Latin America
Related: About this forumWhat Obama Should Know About Macri’s Argentina.
Last edited Thu Mar 24, 2016, 10:07 AM - Edit history (1)
During his trip to Argentina this week, President Obama is unlikely to visit Milagro Sala. A prominent social activist in the northwestern province of Jujuy, Ms. Sala was arrested in January at the behest of Gov. Gerardo Morales, a political ally of the countrys new president, Mauricio Macri.
There has been international outrage over her detention; Pope Francis, the United Nations and Amnesty International have expressed concern. Not the White House: When announcing Mr. Obamas visit, it thanked Mr. Macri for his contributions to the defense of human rights in the region.
President Obamas historic trip to Cuba has all the pageantry of a farewell to the Cold War in Latin America. His visit to Havana will serve as a symbolic climax in the normalization of American relations with Cubas Communist government. But his excursion to Argentina has a very different resonance.
Shortly before President Obamas arrival in Buenos Aires, his administration announced the declassification of United States government documents relating to Argentinas 1976-83 military dictatorship. Yet the visit is not about the current state of human rights, but about free trade and hemispheric security. An acknowledgment of the malign role the U.S. played in the early years of the dictatorship is welcome, if overdue. But to ignore the red flags on human rights raised by the recent actions of Argentinas new ruling party is a worrying reminder of that legacy. For Mr. Macri, Mr. Obamas visit is already an endorsement.
The arrest of Ms. Sala illustrates the Argentine governments new hard-line approach. Her organization played an important role in providing for socially excluded groups offering them housing, jobs and education. Ms. Sala was detained for leading a protest of cooperative workers, the unemployed and indigenous people in one of the countrys poorest provinces. Later, she was accused of embezzling public funds. That judicial investigation must run its course; but due process demands that she should not be imprisoned in the meantime.
This arbitrary detention comes amid a rash of measures taken by the Macri administration that have weakened the rule of law on the pretext of security, economic freedom and the war on drugs. In January, within weeks of taking office, Mr. Macri declared an emergency that allowed military forces to shoot down unidentified planes suspected of drug trafficking. In effect, the president had decreed a de facto death penalty without trial. It is counter to the core principles of Argentinas post-dictatorship reforms that prohibit military intervention in domestic security.
Soon after President Macris inauguration, the highest court in the capital, Buenos Aires, ruled that police officers could demand identification from citizens there without probable cause, a ruling that gives a green light to harassment based on prejudice. In an equally troubling move, the federal government recently unveiled a new protocol for policing protests that gives the authorities more power to put down and criminalize demonstrations; this in a country where people value the right of free assembly and often take to the streets to fight for their rights.
Argentinas economic and political meltdown in 2001 conclusively demonstrated that the free market approach of the 1990s had not made life better for ordinary people. Yet, Mr. Macri and his team are reviving failed policies of the past. With commodity prices in decline, they want to attract foreign investment by cutting their way to competitiveness: reducing public spending and shrinking government.
Despite campaign vows to strengthen democratic institutions, Macri is governing in the other direction. In December, he tried to appoint two new Supreme Court justices by fiat, bypassing Senate approval. Facing an outcry, the president backpedaled and sent the nominations to the Senate. In another highhanded move, Mr. Macri used executive orders to alter a cornerstone of media law that had amplified freedom of expression by bolstering anti-monopoly regulations. Such a presidential intervention would be appalling in any circumstances; but in the context of Argentinas political polarization and other repressive measures is cause for alarm.
The risk of militarizing public order, the weakening of institutional restraints on executive power, the criminalization of protest, and a fixation on promoting free-market orthodoxies are echoes of Latin American dictatorships from the 1970s and 80s - many supported by the United States. President Jimmy Carter did try to curb the continents repressive forces. But President Obama should not now endorse state violence and ideological bigotry as acceptable side effects of the United States larger goals of promoting free markets and security cooperation.
A presidential visit to Argentina that neglects to notice how Mr. Macris government is undermining human rights and democratic institutions and instead pours empty praise on his policies will rightly be read as a return to the bad old days.
At: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/opinion/what-obama-should-know-about-macris-argentina.html?_r=0
Judi Lynn
(160,219 posts)This is tremendous: we're not accustomed to seeing truly quality, honest material from the Times since George W Bush, of course!
Three cheers! Thank you.
forest444
(5,902 posts)In all seriousness, Gastón Chillier has really been making a name for himself for his good eye and quick wit. He's not a leftist or rightist, I don't think, he simply knows how to cut through the dogma and deal in realities.
I'm glad you liked it Judi. I thought of you when I ran into it a few minutes back.
Hope the Obamas are having a great time!