Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, President of Argentina
Why should Americans care what the president of Argentina has to say? For starters, she's an extremely bright leader who almost always has something interesting to say, even if you might disagree with it.
To boot, Argentina has lived through the "disaster capitalism" of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine and come through to the other side, still alive and kicking. As the global titans of finance and the high priests of neoliberalism continue to wreak their havoc both at home and abroad, it might be useful to listen and learn from the experiences of the first national experiment in destroying a country in order to pick the pockets of the corpse.
Like good scouts, we should be prepared. The 2008 financial implosion in the U.S. demonstrated that banksters intend to plunder every penny and peso possible. Now we have the Greek crisis as a warning shot across the bow. We ought to glean any tips we can find and Argentina has a survivor's tale of what it is like to be in the crosshairs of the IMF and international financiers.
Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker had an in-depth interview with Argentina's president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, back in March and now both the video and a transcript have been made public. The magazine's print article is due to be released today.
Cristina and Hillary: Parallel paths in politics and power
Cristina is often compared with our own Hillary. Both women are roughly the same age (Cristina is 6 years younger), both studied and practiced law, both have served as senators in their respective national upper houses, both have been married to presidents of their countries and been First Ladies. Both are readily recognized within their countries by just the first name or by their initials, HRC and CFK.
Both women have worked as partners, rather than adornments, of their political husbands. Unlike many First Ladies, neither one has been interested in merely welcoming Girl Scout troops or holding tea-and-crumpet receptions for congressional wives. They actively advised and consulted with their mates throughout their political careers, forming a team in harness to work for common goals.
Nestor and Cristina Kirchner
Needless to say, both have been lauded as examples for women in leadership as well as demonized as unscrupulous schemers and manipulators.
Unlike Hillary, Cristina can no longer rely on the support or counsel of her husband, Nestor Kirchner. He passed away during her first term as president so she has been flying solo for the majority of her presidency.
Another difference is that Cristina has already achieved what Hillary still strives for: she has twice been elected as president of her nation and now is in the last six months of her eighth and final year of the presidency. Hillary may well be the more famous of these political "sisters" with greater visibility on the world stage, but Cristina scores extra points for actually having led one of the world's great countries.
In this extraordinary interview, nearly 2 hours long, Cristina ranges far and wide, addressing such subjects as the military dictatorship, human rights abuses and retributive justice, global debt and Argentina's prescription for dealing with it, terrorism and the Middle East and the role of the United States, the Argentine economic model, and more. Let's review the highlights and take a few glances at recent Argentine history and the Kirchners below the floritura naranja (orange curlicue).
Cristina speaks Spanish in the interview but English subtitles are included in the video. An English transcript (sometimes paraphrasing rather than translating) can be read on The Bubble. For Spanish speakers, it is an opportunity to hear Argentinian Spanish, a variant quite distinct from that heard in Spain or Mexico.
The first thing you may note is something well known to those of us in Argentina: this is a woman relaxed and confident about holding the reins of power. After decades in politics (1 term as a congressional deputy (representative), 3 terms as senator, 4 years as First Lady and "co-president", and 8 years as president), she clearly feels she has a grasp on how the world works and her place in it. In speeches, she is often blunt and to the point, unhesitant about calling out her opponents or criticizing policies she feels are impeding progress. In this video, she speaks with her trademark candor and is happy to let the chips fall where they may. Whether they agree or disagree with her, many people admire her forthrightness and clarity compared to the usual weaselly words of politicians.
Dictatorship, human rights violations and the quest for justice
In 1976, rightwing military officers seized power in Argentina, overthrowing the democratically elected government, as participants in Operation Condor, a plan to exterminate Communist influences throughout South America. Ultimately, nearly every South American nation collaborated in schemes of political repression, extrajudicial interrogation and executions, and unconstitutional coups d'etat, with the United States complicitly aiding and abetting. Most estimates are that roughly 30,000 Argentines were "disappeared" by their own government: kidnapped, tortured and executed.
Democratic rule was restored in 1983 and, in kindred spirit with our own "forget the past and move on" approach to recent war crimes and financial fraud, the perpetrators were granted immunity from prosecution via legislation. Cristina and Nestor, along with the majority of the citizenry, were appalled that the government of that time pardoned the unrepentant and defiant executioners and torturers.
... the worst part was not that they had escaped, on the contrary: democratic institutions, the Congress, the Executive branch and the Judiciary had passed laws like the Due Obedience and Final Stop that prevented them from being judged. This was also unheard of, and what happened later was also unique in that there was no place in the world where the Parliament would say: “No, if you tortured, forced people to disappear, raped and killed, you did it out of due obedience, OK, it’s all fine with you, you can walk in the streets, sit down to eat, you are free.”
The Kirchners worked to overturn that status and ultimately immunity was revoked and nearly 2000 state agents of terror have been convicted and sentenced or are currently under prosecution. She compares that with other afflicted nations who have had to turn to international or foreign tribunals to try to find some justice for their victims.
... I believe the Argentine model of human rights recognition is unique, and we are very proud, because we are not in the situation of many Spaniards who are still claiming for the Civil War crimes and are still claiming in the jurisdiction of other countries, or other countries where human rights are being violated and people claim for those violations to be judged in other countries. Argentina was able to find a solution by itself, Argentine democracy could work out a settlement for its own tragedy.
Nestor Kirchner and their partnership in marriage and politics
Nestor was president from 2003-2007 and declined reelection so that Cristina could run. Their relationship was complementary and comparable to two American presidential power couples: Bill and Hillary as well as FDR and Eleanor.
Eva (Evita) and Juan Peron
... he listened to me a great deal, and I listened to him, and we argued a lot. But when one was right, it was not because he was the President or was a man, or when I was right it was not because I was a woman or the President. When we argued, we were peers, not husband and wife or president and national senator, because I was a national senator, but as political activists and leaders of a political party.
Of course here in Argentina, that kind of partnership resonates with a large segment of the public who still idolize what is perhaps history's iconic power marriage:
Juan Peron and
Evita.
Economics, global finance and the Argentine model
In 2000-2001, Argentina experienced an economic and financial meltdown, the result of years of accumulating international debt and neo-liberalization demanded by the IMF (in this sense of "liberal", it means liberating capitalism from any regulations or constraints, as well as liberating national resources for private sale).
With the 1976 coup-d’etat, with the dictatorship, Argentina started a period of relentless indebtedness. And well, also of compliance with the IMF policies. And a process of deindustrialization started at the same time.
[Referring to pre-1976] Industrial development was significant, perhaps the highest in Latin America, which had started with Peronism, when we were the country that built the most airplanes, locomotives, cars, etc. in Latin America....In other words, we had a level of industrial development that was gradually lost then, starting with the dictatorship and most intensely during the ’90s, there was a conversion to what happened in most of the world, that is the supremacy of financial capital over industrial or work capital.
The Kirchners wanted to find a way out of the crippling debt morass, some means to put capital to work in a way that would stimulate both production and demand rather than merely service the vampire squid of international banksterism. She quotes Nestor,
“Let us grow so that we can honor the debt, because the dead do not pay their debts.”
Argentina ultimately repudiated its debt in what was the largest sovereign debt default in history. The Kirchners felt that even though it would cause temporary pain there was no other option that would ultimately free the country to ever prosper again.
Cristina sums up how they approached finding a path that would lead Argentina to growth and independence in the future.
Purchasing power to develop a strong domestic market. What we did was to look into the original United States development model. How does the US grow? Well, I believe that it is based on the growth of the domestic market, with strong protection of the local industry and the local agricultural products ... we looked into what the United States did during Roosevelt’s times and how it grew, and well, I believe that is the key. We determined that we needed labor, creating jobs, well paid jobs…
Above, she was referring to our past growth and development as an industrial power, not the current Wall Street focus on investment earnings and exotic financial instruments. She speaks of how international lenders now wish to reap the profits of speculative lending but are unwilling to accept any losses when their risky ventures fail.
...if I put my money in a certain country at 16% and it is the only place that pays 16%, because in the rest of the world I will be paid 2%, and then that country cannot return the money, I have to assume part of the risk. Then he [Nestor] said that the world that encouraged this, the IMF, that took Argentina in the ’90s as an outstanding student, should also take part of the risk and bear responsibility for part of the debt.
She points out that Argentina eventually negotiated with its lenders, much the way it would happen in a corporate bankruptcy proceeding. 92.4% of its creditors agreed to the new terms and the country paid them more, per dollar invested, than the investors received in Enron's bankruptcy. She believes the UN and sovereign governments should create a bankruptcy system for indebted governments to let them properly restructure their debts and move forward.
What does the judge seek in a bankruptcy? To let the business continue, because if business continues, the workers keep their jobs, and the company can recover, can pay its debts, can continue to produce. The mechanism we propose in this new international convention is exactly the same...
Cristina notes that finance has gone from a mere intermediary between capital and production to spinning and multiplying money in new and arcane ways without ever actually being used to produce anything. That has led to destructive levels of income and wealth inequality everywhere and exacerbated problems for first world countries.
What I mean is that these rules end up having an impact everywhere; one of the big problems the US has is illegal immigration that leads to so much discussion and debate between Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, the Tea Party, and others. Let us see, if people could live better in Mexico, or in Colombia, or in all the countries where people want to go to the United States, these problems would not exist. In fact, these financial rules are good for none. Neither for developed nor for non-developed countries.
Geopolitics and Argentina's relations with the U.S. and China
When challenged that her and Nestor's administrations have distanced Argentina from the U.S., Cristina reminds Mr. Filkins that the U.S. is still the second largest investor in Argentina, after Spain, and that "there is a well-oiled commercial exchange between" the two nations. She acknowledges that Argentina has entered into development and commericial agreements with China, who is able to produce infrastructure materials that Argentina no longer has the ability to create due to loss of industrialization in past decades. Cristina believes that is a sensible economic relationship in a changed world.
...in actuality, today, the East-West, Capitalism-Communism division we knew collapsed together with the Berlin Wall. And we are actually in a whole different era.
I don’t believe the Berlin Wall fell because the United States was more powerful militarily, economically, financially, or scientifically. I believe the Berlin Wall fell because those who lived on the communist side wanted to live like the people on the other side. Consuming, with freedom, deciding what to do with their lives and not letting the Government decide for them. That is the great triumph, which I don’t think is currently visible in our world problems. We are in a new age of civilization because people have already decided, at least the world as it is known to us has decided how it wants to live.
So this discussion about whether we want to consume or not, it’s over. That stage came to an end. Now we are in a new world where clashes are ethnic, religious...
Cristina admits that China and Russia are authoritarian in ways that go against Argentinian law and society as well as U.S. traditions. However, she doesn't let us skate by and pretend that we are a paragon of virtue in that respect.
...let us recall the New York Times journalist who was sentenced for mentioning the name of a spy, the wife of an ambassador, or someone from the CIA who was an ambassador, I can’t remember the exact circumstances. I’m sure you do. But a journalist was sent to jail. For example, in my country that would be impossible and unthinkable, fortunately, no journalist can be imprisoned for mentioning that John Doe is a member of the CIA, Mossad, or the Argentine Secret Services. That is why I’m saying that the notion of authoritarianism should be analyzed more clearly, more thoroughly, and taking into account what happens in one’s own country, right?
Iran, bombings and a suspicious death in Buenos Aires, and conspiracy theories
The latter half of the interview deals with a hot topic in Argentina but perhaps not so intriguing to the rest of the world (other than Israel and Ïran, the other parties involved). It could be described as Cristina's #Benghazi!!! if we're still comparing her with Hillary.
Here's a brief recap of the story. In the 1990s, long before either Nestor or Cristina was president, there were fatal bombings of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association. The original investigations were beyond incompetent, if not downright corrupt, and eventually pretty much everybody agreed it was probably Iran behind the deadly acts, even if acting via a proxy group.
Aftermath of the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires
Iranian constitutional law doesn't allow extradition of Iranian citizens and Argentine law doesn't allow prosecution
in absentia. So there was a legal impasse making it impossible to hold anyone to account in a court of law and thus provide some sense of closure or justice to the survivors and the families of the dead.
After kicking this around for more than two decades, Cristina decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran, which would let an Argentine judge (judges here act as investigators in some cases) go to Iran and take testimony and depositions from suspects there. Then Argentina could legally procede with a prosecution, even if a guilty verdict wouldn't actually provide any way to haul the convicted back to Argentina for prison.
Alberto Nisman, an investigative special prosecutor who was working on this matter, was found dead in his apartment in January of this year. There were claims of suicide as well as murder by shady unknown characters. The initial police investigations, like those of the 1990s bombings, were bumbling in a way that only someone who had never seen an episode of CSI could manage to screw up. The theories ranged from Cristina ordering his death to hide some secret dealings with Iran to opponents ordering his death in order to make it look like Cristina was a homicidal nefarious tyrant. Rumors had it that the CIA arranged a hit, or that former president Carlos Menem (the poster child of corrupt cronyism) rid himself of potential prosecution related to the bombing investigations, or that Argentina's secretive intelligence service conspired to frame Cristina, and so much more. In short, things got as crazy here as #Benghazi did in the U.S.
Investigations, both juridical and journalistic, continue and imaginations and rumors run as wild as ever. So in this latter part of the interview, Cristina lays out her ideas and opinions about the whole affair. Read the transcript or watch the video to get her viewpoint on things.
A few concluding remarks
Argentina shocked the world by telling the global financial powers that their game is rigged and that it was taking its ball and going home and they could play by themselves or just fuck themselves, their choice. It paid a huge price for that but it is now its own agent, free to pursue its own course in its own way.
It still has a lot of problems. Corruption? Byzantine bureaucracy? Cronyism? Sure, all of the above. It has a lot of work yet to do. But it may be on to something. Developing its own economy, building up homegrown production and industry, avoiding as many entanglements and "stranglements" of global financiers as possible, all of that sounds like a good thing to me. As the U.S. weaves itself ever more tightly into the fabric of international trading groups, yielding to the will of those who control its wealth, I think Argentina is heading toward a different and better outcome in the century ahead, one that focuses on people and democracy rather than profits and corporatocracy.
Watching this video doesn't make me cry for Argentina; rather it's enough to make me weep for America. This president of a far away country, punished by international markets for the sins and foolishness of her predecessors, has a sharp understanding of other world leaders, of the dynamics of geopolitics, of the economic forces in our modern world, and honed knowledge of the history, politics and cultures of nations of the Americas and other continents.
Now, think of Ted Cruz. Or Scott Walker. Or Donald Trump. Or any of the other buffoons who probably couldn't find South America on a map even if it included labels. How has the most powerful nation in history ended up with ignoramuses vying for its highest position while our smaller, less fortunate neighbors have leaders who are inquisitive, insightful, and informed?
Love her or hate her, Cristina is a smart and educated cookie. If our own political system could churn out candidates as savvy and erudite on both sides of the political aisle, we might be able to have a functional democracy again some day.