeting of regional foreign ministers in Damascus, with ministers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, and Kuwait attending. 16:00 GMT - Argentina’s government has reinforced security at airports, border crossings and Jewish facilities after the National Intelligence Service warned that the country is at risk of new terrorist attacks due to rising tensions between the United States and Iraq, according to Buenos Aires daily La Nacion. 15:59 GMT - A U.S. Justice Department commission is due to arrive in Nicaragua’s capital city of Managua this week to explore the possibility of prosecuting former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman on money-laundering charges in the United States. Aleman, who was president from 1997 to 2002, has been under house arrest in Managua since Dec. 12, and is being investigated with the assistance of the U.S. Justice Department for the alleged theft of more than $100 million. 15:57 GMT - Libyan ambassador Najat Al-Hajjaji has been elected president of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, despite U.S. criticism of Libya’s poor civil liberties record and its alleged role as a sponsor of terrorism. Though European nations were similarly dismayed at the nomination, many chose to abstain from the vote rather than risk alienating Africa and other developing nations. 15:54 GMT - After six hours of talks on Jan. 20 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, a visiting Russian envoy said he was optimistic that a peaceful solution could be found to the current crisis between Washington and Pyongyang. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov’s visit is part of a round of diplomatic activity focused on defusing the potentially explosive North Korean situation, which began in October after North Korea admitted to continuing its nuclear weapons program, in violation of the 1994 Agreed Framework. 15:54 GMT - The International Monetary Fund will resume financial aid to Kenya in July as a result of the government’s self-strengthening program and fight against corruption, the East African Standard reports. Negotiations over the new aid program are expected to begin in April. Lending was originally suspended in December 2000 because of the government’s failure to stem corruption. 15:52 GMT - Speaking in Turkey, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers characterized recent meetings with Turkish Chief of General Staff Hilmi Ozkok and National Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul as very positive, Anatolia News Agency reported Jan. 20. Myers emphasized that U.S. President George W. Bush has not yet made a definite decision to attack Iraq, and he denied that there was any lack of cooperation between Turkey and the United States. Myers also denied issuing any specific demands to Turkish officials regarding further deployments of U.S. forces to that country, saying that talks and studies on the issue continue. 15:50 GMT - Argentina’s national intelligence service will issue an official report this week concluding that Iran and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group masterminded the 1994 bombing of a Jewish charity office that killed 85 people, according to Buenos Aires dailies Clarin and Pagina12. However, Clarin cautioned that it "remains to be seen whether the federal judge investigating the bomb attack will accept the intelligence service’s final report." 15:48 GMT - Around 150 police raided a mosque in north London in the early morning hours of Jan. 20, arresting six men of North African origin and one East European, the BBC reports. Scotland Yard said the raid was based on intelligence which suggested that the mosque had been involved in recruiting terrorists and in supporting terrorism in Britain and elsewhere. The raid also was reportedly linked to the discovery of the poison ricin in a nearby neighborhood earlier this month. The cleric of the North London Central Mosque called the raid a provocative act and part of a "war" against Muslims. 15:46 GMT - Jordanian King Abullah II traveled to Dubai on Jan. 20 to meet with United Arab Emirates Vice President Sheikh Maktum bin Rashed al Maktum. The talks are part of an investment forum devoted to discussing investment prospects in Jordan, according to state news agency Petra. Jordan is the only Arab state that has a free trade agreement with the United States. 15:44 GMT - A week-old standoff between Bolivian peasant organizations -- including coca growers -- and the government likely will escalate on Jan. 20, with plans for a farmer-led blockade of the nation’s highways, according to Spanish news agency EFE. Peasant coca growers led by indigenous leader Evo Morales are pressuring the government to suspend all U.S.-backed coca crop eradication programs. Peasant coca growers in the central Bolivian Chapare region have managed to shut down the Cochabamba-Santa Cruz highway completely. Seven peasant farmers have been killed in clashes with security forces. 15:42 GMT - Venezuela’s National Investment Promotions Council (Conapri), an entity that promotes foreign direct investment, reports that the economy contracted 9.6 percent in 2002, while foreign direct investment levels plunged from $3 billion in third quarter 2001 to only $293 million in third quarter 2002, according to Caracas daily El Universal. 15:35 GMT - Amid ongoing protests, the Indonesian government has retreated further from its Jan. 1 energy price hikes. The government announced Jan. 20 that it would reduce prices on diesel oil as well as kerosene for industrial use. Jakarta said price hikes on premium oil and kerosene for household consumption would remain. The decision brings the average 22 percent price hikes down to an average of 8 percent. In an effort to allay concerns among international lenders and donors, Economic Affairs Minister Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti said the budgetary shortfall caused by repealing the price hikes would be paid for from a special reserve fund and would not lead to an increased budget deficit. 15:31 GMT - Former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic flew to The Hague early Jan. 20 to surrender himself to the international war crimes tribunal. Milutinovic is accused of involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict. He has denied the charges. Milutinovic was the last associate of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to leave office; his term expired in December 2002. 15:29 GMT - India conducted a successful test of its Akash surface-to-air missile on Jan. 20, following an earlier test Jan. 18. The Akash, which can carry a 110-pound payload 15 miles, was launched from India’s missile-test range in Chandipur and flew over the Bay of Bengal. 15:27 GMT - Liberian officials claim that gunmen from neighboring Cote d’Ivoire have seized the border town of Beam. President Charles Taylor’s private radio station warned that taking Beam was a violation of Liberia’s territorial integrity and said the government would expel the "terrorists." Mutinous soldiers in western and northern Cote d’Ivoire rebelled against the government four months ago. Liberian mercenaries reportedly are involved in the fighting. 15:17 GMT - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that he supports U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s suggestion that if it would prevent a war, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other top Iraqi officials could be offered asylum in a third country. Rumsfeld made his comments Jan. 19 and was backed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. 15:12 GMT - A hijacking attempt aboard an Air Algerie Boeing 737 failed Jan. 20. Three men demanding to speak to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika reportedly tried to hijack the aircraft as it was en route from Constantine to Algiers. The three were taken into custody when the plane landed in Algiers. 15:10 GMT - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has appointed retired army Gen. Lucas Rincon Romero as interior and justice minister, Union Radio network reports. Rincon formerly was the inspector-general of the Venezuelan armed forces before he retired in July 2002. Chavez also appointed Gen. Jorge Luis Garcia Carneiro as the new commander of the army.Results Page: IMF DEAL DOES LITTLE FOR ARGENTINA’S ECONOMIC STABILITYDate Added: Thursday, January 16th, 2003Contributed by: RCN Administrator
After more than a year of negotiations, Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) finally hashed out a last-minute agreement Jan. 16 that will prevent another potentially embarrassing Argentine debt default. However, those unlucky enough to hold bonds on which the country already has defaulted should not see this as a positive sign; there are no indications that the government is doing anything necessary to repair the economy.
None of the major conditions that the IMF officially insists upon have been met. There still is no clear political commitment to reforming the Argentine financial system, and Buenos Aires has yet to assert control over the often clashing fiscal and monetary policies of the provincial governments. Most important to the international system, the government has not contacted debtors to renegotiate debts. In contrast, when normally prickly Russia defaulted on some debts in 1998, all of its debtors immediately were conferenced about the details of restructuring and repayment. In this light, it is apparent that the IMF essentially has caved to Argentine intransigence. From the viewpoint of many Latin Americans who have found themselves on the receiving end of bad government policies and IMF dictates, the chance to thumb their collective noses at the IMF will be a cherished moment, even if nothing gets any better. This sets a negative precedent for how the IMF will handle a likely default by Brazil. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva knows that his country’s regional importance, compared to that of Argentina, gives him greater leeway with the IMF than Buenos Aires enjoys. That said, the new Argentine-IMF deal does not actually provide any new money for Buenos Aires. It is, in effect, merely an agreement to roll over $6.6 billion in debt due between January and August 2003, and it spares both Argentina and the IMF the specter of another default. Although Argentina has defaulted on more than 100 different bond types issued in eight different currencies, it has yet to default on its IMF debt. That’s a point not lost on the IMF. It’s one thing for private investors to have to write down their assets; quite another when the world’s banker of last resort is forced to do so.
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ARGENTINA-IMF DISPUTE COULD DAMAGE U.S., CREDITORS’ INTERESTSDate Added: Thursday, November 21st, 2002Contributed by: RCN Administrator
The Argentine government and the International Monetary Fund are at an impasse over a new aid agreement. Argentina wants a deal before it pays back debts to multilateral lenders, while the IMF wants Argentina to pay its debts first. The dispute could lead other countries to default on their own debts and damage Washington’s trade goals in the region.
Analysis Argentine President Eduardo Duhalde is playing a dangerous game of chicken with the International Monetary Fund, one that could have devastating consequences for his country in the near term even if the fund’s managers blink first, which is unlikely. The deepening impasse between Argentina’s government and the IMF also could inflict lasting damage on multilateral lending institutions and U.S. strategic interests in the Latin American and Caribbean region. Duhalde made assurances during a Nov. 22 press conference at the presidential palace that his government and the IMF were committed to signing a deal that, sources on both sides say, would total at least $15 billion. This would enable Argentina to stay current on all debts due through December 2003 to the IMF, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). But at the same time, senior government officials like Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna repeated warnings that Argentina will not make any more debt payments to the World Bank and other multilateral entities until after an agreement is signed with the IMF and fresh financial aid starts flowing to the country. Duhalde’s recent decision to pay only $79.5 million of an $805 million debt due Nov. 14 to the World Bank -- combined with a flurry of statements by senior Argentine officials blaming the IMF for the country’s increasingly desperate situation -- is a calculated strategy to force the fund to disburse billions of dollars in fresh aid, without having to give any binding guarantees that necessary economic reforms will be carried out. However, although claims by government officials that IMF mismanagement aggravated the country’s crisis are justified, so are IMF suspicions about the unwillingness of Argentina’s corrupt political class, especially the ruling Peronist party (PJ), to comply with any of the economic reforms the fund wants in exchange for fresh loans. This represents the core of the impasse between the two sides. Any aid the IMF grants to Argentina likely will be wasted unless the government implements economic reforms and tight budget controls for federal and provincial governments, combined with policies to keep the peso from losing value and sparking hyperinflation. Since Argentina defaulted on $142 billion in government debt in December 2001, the IMF, World Bank and IADB have been the only potential sources of international loans to the country. However, if Duhalde’s government does not pay nearly $726 million in principal owed to the World Bank by Dec. 14, all disbursements of existing bank loans to the country will stop, and Argentina will lose the ability to renegotiate these loans at lower interest rates. Six months after this, all World Bank loans to Argentina -- currently totaling about $8.5 billion -- would be placed in what is called "non-accrual status," which essentially means default. However, before the next Christmas Day, millions of poor Argentines already will have lost the only remaining source of international development aid they still had. This would worsen social conditions significantly in Argentina, where more than half of the population is poor, unemployment is close to 25 percent and the economy is expected to contract between 12 percent and 15 percent in 2002, according to several sources. In fact, recent news reports from Argentine provinces like Tucuman indicate that the number of children dying of starvation and chronic malnutrition is starting to climb in the country’s interior. Nevertheless, IMF officials said Nov. 20 that no fresh aid would be granted to Argentina until the Duhalde government pays its debt arrears to the World Bank. However, government officials said Nov. 21 that the country could not afford to continue paying debts to multilateral entities without first signing a financial aid agreement with the IMF. Foreign exchange reserves at Argentina’s Central Bank currently total slightly more than $9.8 billion, but debt payments due to multilateral entities through May 2003 total $9.5 billion. Officials say that as a result, the country cannot risk burning up its reserves without first signing a binding agreement with the fund to cover the roughly $15 billion due to multilateral entities through the end of 2003. Government officials complain that it’s impossible to reach a binding political consensus on economic reforms -- even under the recently rescheduled timetable for general elections, which were pushed back from March 30 to April 27, 2003. However, what they have not acknowledged publicly is that the reason Duhalde cannot achieve a binding consensus is his bitter personal feud with former President Carlos Menem, who is seeking re-election and control of the Peronist party. According to sources in Buenos Aires, both men hate each other passionately, and this hatred -- born of a years-long power struggle for control of the Peronist party -- is pushing Argentina even deeper into the worst economic and social crisis in its history as an independent republic. Moreover, it’s unlikely that either Duhalde or Menem would agree to a political truce, since whoever wins the fight for control of the Peronist party likely would be a political kingmaker, whose first order of business would be to forever destroy his opponent politically. This means the impasse between Buenos Aires and the IMF likely will persist well into 2003 without any multilateral aid agreement, and without any possibility of debt-restructuring talks with private international bondholders, who won’t even sit down at a negotiating table until the logjam is dissolved. Although the IMF’s refusal to grant any fresh aid to Argentina without binding political guarantees is understandable, there also are potentially harmful downsides for multilateral lending entities and the Bush administration. As the impasse drags out and Argentina’s isolation from international credit markets becomes more acute, it could trigger a shift in the willingness of some countries to default on their debts to multilateral entities, according to U.S. and European economists who are following Argentina’s crisis closely. With other countries in the region, including Brazil, facing potential debt crises of their own over the next year, any increase in perceptions that intransigent IMF officials drowned Argentina’s economy could spark a broader rebellion against the fund’s harsh recipes for macroeconomic reform. If more countries start to default on their debts to multilateral entities, it conceivably could rupture the foundations of the international system created under the Bretton Woods agreement. Without the financial anchor provided by the multilateral lenders, international credit markets could suffer major disruptions as a flood of nervous investors pull out of emerging economies. Also, many Latin Americans already blame the Bush administration for Argentina’s problems, despite abundant evidence that the country’s political class is mainly responsible for the collapse of their economy. If Argentina becomes totally isolated from international credit markets and falls even more deeply into social and economic turmoil, the Bush administration’s hopes of building a hemispheric free trade area and consolidating U.S. geopolitical influence in the region probably will sink as well.
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THE IMPLICATIONS OF ARGENTINA’S FRESH DEFAULTDate Added: Wednesday, November 13th, 2002Contributed by: RCN Administrator
The Argentine government confirmed Nov. 14 that it would not make an $800 million debt payment due that day to the World Bank, though it does plan to make an interest payment in the amount of $80 million, the BBC reports. Cabinet chief Alfredo Atanasof said the country could not pay the debt because it would bring Argentina’s foreign reserves below the $9 billion mark recommended by the International Monetary Fund.
Argentina already has defaulted on around $95 billion of public debt bonds held by local and international investors. By taking the next step and defaulting on its multilateral obligations, Argentina joins the dismal company of Iraq and Somalia. The move was widely expected by international financial markets. Nevertheless, the rare default will dampen already bedraggled foreign investor confidence in Argentina, putting new downward pressure on the peso. Currency movements may be limited by the peso’s relative lack of liquidity and will take some time to move through the system. Future efforts to rebuild the Argentine economy will be hurt by the country’s very limited access to multilateral credit lines for poverty reduction schemes -- and this could further fan social discontent and political turmoil. Buenos Aires’ decision also might have some ripple effects in the region. Brazilian markets have calmed somewhat since that country’s new president was elected Oct. 27, but markets are notoriously shortsighted and myopic. In a case of "guilt by association," Brazil could take a hit. In the longer term, Brazil is still trending toward debt restructuring sometime next year. Back in Argentina, the focus on Buenos Aires’ wrestling matches with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund is diverting attention from growing political instability. A power struggle within the ruling Peronist party between current President Eduardo Duhalde and presidential aspirant Carlos Menem makes Argentina’s future even murkier.
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BUSH TEAM’S LATIN AMERICA AGENDA MIRED IN THE PASTDate Added: Sunday, September 8th, 2002Contributed by: RCN Administrator
Richard Haass, director of policy planning at the State Department and a senior adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said in Chile recently that the Bush administration believes Latin America is not in any crisis and that the region’s situation today is better than it was 20 years ago. Haass said Argentina and Colombia have problems, but Latin America is almost totally democratic, and its markets are much more open than they were two decades ago.
However, statistics compiled by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and dozens of private market research firms throughout the region indicate that Haass is quite mistaken. For instance, Latin America was rocked by the 1995 Mexican peso crisis and still has not recovered from the Asian and Russian economic crises of 1997-1998. Moreover, the region’s current unemployment rate is the highest reported in two decades, and poverty is also greater now than it was 20 years ago. The region needs to grow at least 5 percent or 6 percent annually as a whole to achieve any progress in reducing poverty and raising living standards. But in the more than 10 years since Latin America began applying U.S.-endorsed free-market reforms, the region has never come close to growing 6 percent annually. Individual countries including Argentina and Peru achieved solid growth rates for a few years but then petered out. The only country that achieved sustained stable growth in the past 15-20 years was Chile, but the foundations of this growth were laid during the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, when the country was a pariah to Washington. Haass’ comparison between the region today and two decades ago is symptomatic of a fundamental flaw in the Bush administration’s Latin America foreign policy team. Virtually all of the officials now working on Latin American policy issues earned their stripes and became "experts" on the region during the Latin American debt crisis and Central American wars of the 1980s. This group includes career foreign service officers at the State Department and National Security Council, as well as political appointees and others who have joined the Bush administration in a policymaking capacity since January 2001. They view Fidel Castro and cocaine as the greatest threats to Latin American democracy, growth and stability. They think Latin American governments and voters can be compelled to continue accepting politically and socially painful economic reforms imposed from abroad through multilateral entities like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They also believe Latin America would bounce back quickly by joining a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) anchored on the U.S. economy and based on standards set almost unilaterally by the United States. In a nutshell, the Bush administration’s Latin America policy is still being shaped by Cold War perceptions and biases more than a decade after the Cold War’s end. Moreover, this problem is neither unique nor confined to the Republican Bush administration. Many Democrats with a policymaking interest in Latin America also continue to view the region through a Cold War prism. For instance, Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd has been pursuing a vendetta against Assistant Secretary of State Otto J. Reich, refusing to give him a Senate confirmation hearing since President George W. Bush nominated Reich for the top Latin America job at the State Department well over a year ago. His enmity against Reich is rooted in allegations of Reich’s involvement in the Contra war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government in the 1980s, while Ronald Reagan was president. The recent remarks in Chile by Haass also suggest that the Bush administration has completely failed to perceive that the social fabric underpinning stable governance and political institutions is crumbling in many countries. This has opened doors across Latin America for populist leaders like Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was elected on what amounts to an anti-free market and anti-U.S. platform that calls for confrontation instead of cooperation with the United States. Besides Chavez, other populist leaders rising quickly include Bolivia’s indigenous leader Evo Morales, who placed second in last June’s presidential elections and whose party won a sizeable number of congressional seats, giving Bolivian Indians real legislative influence for the first time in the country’s history as an independent republic. Similarly, in Argentina populist firebrand Elisa Carrio leads all voter preference polls because of her fierce opposition to the established Peronist and radical political parties, which she derides frequently as dens of corrupt mafia dons. In Brazil, perennial socialist candidate Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva of the Workers Party and his principal competitor, Ciro Gomes of the left-center Workers Front coalition, both top voter preference polls thanks to a campaign discourse laced with acid attacks against the IMF, FTAA and other U.S. policy objectives in the region. On the other end of the spectrum, the Bush administration’s politically motivated decision to merge the endless war on drugs in Colombia with the new U.S. war against terrorism has cemented an alliance with the government of new President Alvaro Uribe Velez that could return to haunt U.S. policymakers in just two or three years. In Colombia, the United States has embarked on a military escalation for the purpose of simultaneously eradicating illegal drugs and defeating the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group. The increased U.S. military footprint in Colombia means it won’t be long before U.S. personnel are implicated in real or alleged human rights abuses, including potential international suits seeking sanctions or compensation for environmental destruction and health problems caused by aerial eradication of drug crops. The likelihood of this happening is greater today than it was only two months ago because under Uribe, large-scale aerial spraying of the chemical Glifosate has resumed but with higher Glifosate concentrations than before. The inability of the Bush administration’s Latin America policy team to break free from Cold War concepts and stereotypes may be a general malaise common to so-called liberal and conservative Latin American policy experts holding influential positions in Washington. However, this malaise is rearing its head noticeably on Bush’s watch as Argentina’s economy sinks like the Titanic, Colombia goes up in flames and Venezuela under Chavez takes a long march toward bloodshed and turmoil. As a result, it’s fairly certain that Republicans will catch most of the blame in the coming years for the region’s mounting political, economic and social difficulties. In fact, many Latin Americans already yearn for the old days under former President Bill Clinton, even though Clinton largely ignored the region during his eight-year presidency.
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TAIWANESE NAVY FISHES FOR NEW DESTROYER DEALDate Added: Thursday, September 5th, 2002Contributed by: RCN Administrator
One of Taiwan’s vice ministers of defense and its naval vice commander in chief are both scheduled to visit Washington next week. While the trips are separate, both men will be discussing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, in particular Taipei’s planned purchase of four U.S. Kidd-class destroyers.
The Kidds, part of a large array of equipment Washington offered Taiwan in April 2001, are intended to tie over Taipei until the United States approves the sale of Aegis destroyers. But just as Taiwan’s overall defense budget has shrunk, the navy has notified parliament that the Kidds will cost twice as much as earlier reported. This is likely only to increase some lawmakers’ opposition to the purchase, which some view as too costly for the benefits it would bring. Unless the dual mission to Washington can reshape the deal and get Taiwan more bang for its buck, the navy may be left waiting for new sea-based air defense assets until it can convince Washington to sell the more advanced Aegis destroyers. Taipei wants the Kidd and Aegis destroyers to improve its naval air defense capabilities, complementing its already extensive land-based air defense systems. But while Taipei is focused mainly on the Aegis -- a potential framework for a mobile national missile defense system -- Washington considered the sale too destabilizing to the delicate balance of relations between the United States, China and Taiwan. The Kidds, which do not possess the same advanced radar system, were considered less controversial. However, that decision -- made more than a year ago -- is still coming under criticism in Taipei. Several lawmakers, particularly those from opposition parties, are opposing the purchase of the Kidds, raising concerns that their cost is not justified by their limited capabilities. This is likely to become a key issue at the next session of parliament, which opens Sept. 24. During this session, lawmakers will discuss the annual defense budget, which this year stands at just $7.63 billion, the lowest since 1996. According to the Taipei Times, nearly half is slated for personnel costs, with just $517 million set aside for new equipment and weaponry purchases. The Kidds are just one of four major planned purchases, including nine CH-47SD Chinook helicopters, one new Chengkung-class frigate and more Tienkung air defense missiles. Just more than $90 million has been reserved for the down payment on the Kidds. But the Taiwanese navy also recently altered its estimated cost for the Kidd destroyers, raising it from $834 million to $1.67 billion. The new figure includes crew training, reactivation of the ships and advanced weapons systems; the earlier figure simply covered the cost of the ships and the basic weaponry package. Yearly upkeep will run an additional $8.81 million. With the cost doubling and the overall budget falling, Taiwan’s Kidd purchase faces serious challenges in parliament. The two visits to Washington will be attempts to get more equipment at a smaller price, in order to better justify the purchase to parliament. Unless Washington offers more incentives on the deal, however, Taiwan’s navy may have to skip this stepping stone in its air defense plans -- focusing instead on other key weapons systems, like submarines and anti-submarine warfare aircraft -- and wait until the political climate is more conducive to a sale of Aegis systems to the island republic.
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ARGENTINA: N.Y. TIMES ARTICLE FIRST SALVO IN VICIOUS CAMPAIGNDate Added: Tuesday, July 23rd, 2002Contributed by: RCN Administrator
Former Argentine President Carlos Menem -- who is trying to reclaim his post in the next presidential elections -- has denied a July 22 New York Times report that he received $10 million from Iran’s government to cover up evidence of direct Iranian involvement in a 1994 terrorist attack at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The article appears to be related to a vicious power struggle for control of the ruling Justicialist Party -- popularly known as the Peronist Party -- between Menem and current President Eduardo Duhalde.
Menem’s July 22 admission that he does own the Swiss bank account into which the alleged bribe was deposited may have placed him in serious political and legal jeopardy, since he never revealed the account’s existence in sworn asset-disclosure statements filed while he was president of Argentina. If the allegations against Menem are proven, the Bush administration likely will sever all ties with the Argentine government if he wins early presidential elections March 30, 2003. But even if the charges are false, as many analysts in Buenos Aires believe, Menem could face legal prosecution if the government’s anti-corruption office determines that he broke the law by not disclosing the existence of his Swiss bank account, which, according to Menem, presently holds about $500,000. Additionally, the timing of the New York Times article indicates that the Peronist Party’s internal presidential primaries will be a vicious contest between Menem and other contenders, with Duhalde -- who is not running -- backing the candidacy of Cordoba provincial governor Jose De la Sota. This could have very negative implications for Argentina’s economic and political stability in the coming months if the country’s creditors and private investors react by withholding new loans and investments until after the March elections. Menem said July 22 that he is the target of a political smear campaign orchestrated by Duhalde in an effort to weaken his chances of winning the Peronist presidential nomination. Longtime Menem supporter and journalist Mario Baizan said July 23 that New York Times reporter Larry Rohter admitted to him in a private meeting that the documents on which the article was based were obtained from sources inside Duhalde’s government, but Cabinet Chief Alfredo Atanasof strongly denied Baizan’s allegations, Buenos Aires daily Clarin reported. The allegations against Menem form part of a 100-page deposition by Abolghassem Mesbahi, reportedly a former Iranian intelligence officer who defected to Germany in 1996. The New York Times article states that Mesbahi met with Argentine investigators twice in 1998 and 2000. Besides charging that Menem was bribed, Mesbahi also told Argentine investigators that Iran has funneled secret cash payments to Menem since the mid-1980s. Officials inside Menem’s campaign organization told Clarin July 23 that he would prefer a negotiated political arrangement to gain Duhalde’s backing, or at least his neutrality, in the Peronist presidential primary scheduled for Nov. 24, 2002. In exchange, Menem supporters could agree not to field their own provincial gubernatorial candidate to run against Duhalde’s handpicked candidate in Buenos Aires province, the wealthiest and most populous province in the country. These sources also warned that if Duhalde refuses to negotiate then Menem is willing to "go to war" against Duhalde. Either way, the chances of a negotiated truce between Duhalde and Menem are not very good, given that both men hate each other "viscerally," according to sources in Argentina. If the Peronist presidential primaries degenerate into tit-for-tat smear campaigns, protests and strikes, efforts to lock in an aid package from the International Monetary Fund and start renegotiating the federal government’s $142 billion foreign debt could be derailed for nine months or longer. The longer Duhalde’s government delays putting the country’s fiscal and financial house in order, the more likely it becomes that Argentina’s economic crisis will intensify, with potentially violent social implications. Argentina desperately needs financial relief. More than one in four Argentine workers are unemployed, and the number of out-of-work Argentines likely will increase further as the economy continues to shrink during the second half of this year. According to a new forecast by 19 leading Argentine and international economists, polled by London-based Latin American Consensus Forecasts, Argentina’s economy will contract at least 15 percent in 2002, while inflation will top 86 percent. If Menem and Duhalde unleash their political machines against each other in the coming months -- including charges and counter-charges of corruption and graft -- the result could be even deeper economic contraction and higher unemployment, combined with a rise in violent street protests by Peronist supporters loyal to Duhalde, Menem or any of the other four Peronist candidates competing for the party’s presidential nomination.
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DON’T WHINE TO ME, ARGENTINA!Date Added: Sunday, December 31st, 2000Contributed by: RCN Administrator
Truth is, You Never Reformed --
After billions of IMF loans, yet another country promised to swear off socialist hooch and become tea totaling capitalists only to fall off the wagon. This time, it’s a whopping $155 billion to Argentina, South America’s largest economy. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The world economy is down, and we’re fighting a global war against terrorism. What happened to this beacon of South American success? In the old days, Argentina suffered a right-wing dictator with a left-wing economy. After political reform in the early 1980s, the IMF lent billions to encourage the transition from a state-run economy to a market system. Argentina started well, holding real elections and seeing real reform. But somewhere along the way, Argentina backslid into the habit of political spending and popular make-work government jobs (sound familiar?), and enjoyed the high life on borrowed IMF money. Fourteen emergency bailouts later, the transition from flaccid socialism to market capitalism never took place. Now, Argentina suffers from 20% unemployment and 40% poverty rate. Like all socialist economies, Argentina never created wealth. Now, they can’t pay the bill. It’s a classic dependence/enabler syndrome. For dependant Argentina, eighteen years of socialist binging is gonna make one nasty hangover. There will be an inevitable detachment of the peso from the dollar. The low inflation that kept the economy afloat will disappear. Since 80% of Argentinean debt is tied to the dollar, most debts will instantly become 20-30% greater. Banks will be unable to lend money. Businesses will fold, exports will disappear, bankruptcies will explode, and Argentina will teeter on third-world misery. On the other side, the IMF faces the paradox of throwing good money after bad. Is it worth perpetually propping up an addict that refuses to change? Will the world feel a harsh ripple effect if Argentina withdraws from the new world economy? Will Argentina fall into quasi-socialism? Will the IMF lose their shirts now, or lose the wardrobe later? Will other debtors push the envelope? Can they afford to let Argentina fall? All this leads to the ultimate question: is the socialist addiction being fixed or fed by IMF injections? Watching interim president Adolfo Rodrigues Saa reacting to national riots was particularly telling. Free food! Block the imports! Default! A third currency! 100,000 new jobs! More street sweepers, forest service and military! "I will govern for the most humble and for those who suffer". Workers of the World Unite! Then, after ten days of teasing his people with visions of socialist sugarplums, Rodriques Saa quit. He knows doom awaits. Unless someone can explain how babysitting trees will create $155 billion in national wealth, the typical Argentinean fool-on-the-street will get a rude awakening. Without capitalist success, Argentina will crumble into petty factions squabbling over a huge debt. And the IMF will be holding the bag. Meanwhile, the once almost-eliminated communist guerillas have made dramatic comebacks across the entire continent. If the IMF money pot dries up, they will gain more power, and start the old battles once again. Is your head spinning yet? Nevertheless, here are the lessons:
The lesson never changes. Capitalism works. Communism does not. Socialism is really "communism Lite", and if you chug $155 billion from the socialist bottle, drunken dependence soon follows. And socia-holic recovery is tough. It’s toll is measured in misery and lives. If Argentina keeps swigging, the world will soon be stepping over them as they lay retching in the third-world gutter.
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DON’T WHINE TO ME, ARGENTINA!Date Added: Wednesday, December 31st, 1969Contributed by: RCN Administrator
Truth is, you never reformed --
After billions of IMF loans, yet another country promised to swear off socialist hooch and become tea totaling capitalist’s only to fall off the wagon. This time, it’s a whopping $155 billion to Argentina, South America’s largest economy. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The world economy is down, and we’re fighting a global war against terrorism. What happened to this beacon of South American success? In the old days, Argentina suffered a right-wing dictator with a left-wing economy. After political reform in the early 1980s, the IMF lent billions to encourage the transition from a state-run economy to a market system. Argentina started well, holding real elections and seeing real reform. But somewhere along the way, Argentina backslid into the habit of political spending and popular make-work government jobs (sound familiar?), and enjoyed the high life on borrowed IMF money. Fourteen emergency bailouts later, the transition from flaccid socialism to market capitalism never took place. Now, Argentina suffers from 20% unemployment and 40% poverty rate. Like all socialist economies, Argentina never created wealth. Now, they can’t pay the bill. It’s a classic dependence/enabler syndrome. For dependant Argentina, eighteen years of socialist binging is gonna make one nasty hangover. There will be an inevitable detachment of the peso from the dollar. The low inflation that kept the economy afloat will disappear. Since 80% of Argentinean debt is tied to the dollar, most debts will instantly become 20-30% greater. Banks will be unable to lend money. Businesses will fold, exports will disappear, bankruptcies will explode, and Argentina will teeter on third-world misery. On the other side, the IMF faces the paradox of throwing good money after bad. Is it worth perpetually propping up an addict that refuses to change? Will the world feel a harsh ripple effect if Argentina withdraws from the new world economy? Will Argentina fall into quasi-socialism? Will the IMF lose their shirts now, or lose the wardrobe later? Will other debtors push the envelope? Can they afford to let Argentina fall? All this leads to the ultimate question: is the socialist addiction being fixed or fed by IMF injections? Watching interim president Adolfo Rodrigues Saa reacting to national riots was particularly telling. Free food! Block the imports! Default! A third currency! 100,000 new jobs! More street sweepers, forest service and military! "I will govern for the most humble and for those who suffer". Workers of the world, Unite! Then, after ten days of teasing his people with visions of socialist sugarplums, Rodriques Saa quit. He knows doom awaits. Unless someone can explain how babysitting trees will create $155 billion in national wealth, the typical Argentinean fool-on-the-street will get a rude awakening. Without capitalist success, Argentina will crumble into petty factions squabbling over a huge debt. And the IMF will be holding the bag. Meanwhile, the once almost-eliminated communist guerillas have made dramatic comebacks across the entire continent. If the IMF money pot dries up, they will gain more power, and start the old battles once again. Is your head spinning yet? Nevertheless, here are the lessons:
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