STRATEGICALLY GIFTED
Why is Argentina a
country without a destiny of its own?
By Sidney Hey
If the capitals in some
way reflect the general situation in their countries, when you arrive in Buenos
Aires there is no doubt that you can sense a situation that could be seen in
Central America in the late seventies and mid-eighties, when political and
economic instability was mixed with guerrilla violence. It is true, there does
not seem to be such political violence here, although insecurity due to the
absence of authoritative leadership and lack of direction and the penetration
of drug trafficking seems to be looming large.
What has happened to
Argentina? The collapse of its economy can be felt in the streets. The capital
city is less than a reflection of its former self. Walking through the streets
of the Retiro neighbourhood, the closed businesses, the squalor of the
settlements in front of its bus terminal and the rampant crime that lurks
around Plaza San Martin and the English Clock, paints a sepia-coloured picture.
There I understood why
many businessmen and commercial representatives from other countries were
arriving, which I happened to spot when I arrived at
Ezeiza after my little holiday with mates in “Horbat”. It's not that I
think it's wrong or that I have the moral high ground for this criticism, it's
just that it looked like a flock of vultures circling a dying prey; when I saw
the situation with my own eyes I understood why.
All this reflects a
political weakness that (and let no one doubt it) will be exploited by
speculators and the local financial sectors and those who are coming to the
country to buy everything for a handful of dollars. I think Argentines have
already seen this and it was not so long ago. Those who are over forty years
old know this very well. The so-called “Menemist” era of the 1990s,
characterised by the hasty and indiscriminate opening up to foreign capital,
making Argentines believe that privatisation was the panacea to solve all
problems, was a demonstration of what should not be repeated.
But this is a country
of stark political contrasts and of course they are not spontaneous. Here one
day there is a nationalist movement and the next day its referents have become
as liberal as the Lib Dems of London themselves and all depending on where the
money comes from. The same is true of their geopolitical positioning.
What we will certainly
not find here are British socialist liberals such as Jeremy Corbin or Irish
politicians such as former Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, who are honouring
intellectual honesty even against the most dangerous interests. On the
contrary, in Argentina, those who call themselves liberals and democrats
support aberrations such as Israeli apartheid and Washington's unjustifiable
hegemonist policies, and it is these same people who have been encouraging
Israel to be taken as a model to imitate.
The ideological
contradiction was in moving from an elephantine welfare state in the middle of
the last century that had been created by Peronism itself to a failed attempt
to shrink that state by handing over important strategic sectors to foreign
hands. Certainly, the Americans, British and Germans can be very grateful to
the Peronist Carlos Menem, because thanks to his privatisation bungling,
seconded by the economy minister Domingo Cavallo, they pocketed hundreds of
millions of dollars in just a couple of years without making risky, let alone
lasting, investments.
On that occasion Argentina
did not change its geopolitical weight at all and continued to decline.
Peronism masked in new
rags returned alternately in 2003 and 2019, but the problems not only remain
the same, but have worsened. The myth that “Peronists know how to manage real
power” is now seen to have been just that, a myth. Your president is not a
genetic Peronist (even if he claims to be one), although he is not the only one
of his kind. Those who claim to be pure Peronist leaders are not pure Peronists
either, as they should be almost a hundred years old, and what is least
convenient for a country in crisis is a gerontocracy of corrupt first-timers.
It is safe to say that
what is called “Peronism” is an empty cardboard box. What can you find inside
an empty box? Some direct their Peronist hopes to the one they call “boss”, Mrs
Cristina Fernández, but in the prospect of social reality, her followers are
much less than some pollsters report. Looking at it from a bird's eye view you
can only see a motley crew of “superstars” or “divas” more concerned with the
attention they seek to arouse in others than with addressing the severe
problems afflicting their country. Such is the degree of atomisation and
ideological mutations in this (dissociated) society that it would be very difficult
to make a study of anthropogeography. If I were asked for an opinion, I would
say that they have no future as an option to be considered.
I do not agree with those
who say that several of its exponents, especially the “PRO” of former president
Macri and some candidates of progressive radicalism are the “bishops” of some
embassies in Buenos Aires, mainly from the USA, Great Britain and in some cases
Israel. Indistinctly those who represent the "libertarians" and even
the old-smelling classical liberals are intertwined, or better said, threaded
with the same thread. There is no doubt that all of them -to different
degrees and nuances- have an affinity with each of these foreign actors,
but to believe that the governments of these countries designate them as their
political agents to operate within the country is a little more difficult to
believe. This does not mean that Washington in particular is concerned about
the power vacuum that is emerging, especially when the Brazilian government of
Lula Da Silva has given clear signs of its geopolitical positioning in favour
of the BRICS, and this translates into China and Russia.
Argentina's is just
like door frame. Current reality shows an institutional weakness that should
not surprise us since the state's foundations are so corroded by decades of
degradation that they resemble a necrotic state.
Geopolitically,
Argentina is an invisible entity, it is like a big hole in the Southern Cone
and today, in several foreign capitals, they are planning to take its place, to
inject it with financial funds that in appearance will revive the republic; but
it will not be for free. As I was leaving this wonderful country for my
quarters on the great island of “Oz”, I said to myself in the form of a
question: “See you forever?”