Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Argentina: Pence visits. Cristina comes in second

Vice-president Mike Pence arrived in Buenos Aires last night, after visiting Colombia. His next stops are Santiago, Chile, and Panama City, Panama.

While in Colombia,

Colombia is one of the United States’ closest allies in the Western Hemisphere, yet, as he stood next to Pence, Santos denounced Trump’s threat of military action, and told the visiting vice president that such a possibility “shouldn’t even be considered” and would be “unacceptable.”

To which,

Mr. Pence replied that the U.S. was confident that peaceful solutions could be found, and that Mr. Trump’s remarks on Friday had merely reflected his resolve to address the situation.

Mr. Pence arrived in Buenos Aires the day after the primary:

The nationwide primary, where voters cast a single ballot for their choice among a raft of candidates from each party, determines which parties are eligible to run for midterm congressional elections in October, providing an indication of voter preference ahead of the midterms.

With more than 97% of votes counted early Monday, Mr. Macri’s Let’s Change coalition beat opponents in half of Argentina’s provinces, dealing a setback to former President Cristina Kirchner’s plans for a political comeback.

Cristina came in second, but 

Although Kirchner lost Sunday’s vote, she can still win a seat in October. In Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, the party of the first-place finisher wins two seats and the second-place finisher gets one.

This may be unlikely; Macri’s Cambiemos coalition beat opponents in half of Argentina’s provinces,

not only in Buenos Aires but also in Argentina’s four other most-populated provinces, including Cordoba, Mendoza and Santa Fe. They also won in San Luis, which has for decades been dominated by the Peronist Saa family.

Markets reacted favorably,

Argentina’s peso rallied 3.2% Monday morning, its best gain of the year. Its stock market, the MERVAL, gained 3.6% after opening, one of its best rallies of the year.

Pence arrived at the right time.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Argentina: Cristina runs for Senate

Anything to get immunity:

Cristina Kirchner Files Candidacy Papers for Argentina’s Senate. Senate race would be seen as a referendum on ex-president’s populist legacy and her successor’s market-friendly policies

Former President Cristina Kirchner filed papers on Saturday to run for Argentina’s Senate, launching a campaign that could, if elected, give her congressional immunity from federal prosecution for alleged money laundering and racketeering during her presidency.

About those three separate federal cases that she’s already been indicted,

In one case, a judge ruled that Mrs. Kirchner ran a criminal “gang” aimed at profiting from the illegal disbursal of government funds for infrastructure projects. In another case, she was indicted over accusations she ordered Argentina’s central bank to illegally trade derivatives, costing the country about $5.5 billion.

But wait! There’s more:

If Mrs. Kirchner wins in October, she would be eligible to run for the presidency again in 2019, when Mr. Macri finishes his first four-year term.

One can only hope there are not enough stupid people to vote for her. She only needs 25% or so to get a Senate seat, according to the above article.

UPDATE
Trending at Bad Blue.

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Argentina: #Nisman was murdered

Alberto Nisman was found dead from a shot in the head in his Buenos Aires apartment on January 18, 2015.

His death has now been declared a murder:

Nisman was found dead one day before he was due to present a complaint to the Argentine Congress accusing leading politicians, including former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, of colluding with Tehran to cover up Iranian culpability for the atrocity. A team of investigators appointed by the Kirchner government concluded — following a controversial investigation that was heavily criticized by Nisman’s family — that the special prosecutor committed suicide using a gun supplied to him by Diego Lagomarsino, a computer specialist employed by Nisman.

But a new report from the Gendarmeria, a federal security force, will put the suicide theory to bed once and for all and show that Nisman was murdered, according to Argentine news outlets. The report’s publication is expected within the next thirty days, the Clarin newspaper said.

Eamonn MacDonagh asserts that this is a major development; long-time readers of this blog know that the case was being investigated as a suicide.

Much as Nisman himself experienced when he began investigating the accusations that President Kirchner had engaged in a cover-up of Iran and its Hezbollah proxy’s responsibility for the AMIA bombing, [prosecutor Eduardo] Taiano has also received threats and warnings not to pursue his inquiries. One text message he received in December last year told him to “stop f__g about with that son of a b__ Jew,” a reference to Nisman, and added, “your days are numbered.”

The complaint Nisman had been due to announce would have implicated Kirchner, former Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and other officials in negotiating a secret pact with the Iranians to absolve Tehran of the AMIA bombing. Nisman’s tenacious investigation — including a log of more than 4,000 monitored phone calls — strongly suggested that in doing so, Kirchner and her colleagues were trying to cover their tracks.

The article points out that “MacDonagh cautioned that numerous “legal roadblocks” could still be placed in front of the Nisman investigation.”

On her part, Cristina Kirchner announced that she’s willing to run for senator. It’s not clear whether, if elected, the post would grant her immunity from prosecution on any charges related to the Nisman murder case itself, or from charges arising from Nisman’s investigations.

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Pope Francis is against populists, after he was for them

Pope Francis’s socialist slip continues to show,
On the ‘Invasion’ of ‘Libertarianism,’ Pope Francis’ Ignorance Is Showing. Stephanie Slade writes,

My main critique, which I published here at Reason on the eve of his 2015 visit to the United States, was that the pontiff’s ignorance of basic economics has led him to a bad conclusion about which public policies are best able to reduce the crushing yoke of poverty in the world. I went on to encourage him to consider that, as a matter of empirical fact, markets are the single greatest engine for growth and enrichment that humanity has yet stumbled upon.

Francis believes that “the libertarian individual denies the value of the common good,” and that populism is “the fruit of an egotism that hems people in and prevents them from overcoming and ‘looking beyond’ their own narrow vision.”

Odd words from the guy who entertained in the Vatican iconic left-wing populist Cristina Fernández de Kirchner five times during her tenure as populist president of Argentina.

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Argentina: Cristina charged with money laundering . . . for the 4th time


Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, along with her children, has been charged with money laundering. When the news popped up last week, I thought it was an old news item.

It is, and it isn’t: This is the fourth time she’s been charged with money laundering.

DW has the story:
Argentina ex-President Cristina Kirchner charged with money laundering

Argentina ex-President Cristina Kirchner has been criminally charged for the fourth time, and her passport has been confiscated. The latest charges stem from alleged money laundering in real estate ventures.

I guess she won’t be dropping by the Seychelles any time soon now that they took her passport (link in Spanish). DW continues,

Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner was formally charged with money laundering and running a criminal association related to real estate dealings, the country’s Judicial Information Service said on Tuesday.

Kirchner, who served as president from 2007 to 2015, already faces trial in a separate case for alleged financial mismanagement in office.

It is the fourth set of criminal charges to beset the former president. Judge Claudio Bonadío said Kirchner was criminally responsible for being part of an illicit association, which she headed, and involved in laundering assets of illicit origin. The charges were aggravated by the fact that Kirchner was a government official and was involved in negotiations incompatible with her position as president, the judge said.

A family affair

Also charged were Kirchner’s two children, Florencia and Maximo, who is currently a member of congress. Businessmen Cristobal Lopez and Lazaro Baez were also prosecuted as head of a company set up by the Kirchners which owned several hotels in Santa Cruz province.

The latest investigation turned up fourteen houses she “never declared” to the anti-corruption or the tax authorities. (How does one manage that, I wonder?)

In addition to the money laundering cases, let’s not forget that Cristina has pending charges for allegedly ordering Argentina’s central bank to illegally trade derivatives, which cost the country $5.5 billion.

$5.50 says she doesn’t serve time.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Argentina: Cristina indicted, again

on corruption charges related to Austral Construcciones, owned by Lázaro Báez involving contracts from 2003-2015.

Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner Indicted in Corruption Case. Indictment is connected to infrastructure projects awarded to company owned by a close associate

On Tuesday, Judge Ercolini said many of the road projects in Santa Cruz were awarded to construction company Austral Construcciones. The company is owned by businessman Lázaro Báez, with whom the Kirchners had long-standing business ties dating back to when Mr. Kirchner was governor of Santa Cruz in the 1990s.

The judge, who ordered about $640 million in Mrs. Kirchner’s assets be frozen, wrote in the document that the former president had played a chief role in a scheme to divert state resources to Austral.

The document said Mrs. Kirchner and her husband created the institutional setup for the corruption ring to succeed and passed decrees that allowed funds to be directed and controlled so that they reached Mr. Báez through the awarding of public-road works.

The NYT reports,

The charges focus on 52 projects in the southern province of Santa Cruz, where Néstor Kirchner was governor for more than a decade until he became president of Argentina in 2003.

Cristina was also indicted this year on charges that she ordered the country’s central bank to illegally trade derivatives, costing the country about $5.5 billion. She’s under investigation in several other cases.

Related:

Lázaro Báez busted.

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Argentina: Cristina compares herself to Lula

Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner showed up in court to make a statement during her corruption trial.

After piling in on Macri and calling his government “a terrorist organization”,

She also compared her case to that of former Brazilian president Lula da Silva, who is accused of corruption in connection with the state oil firm Petrobras.

Oh dear.

Cristina used the opportunity for an “improvised” rally,

Carlos Cué of Spain’s El País refers to Cristina in the above article as charismatic, even when he realizes that

Kirchner’s supporters admit footage of her former public works boss stashing away $9m has hurt her

Oh, that,

The former president has been called to testify in a kickbacks-for-contracts case in her home province of Santa Cruz, in the south of the country. A judge is investigating allegations she handed lucrative contracts to Lázaro Báez, an imprisoned property developer with close ties to both Fernández de Kirchner and her husband, former President Néstor Kirchner.

Báez is set to appear in court, as is the former head of her Public Works Ministry, José Lopez, who was caught on film in June placing bags containing nearly $9 million inside a convent on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Indeed, you may recall that last June  Cristina tweeted,

“Somebody gave Lopez the money he was carrying. And it was not me. Nor was it any of the thousands of militants who make up this space.”

All the same, as the BBC reminds us,

In June, a former minister in her government, Jose Lopez, was caught throwing bags filled with almost $9m over the walls of a monastery, and was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.

In July, Ms Fernandez’s assets were frozen by a judge in Buenos Aries in connection with the currency transaction allegations.

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