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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Venezuela will be expelled from Mercosur

over its human rights record,
Venezuela Removed From Trade Group Over Human-Rights Record. The decision comes as the country’s economy is ravaged by food shortages and runaway inflation

The debate over Venezuela’s role in the trade bloc comes as new conservative, market-friendly governments in South America are at odds with Mr. Maduro’s socialist policies and crackdown on opposition dissenters. Mercosur members Brazil and Argentina led a recent effort to block Venezuela from taking its turn as the trade group’s rotating leader.

Mercosur’s full members are are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname are associate countries.

The handwriting has been on the wall for months. Caracas Chronicles:

Barring an unlikely 180-degree turn by either the four founding countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) or the Bolivarian Republic, MERCOSUR will strip the B.R. of V of any voting rights in the organization (it would still have a voice) over its refusal to adopt the group’s legal framework. And neither side is in a mood to back down.

The Foreign Ministers of Uruguay and Paraguay agreed that unless Venezuela changes its mind, the decision reached by the four other members back in September will go forward.

. . .

The impasse in MERCOSUR is not new: since it was admitted to the bloc back in 2012, Venezuela has been a divisive presence in the organization. The country has refused to accept any responsibilities or adapt its institutional framework in anyway while expecting to reap all the benefits.

At the same time, Caracas has tried to shift the group’s trade-centered  raison d’etre into a more political one. Venezuela got away with it in part thanks to the loyalty of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Dilma Rousseff, but after the election of Mauricio Macri in Argentina and the long impeachment process in Brazil, Mercosur became a deeply lonely place for the Bolivarian republic.

This step is the right thing to do. I don’t expect that Maduro will change his ways; to the contrary.

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Argentina: Did Trump press Macri for a building approval?

Ed Morrissey brought to my attention an article that claims that Donald Trump pressed Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri about a stalled building project,

According to a report in the Argentine paper La Nacion, when President Mauricio Macri called Trump to congratulate him on winning the election, Trump used the opportunity to urge him to clear the way for a stalled office building development.

Talking Points Memo translated the story, which included comments from well-respected local journalist Jorge Lanata.

“Macri called him. This still hasn’t emerged but Trump asked for them to authorize a building he’s constructing in Buenos Aires, it wasn’t just a geopolitical chat,” said Lanata.

Long-time readers of my blog remember that I have posted Lanata’s reports, especially on the Nisman assassination and on the Kirchner money trail.

Since Lanata’s allegation was made during last night’s TV show, I watched the full show on YouTube, here,

Lanata got a lot of mileage out of the story: during his opening monologue (see above), during the cartoon, and during his reporters’ panel. I’ll skip to the panel.

At 54 minutes into the video, Lanata said that his reporter Maxi Montenegro had heard the alleged Macri-Trump conversation. Montenegro, however, not only did not affirm either way, but talked about income tax reform, a totally unrelated subject.

At 1:03 into the video Romina Manguel described the upcoming Trump Tower US$150 million, 35-story office building, in Buenos Aires as “one of Trump’s most important investments”.

She stated that “a long time ago” a group of investors purchased a three-story parking garage in the Nueve de Julio avenue in downtown Buenos Aires. In 2007 those owners could not get a building permit, and YY Development Group, partners with Trump in a Punta Del Este, Uruguay, hotel, approached them with plans to build a Trump Tower at that site. (As you can see from the link, the Punta del Este building is residential, not a hotel.)

According to Manguel, the Buenos Aires Trump office building was granted the necessary permits early this year “before anyone thought Trump would be elected President,” and was scheduled to start construction in July next year, but following Trump’s win, the city legislature said the permits “may need renewing”.

Mangel and the other panelists clarified that in the US it is considered inappropriate for a President-elect to bring up the building approval subject, while it’s not in Argentina.

As much as I respect Lanata’s work, this story strikes me as based on hearsay.

First, there’s no actual evidence of what transpired during the actual conversation.

Second, the main source of the information conveyed to La Nación is Felipe Yaryura, a partner of YY Development Group (the other partner is Moisés Yellati, hence YY).

Yaryura claims to have been “at Trump’s bunker” at the NY Hilton during election night, and asserts that he’s the one who talked Donald Trump into running for POTUS “a little over a year ago.”

The Buenos Aires Trump office building appears to be one of the many licensing arrangements the Trump organization has made over the years.

So, to summarize:
1. Could the subject have come up during the Macri-Trump call?
Yes, it is possible. I just could not find solid evidence either way from the material I could locate as of the writing of this post.

2. Does Yaryura have much to gain by claiming the issue was brought up, and could he see it as a means of pressuring the city legislators into allowing the construction to go ahead as previously approved?
Yes, indeed.

3, Should Trump place his assets into a blind trust and stay away from any of his businesses from now on until the end of his terms(s)?
Absolutely yes.

4. Is Trump “cashing BIGLY in Argentina”?
Not quite,

Late Update 2:32 PM: Both President Macri and President-Elect Trump have denied that they discussed Trump’s building project during their post-election phone conversation.

Later Update: 2:48 PM: We received this statement from the Trump campaign: “Any reports alleging a discussion about personal business interests between President-elect Trump and President Macri are completely untrue. The Argentine President and his office have also refuted these baseless claims.”

Even Later Update 2:53 PM: And now a full statement from the Embassy of Argentina: “That issue was not part of the conversation between president Mauricio Macri and president-elect Donald Trump. The subject both leaders talked about was the institutional relationship, and they briefly mentioned the personal relationship they have had for years”.

UPDATE
Trending on Bad Blue.

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Venezuela: Argentina’s OAS tit-for-tat

As mentioned earlier, OAS chief Luis Almagro called for a meeting to discuss Venezuela’s human rights violations of the Democratic Charter.

Almagro needs at least eighteen votes to sanction Venezuela, which may prove difficult.

Caricom countries are still hopeful they could continue their very profitable Petrocaribe arrangements with Venezuela, as described in this article from Jamaica,

In essence, when the market price of oil exceeds $40 per barrel, the monetary value representing between 30 per cent and 70 per cent of each sale is loaned to the Government of Jamaica. This loan is to be repaid over a period of 25 years at the rate of 1 per cent per annum. Where the market price of oil is below $40, the monetary value representing between 5 per cent and 25 per cent of each sale is available to the Government of Jamaica as a loan for 17 years at 2 per cent. In either case, therefore, Jamaica receives a loan from Venezuela on concessionary terms.

Whether their hopes are realistic remains to be seen, but for now they are siding with Venezuela.

Another hurdle comes from Argentina. Casto Ocando, writing at Vértice (link in Spanish), reports on the internal battle lead by Argentina against the OAS sanctioning Venezuela.

Ocando has the documents,

Venezuela is trying to buy time and calls for “dialogue”; John Kerry, consistent with the Obama administration’s never-ending streak of “smart diplomacy“, supports this call for “dialogue,” and so does Argentina’s ambassador to the OAS, Juan José Arcuri.

Why Argentina?
Diplomatic sources revealed to Ocando that Argentina’s current foreign minister and former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff, Susana Malcorra, has pledged to support to Venezuela at the OAS in exchange for Venezuela’s vote at the UN.

in practical terms this means that Malcorra will block OAS sanctions against the Venezuelan communist regime so she gets to be chief of the United Nations. Great values for a Secretary General at the UN cesspool.

And she has Macri’s backing because it will add to his administration’s “achievements.”

H/t Alek Boyd’s FB feed.

UPDATE
Trending at BadBlue.



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Venezuela: OAS calls meeting on democratic charter

OAS Chief Calls for Meeting to Discuss Maduro’s Rule in Venezuela. Organization of American States’ Almagro criticizes threat to democratic principles

Luis Almagro, Uruguay’s former foreign minister, made the request Monday night for the meeting after submitting to the council a 133-page report on alleged human rights violations and the conflict of powers in Venezuela. The emergency meeting in mid-June, if approved, could eventually lead to Venezuela’s suspension from the hemisphere’s oldest and most important body.

Here’s the text of the Democratic Charter.

Roundup:
A must-read: Et tu, Macri? Why on earth is Argentina trying to block application of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in Venezuela? The tawdry story follows.

OAS Chief Calls for Emergency Meeting to Evaluate Venezuela

OAS head calls for vote on Venezuela’s ‘grave alterations’ to democracy

Venezuela: OAS head calls emergency meeting over crisis

OAS Calls Emergency Meeting on Venezuela’s Undemocratic Rule

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Argentina: Bye-bye Telesur

The Macri administration is ending its 20% stake in Telesur, the propaganda cable network started by Hugo Chavez:
Argentina pulls out of leftist TV network Telesur.The pro-business government said it was shut out of financial and editorial decisions and said the leftist-leaning network blacklisted alternative viewpoints

The country is leaving because it was shut out of financial and editorial decisions, said Argentinian Minister of Communication Hermann Lombardi.

“Argentina was a partner prohibited from sharing our view,” he told radio station Vorterix. “It’s an interesting South American television project, but there was no pluralism at Telesur.”

Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro threw a snit

“The same actors who disappeared 30,000 young people in Argentina are trying to disappear Telesur,” Maduro said of the conservative Argentine government that announced Sunday it would pull its nearly 20 percent stake out of the Spanish-language network.

Maduro, whose government is broke, is now stuck footing a larger share of Telesur expenses.

In other news, Argentina Senate Approves Plan to End Bondholder Dispute. President Mauricio Macri is finding allies in opposition-dominated Congress

The Senate voted 54 to 16 to let Mr. Macri issue $12 billion in bonds and use part of that to pay $4.65 billion to the hedge funds, which had sued Argentina for not paying out on bonds they bought after the country defaulted on its debt 15 years ago.

The vote, the last domestic hurdle Mr. Macri faced in making a deal, allows Argentina to tap global credit markets for the first time since 2001.

Two good news in one day.

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Argentina: The bonds, the visit, the investigation

In the news:

The bonds,
The government and the creditors have a preliminary agreement by which the creditors, led by Paul Singer, would received approximately 75% of the money they are owed, after fifteen years in the courts,

Torino Capital, a New York-based investment bank, said the hedge funds will likely reap between 10 to 15 times what they initially paid for the bonds. That figure, which is based on the assumption that they bought the debt at about 20 cents on the dollar, is in line with other analysts’ estimates. The settlement includes accrued interest and lawyers fees.

A deal also would be a victory for Argentina’s new president, Mauricio Macri, who made settling the dispute among his priorities during the campaign. He wants a deal so Argentina can raise new capital from foreign bond offerings to help stimulate its depressed economy.
. . .
The lengthy battle was possible, because the bonds were sold to investors without collective action clauses, which would have forced minority holders to go along with a settlement if the bulk of the creditors agreed.

The visit,
President Barack Obama and his family will be in Argentina on the 40th anniversary of the last military coup:

The US delegation could be made up of as many as 1,000 people, including business leaders who are expected to announce investments in the country.

I don’t know about the coup, but the timing coincides with the good news on the defaulted bonds.

I hope they stop by La Ideal

The investigation,
As mentioned last week,

federal appeals court prosecutor Ricardo Sáenz said that “the evidence produced so far” showed that Nisman had been the victim of a homicide.

Merv Benson points out,

It is still not clear whether those responsible for his death were tied to Iran or to the Argentine government which opposed his pursuit of the case. Perhaps now with a new government in place there will be a search for justice.

The common thread on the three stories is that the new administration is giving very positive signs of moving away from the years of pernicious Kirchnerism.



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Argentina will pay Italian holdouts

The Beeb reports that Argentina agrees to pay Italian holdout creditors

Argentina has agreed for the first time to pay investors who have been holding out for full repayment of bonds which were defaulted on in 2002.If the deal is approved by the Argentine Congress, the 50,000 Italian investors will receive 150% of the face value of the debt of $900m (£625m).

The deal comes as negotiations restart with hedge funds in a US court.

This is big news in many ways, for instance,

  1. It shows an about-face from the Kirchner era’s policy of stalling in the courts (and a departure from the attitude inspired by Fidel Castro’s call for Latin America to collectively repudiate its foreign debt).
  2. Macri’s intention of returning Argentina to the international capital markets is solid.
  3. The timing.
  4. The payment amount, “The Italians were paid $1.35bn but had been asking for $2.5bn.”

We’ll see how the court proceedings in the U.S. develop.

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Argentina: More drug trafficking allegations UPDATED

Elisa Carrió, a member of president Macri’s party, is accusing Cristina Kirchner’s associate Milagros Salas of creating an illegal drug trafficking network involving Bolivian cocaine, ephedrine and human trafficking.

Sala has been under arrest for eight days and is being investigated for conspiracy to commit a crime. Salas is a member of Tupac Amaru and a friend of Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who is celebrating his tenth year in power.

I could not find any articles in the English-language media, but there are numerous reports in-country, as you can see in the above links.

You may recall allegations from three years ago regarding Cristina Fernandez’s blind-eye policy to drug lords. Argentina allegedly is the #3 port of departure for cocaine destined to Europe.

UPDATE:
Via Silvio Canto, Argentina’s Ambitious New Security Plan shows Real Promise

President Macri thus campaigned strongly on pledges to tackle crime and fight corruption and bring new investment into the ailing economy. He also had an additional strong motivation against crime, as he had been kidnapped in 1991 “and kept captive for 12 days by a gang of corrupt policemen demanding millions in ransom.”

Transnational organized criminals have stealthily and increasingly encroached into the Argentine homeland, engaging in violent battles for control of lucrative criminal turf and illicit contraband supply chains.

Argentina has easily transitioned from having been a transit country for drug trafficking, into a huge consumer country, “controlled by an ever growing nucleus of illicit power brokers and growing corruption of security forces.”

Argentina is now the second largest domestic market for cocaine in Latin America, after Brazil. As well, it has become both a major market and transit point in the world drug trade as international trafficking groups have expanded their activities, from a destination for synthesis to increasing exports, as well as consumption.

Further motivation for Macri’s pledges on crime relate to the shame of Argentina in becoming a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, according to the U.S. State Department.

Read the whole thing.

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