Argentina-Venezuela tango and entanglements

President Barack Obama came to his administration announcing that the world has changed, but President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina has not apparently noticed. The day that President Obama was inaugurated in Washington D.C., Kirchner was making an official visit to Cuba where she met with President Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel Castro – dictator ex officio. The meeting of the leader of the Cuban Revolution was heralded by the Argentine government as a great achievement, even though for the rest of the world it was an irrelevant event that served to isolate Argentina even more on the world scene.

Cristina Kirchner went on to Venezuela, where she was received with great pomp and circumstance by President Hugo Chávez. The two national leaders re-established there a strategic relationship that had been strained by financial dealings on the part of Chavez in mid-2008.

Confidence in Argentina’s financial policies was buffeted when in August 2008, Argentine issued more than $1 billion to the Venezuelan government at the usurious rate of 15 percent. The Chávez administration immediately resold the bonds to Venezuelan banks and investors who then dumped the paper on the international market at discounted rates.

But all that is now in the past. So as to dispel any lingering misgivings in the bilateral relationship, Chávez gave a guarantee to Kirchner that his country would soon compensate the Italo-Argentine industrial group, Techint, for assets that his government nationalized earlier in 2008 that belonged to Argentine multi-national Techint.

With this trip, Cristina Kirchner shows that she remains on the erratic path in foreign affairs that was blazed by her husband and former president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007). She insists on appearing to join with the so-called “Bolivarian axis” formed by Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia, thereby giving proof that her behaviour on the international stage – as it is at home – stems from an ideological basis. This is in contrast to the position taken by Mexico and Brasil, the two great powers of Latin American which have adopted a pragmatic approach towards their domestic and foreign affairs.

“The meeting with Castro makes it clear that Cristina Kirchner’s foreign policy has not taken into account new facts about the world’s situation nor the changes in public opinion in Argentina. She continues to act as though we are still in 2005,” said Rosendo Fraga – the director of New Majority Study Center. “At that moment, a rapprochement with Castro would have been an advantage, but not now,” he said.

The motive is simple: George W. Bush has a 4 percent positive rating among Argentines, while Obama has 48 percent. Besides, Fidel and Chávez are no longer viewed as positively as in years ago, according to New Majority. “With Bush, getting close to the United States exacted a negative domestic cost. Getting close to Obama today, however, is much more positive that hanging on to Fidel,” said Fraga.

While in Cuba, Cristina Kirchner did not meet with Hilda Molina – a physician and dissident leader who asked for permission to leave the island 15 years ago to join her family in Argentina. Despite the justification offered by Argentina that “no president meets with dissidents while on an official visit,” Kirchner’s refusal does not jibe with her posture as a woman who always speaks out in defense of human rights.

Shortly after Kirchner’s trip to Cuba and Venezuela, Foreign Minister Florencio Randazzo met with U.S. Ambassador Earl Wayne. Both affirmed that an Obama presidency awakens the possibility of improved bilateral relations. Indeed, the ties between Argentina and the United States were strained in August 2007 when the Venezuelan-American businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson arrived in Buenos Aires with $790,500 in his valise. On the private jet that brought him to Argentina were also high-level executives of PDVSA – the Venezuelan state petroleum firm – and Argentine government officials.

Since then, the FBI has arrested three Venezuelans and a Uruguayan in Florida and accused them of serving as agents of the Venezuelan government and for pressuring Antonini to finance Cristina Kirchner’s presidential campaign. She has vigorously denied the accusations and remonstrated the U.S. for allegedly conducting a campaign against her. The Argentine congress expressed profound repudiation of what it termed “insult to the Argentine nation” and its president by the United States.

While the investigation of “Valise-gate” continues, the signs of rapprochement shown by the U.S. ambassador and the Argentine foreign minister are the first steps on the long road Argentina must take in order to reassert itself beyond its shores.

Eduardo Szklarz is based in Argentina and writes for The Cutting Edge News.