“The Good Hombre”
Argentina and the eternal return to stupidity. How a
simple Trump call made many Argentines believe they are safe from chaos
By Charles H.
Slim
It is not the best moment of
Donald Trump and he knows it. So much has fallen into its popularity and
appreciation for the political class in Washington that it is practically an
outcast about to be evicted from the White House. And it is not an
exaggeration. Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clitnon have set in motion the
constitutional impeachment process that will end the megalomaniac dreams of the
eccentric businessman.
All this to give
context to the telephone call made on Friday, November 1, by the US president
to the next Argentinian president Alberto Fernández while some of his advisors
wonder who is that? And it is that for the Argentines who ideologically go
where the wind takes them, this is something magnificent for their luck. The
demonstrations of this hurried uproar were not long in the hands of the same
media and journalists who for four years sheltered the outgoing government. But
as always, Argentines and especially their politicians prove to be two steps
behind international political reality given that once again they have believed
-and especially the adept media- that
this has been an auspicious signal for their country.
The background
of this tare comes from afar. To not extend beyond contemporary history
remember what has happened 40 years to this part. When Argentina in the
Seventies (70´s) claimed before sovereignty over the islands of the South
Atlantic as part of the countries not aligned to the United Nations forum,
Washington played an auspicious intermediary between Buenos Aires and London,
which was actually an imposition in favor of his British cousins.
When Argentina
in April 1982 carried out the "Operation Rosario" that regains
control of the Falkland Islands, Georgias and South Sandwich Islands occupied
by the United Kingdom for 133 years, in addition to not activating the Inter
American Teatry of Reciprocal Assistance IATR and play In an apparent
intermediary in good faith, he provided valuable intelligence and logistics
assistance to the British Royal Navy, which was vital for them to overcome the
beating that the Argentines were giving him.
In 1990 when the
crisis broke out in the Persian Gulf, the pseudo-Peronist government of Carlos
Menem embarked -without having been
summoned- in a war intervention that did not give any benefit to his
country. Worse, Carlos Menem and his cabinet believed that they were
participating in a peace mission requested by the United Nations, something of
which never existed. By the time his government realized it, it was late and
their ships were already entering what a month later would become the most
important War Operations Theater of the end of the century. At that time,
George H. Bush gave Menem high praise for something that the Argentine
president himself and most Argentine politicians believed, as a blank check for
his country.
Today, Argentina
is in an economic crisis that does not yield despite the election of the new
president and his political force, a front of heterogeneous forces that already
shows internal fissures. For many this will represent a setback to times of
anachronistic ideological confrontations since the "Fernández" have
as part of their political assets, strips of resentful sectors and with the
search to deepen the wounds of old times that for the worse, only pursue economic
benefits for them.
On this, one
should not lose sight of the low esteem for this political orientation in
Argentina that exists on Wall Street and the toughest sectors of American
politics. And just as Macri and his people were wrong to believe that Donald Trump
would support his government in exchange for an unconditional obsequency, the
"Fernandez" should not believe that a simple phone call will be a
safe conduit to success. Not at all!
The reasons for
this are several. First of all, it is the same internal situation in the United
States that conditions this. There is a situation in their domestic economy
that despite the implementation of an ultramontane commercial protectionism has
not yet been resolved by the White House.
Second powerful
reason is that Donald Trump is not the United States or who leads to the
political financial establishment that dominates the nation's political
threads. Moreover, Trump himself knows that today his words have the same value
as a toilet paper in a public restroom. I could assure you that he is a
devalued president with one foot inside and one outside the White House in the
face of the possibility of the Democracy-driven Empeachment in Congress.
The third reason
to keep in mind is that Trump at the time had also expressed the same approval
when Mauricio Macri was elected president promising, among other things,
economic aid for Argentina to leave his quagmire. And what the hell happened?
Just nothing, if there was any management of Washington or Donald Trump himself
before the IMF to grant loans that Macri took is something that nobody
remembers.
Argentines have
a severe problem with their memory and it is not precisely because of the lack
of it. The problem is that it is selective and even modify it at ease and
convenience of the moment they face. They forget very quickly their previous
loyalties so as not to blush, to become the most official government of the
day. The Argentines and especially the inhabitants of the province of Buenos
Aires seem not to recognize themselves in their identity, in the knowledge
where they want to go and abandon their wills to ideologically inconsistent
leaders who end up disappointing them.
That moves to
their political castes that today cannot be distinguished ideologically by the
simple fact that they have no ideology. It can be said that it is a country
governed by a single party, that of “Opportunism” something that other
countries warn and it is then that when they should discuss issues of state
with Buenos Aires, they whisper in their ear the hymn of opportunity.
At that time
Macri was for Donald Trump "The Good Man" and all possible praise was
for his Argentine pair, but nothing more. There was even a common story between
the two linked to private businesses that at some point crossed them. For now,
Washington will maintain its movements in the region and within Argentina since
it does not see in the government of the "Fernández", any real danger
of opposition would cause it to reconsider any retraction. But we must comply
with this colloquial procedure. Today things have changed and the flattery are
for the new president-elect who, beyond not being liked by the American
establishment and his supporters in Argentina, will be with those who must
interact from now on. Things of politics; "These are matters of interest,
not friendship."