Argentinian man views the daily newspapers in La Cumbre. Photo: flickr user Adam Jones, phD.

The Kirchner era in Argentina has been characterized by mixed signals. First there was Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoić, little-known as governor of Santa Cruz until he vaulted into the Argentine presidency in 2003. In a country that endured military coups, an economic collapse and a lack of confidence in institutions, the fact that he completed his term of office in 2007 – unlike others before him – was an accomplishment.

He was succeeded by his wife, Cristina Elizabet Fernández de Kirchner, in December of 2007. Both Kirchners have faced rising criticism since then, along with defections and demands that she resign or be stripped of the office before her four-year term ends.

The confusion about the Kirchners is trying to figure out what they are up to and what they stand for. They are members of the Justice Party, successors to Juan Domingo Perón , the dictatorial leader who governed on and off in the 1940s and 1950s with a reprise in 1973.

They have staunchly supported human rights and accountability for crimes during the military dictatorship after Peron’s death. But they have also been accused of arrogance, of an unwillingness to consider opposing views and of railroading their policies into law without debate.

Now President Cristina Kirchner (with Nestor just off stage) has promulgated a new national media law. Supporters say that it ends the practice of media monopolies and democratizes the news media; detractors say that it is an attack on freedom of the press.

One thing for certain—the Kirchners have no love lost for the news media. By happenstance, I, along with several colleagues at the Washington Post conducted the first interview with Nestor Kirchner after he took office in 2003. After that, I fielded calls from reporters in Buenos Aires asking for my impressions, since they hadn’t had the chance to talk to him.

All I could say was that he had spoken passionately about bringing justice to the country after the Dirty War, in which 20,000 to 30,000 people were killed by the right-wing military.

I was in Argentina during Cristina’s non-campaign for election in 2007 – she gallivanted around South America and beyond, with photo appearances in Brazil, Europe and the United States, while avoiding interviews and the campaign trail at home. All along, the polls had showed her way ahead and her handlers probably didn’t want to ruin a good thing by campaigning.

So there are reasons to suspect the context in which the new media law takes effect.

Eduardo Bertoni, an Argentine attorney and prominent advocate of press freedoms, says that the law has its merits. The previous law “suffered from illegitimacy from the outset – it was a law created during the military dictatorship,” he said. Bertoni is director of the Center on Freedom of Expression Studies at the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires. He also served at the Organization of American States as the special rapporteur for freedom of expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

But he also understands the concerns of critics, who say that the government could have given itself too much power in deciding which media companies are allowed to grow, and how they operate. He says the
government “could do much to take any suspicion of bad faith off the table,” if it were to promote open debate about the measure.

So the question is: will the Kirchners use the law to promote democracy, or will they use their power to punish their critics?

- Peter Eisner

SOUTH KOREA: The non-profit body that oversees Internet addresses approved on Friday the use of non-Latin scripts like Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and Arabic in Internet domain names at the conclusion of a week-long meeting in South Korea’s Seoul. The regulatory body ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) says the decision is “the biggest change” to how the Internet works since its invention 40 years ago.

South Korea says it will deploy troops to Afghanistan to protect the country’s civilian aid workers.

CHINA: A U.S. Navy admiral expressed concern over China’s rapid military build-up and urged Beijing to be more transparent about its intentions. Rear Admiral Kevin Donegan told reporters on a visit to Hong Kong that with China’s military growing at an “unprecedented rate,” the U.S. wants to know how China will deploy its new power.

SOMALIA: In what is being hailed as a first, debit cards were introduced this week to Somalia. Customers will be able to use their cards at hotels, stores, ATM’s and other businesses that accept them.

UGANDA: A bomb attack was foiled on Friday in Uganda’s capital Kampala. The bomb was discovered wrapped up in newspaper by a security guard. Earlier in the week, a Somali militant group, Al-Shabaab threatened to attack Uganda’s capital.

NIGERIA/SUDAN: On Thursday in Nigeria the African Union backed the proposal for the establishment of a hybrid court to try crimes committed in Darfur.

UN: Al Arabiya is reporting that the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that his organization is vulnerable to more attacks in Afghanistan.

ISRAEL: The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell,  is back in the Middle East two days ahead of the arrival of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Al Jazeera English is reporting on the U.S. quest to persuade Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restart the Middle East peace negotiations.

IRAN: The New York Times is reporting that Iran will reject a draft proposal by the U.N. watchdog agency on its nuclear program, despite encouraging words by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless called the proposed agreement a “positive first step.” 

IRAQ: Middle East Online news site reports that U.S. Major General John D. Johnson is warning of more attacks like the deadly bombings in Baghdad last week ahead of the January election.

PAKISTAN: Pakistani forces continue their offensive in South Waziristan. Aaj TV is reporting that the Pakistani army is closing in on a major Taliban base and has killed 14 insurgents over the last 24 hours.

Valijagate threatens to embroil at least one South American leader. Photo: Flickr user quecomunismo

There’s a story in Argentina that has become widely known under a simple title: La Valija (the suitcase). It should be destined to become that country’s version of Watergate. “Valijagate” refers to the discovery in August 2007 that Guido Antonini, a Venezuelan-born American, was carrying a suitcase containing $800,000 in U.S. currency when he arrived on a private plane at the Buenos Aires city airport, Aeroparque Jorge Newberry.

A new book, Los Secretos de la Valija (The Secrets of the Suitcase), is just out in Argentina, written by an Argentine colleague, Hugo Alconada, a journalist with La Nacion and the newspaper’s former Washington correspondent. (Full disclosure: Hugo is a friend, and he mentions me in the acknowledgments of the book, but I didn’t work on the investigation itself).

Alconada’s story percolates with intrigue and new revelations about the suitcase and Antonini, who ultimately said in a Miami trial that he was carrying the loot on behalf of a top Argentine official and that the money was from the Venezuelan oil monopoly, PDVSA.

But that came only after he wore a wire and became a cooperating witness with the U.S. Government. In resulting tapes, Venezuelan handlers promised him protection for claiming the suitcase was his, and not revealing that the suitcase was sent to the presidential campaign of the now-president of Argentina, Christina Kirchner.

Argentinian officials have denied involvement and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has charged Antonini was employed by the Bush administration in a campaign to malign his government.

Alconada’s book, so far only in Spanish, deserves publication in English in the United States. His extensive investigation reveals:

• The plane carrying Antonini and the suitcase that was transporting much more than the $800,000 — a total of $5 million.

• Despite government denials, Antonini went to the Argentina presidential palace, the Casa Rosada, after the money was seized at the airport. Moreover, the book details a plan in which Argentine and Venezuelan officials coordinated a cover-up of the case.

• It also notes that Antonini had a history of working for Chavez. He helped organize trips to 24 countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and Pacific islands in a 2006 vanity campaign by the Chavez government to promote Venezuela’s appointment to a temporary slot on the UN Security Council.

There’s an interesting sidelight to the cloak and dagger story. A funny thing happened earlier this month as Alconada answered questions at a bookstore to promote his story. At some point, possibly when a questioner approached him as a distraction, his briefcase, which contained notes about three of his current investigations, disappeared.

A similar black briefcase was left in its place.

Alconada doesn’t get it and jumps to no conclusions. “My newspaper wrote a small piece about it, and it became a big deal. I don’t know how to explain what happened.”

- Peter Eisner

It was the Argentine military dictatorship’s organized terror campaign to seize young people, old people, their children, teachers, unionists, students — anyone on the their dread list of names — in the guise of fighting communism.

Some were lucky enough to escape, but suffered the loss of children, mothers, fathers, brothers, grandparents, grandchildren and friends. The wounds never heal.

Argentinians have been increasingly engaged in chronicling those years of atrocities. Stories that relive the past appear almost daily. A recent example is in the Buenos Aires Herald, which describes a new book about its former editor, Robert Cox, and his courageous efforts to publish the truth about the official terror policy of the military dictatorship.

The book, Dirty Secrets, Dirty War, was written by Cox’s son, David Cox. Robert Cox was a lonely voice during the dictatorship: One of the few journalists who dared to tell the story, before he was forced to flee Argentina, facing death threats.

The book is the latest effort by writers and others who feel compelled to chronicle those days. Commemorating 30 years since the Dirty War, there are new films, lectures and plays about that period, all with the aim of never forgetting the crimes, or the victims.

I’ve just come across one poignant example of the remembrance program, first produced two years ago by photojournalist, Gustavo Germano.

Germano produced a series of side-by-side photographs entitled Ausencias, “Absences.”  In each paired set, we see people at the beach,  in snapshots or family portraits — alongside the same scene years later missing those who were snatched from life. The result is ghostly and harrowing; profound.

In one paired set, the first photo is labeled 1975: Clara Altelman de Fink stands at a dining table looking over the shoulder of her son, Claudio Marcelo Fink. In 2006, the mother stands in the exact same place, hand on empty chair, looking at the camera. Claudio is not there.

In another, brothers Omar Dario Amestoy and Mario Alfredo Amestoy are charging down a grassy hill, filled with youth and vigor. Thirty one years later, we see Mario Alfredo running down the same hill alone.

A portion of Gustavo Germano’s photo series as seen on his Web site.

In a third, a young man, Orlando Rene Mendez, and a woman, Leticia Margarita Oliva, are at Happy Turtle Beach in Concordia, Entre Rios. In 2006, the beach is empty.

We absorb the anguish, the years and the injustice with hardly a word.

Germano’s exhibit was accompanied with a preface written by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina’s most renowned journalists.

More than criminal trials, or journalistic investigations, or philosophical essays, art accounts for the emptiness that unexplained absence provokes….The photos  of Gustavo Germano….evoke that deep trauma of contemporary Argentine identity, and introduce us to the mystery of time with the mute violence of a frozen gesture.

- Peter Eisner

Lucia Newman of Al Jazeera English reports from Buenos Aires on the uproar that Iran’s appointment of a potential terror suspect is creating in Argentina.

The site in Buenos Aires where a car bomb killed 85 people in 1994.

Today, Iran’s parliament came out in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nominee for defense minister, Ahmad Vahidi, who is wanted by Interpol for his suspected role in the 1984 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.  According to the Iranian news agency FARS,  an Iranian lawmaker who planned to speak against the nomimation offered his support instead, along with a denunciation of Israel.

Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner blogged about the issue recently.  Check back this week for Peter’s new updates on the story.

On July 18, 1994, a car bomb killed 85 people and wounded 300 others at the Jewish Community Center in downtown Buenos Aires. The Argentine government and many international intelligence agencies have long contended that Iranian and Hezbollah agents were responsible for the attack as part of a series of retaliations on predominant Jewish targets.

But the claim of Iranian responsibility has often been mixed with political attempts by successive U.S. presidents to cast Iran as a sponsor of international terrorism. And Argentina’s former president, Nestor Kirchner, once told me he thought his country’s original investigation of the attack was faulty.

The government of his successor and wife, President Cristina Kirchner, continues to pursue the Iranian case. More than 15 years after the bombing, the political ramifications are still seething.

This week, the Iranian government rejected criticism from Argentina when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad designated a man blamed for involvement in the attack as his new defense minister. The new appointee, Ahmad Vahidi, is wanted by Interpol for his alleged involvement in the Jewish community center attack.

Argentina said Vahidi played a major role and has sought his capture since 2007. The Argentine government, according to the Buenos Aires newspaper Clarin, expressed “its ‘most energetic condemnation’ of the decision of Ahmadinejad to propose Avhidi as minister of defense of his government, and declared that it represented and ‘affront’ to Argentine justice and the victims of the attack.”

Iran denies any involvement in the attack on the center, which is known by its Spanish acronym as AMIA.

“We recommend that, instead of playing a blame game and propaganda, try to identify real culprits of the terrorist attack that based on the documents and evidences available in Argentina, the main terror agents can be identified,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqav.

There is substantial information, according to U.S., Argentinian and Israel intelligence agencies, that links Hezbollah and Iran to the AMIA bombing. It took place at a time in which other attacks were carried out on predominantly Jewish targets in third countries, including the bombing of a Panamanian plane, and an attack on the Israeli Embassy in London.

Despite circumstantial evidence, an extensive report last year in The Nation concluded that the charges against Iran were part of a Bush administration frame-up to isolate Iran diplomatically. The magazine, for example, quoted Clinton administration-era diplomats posted in Buenos Aires as saying the evidence against Iran for the AMIA bombing was “flimsy.”

The Nation reported:

James Cheek, Clinton’s Ambassador to Argentina at the time of the bombing [said] “To my knowledge, there was never any real evidence [of Iranian responsibility]. They never came up with anything.” The hottest lead in the case, he recalled, was an Iranian defector named Manoucher Moatamer, who “supposedly had all this information.” But Moatamer turned out to be only a dissatisfied low-ranking official without the knowledge of government decision-making that he had claimed. “We finally decided that he wasn’t credible,” Cheek recalled. Ron Goddard, then deputy chief of the US Mission in Buenos Aires, confirmed Cheek’s account. He recalled that investigators found nothing linking Iran to the bombing. “The whole Iran thing seemed kind of flimsy,” Goddard said.

If those former officials are right, and while Argentina and Iran continue their charges and denials, it appears unlikely we’ll know the real culprits in the horrible AMIA attack anytime soon, if ever.

– Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user crylov under a Creative Commons license.

This map, courtesy of the CIA World Factbook, uses the “Sea of Japan” label, but Koreans demand it be called the “East Sea.”

Geographical names — the names of cities, countries and oceans — can kill.

You don’t think so? Try referring to the archipelago of 778 islands 300 miles off the coast of southern South America as the Falkland Islands, and an Argentinian may think you’re picking a fight. Their name for the British-controlled islands, for which they claim sovereignty, is Islas Malvinas. Britain and Argentina fought a war over the islands in 1982, and 907 people died.

A hapless Iranian journalist with the Associated Press in Tehran during the days of the shah received visits from the Iranian secret police, and was threatened with jail and worse every time the news agency described the portion of the Indian Ocean between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula as “The Arabian Sea.”

“Please, please,” the poor Iranian reporter begged editors at AP in New York on a crackly telephone line. “Don’t call it that; call it the Persian Gulf.”

I’m reminded of all this by a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post (page A15, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009), in which a vaguely-named organization calls on journalists to use the name “East Sea” for the portion of the Pacific Ocean between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese Islands. The ad noted that the newspaper had used the geographical term “Sea of Japan” in a news story on July 5.

I suspect strongly that the Web site is linked to the South Korean government’s effort to change the recognized name of that body of water to East Sea. Some organizations, such as National Geographic, have been convinced to use both names together — publishing maps and gazetteers that read “Sea of Japan (East Sea).” That is somewhat appeasing to South Korean tastes.

South Korea has been lobbying for years that the body of water be officially renamed worldwide. The case hearkens back to Japan’s occupation of Korea in the 20th Century. South Korea (and North Korea is generally in agreement, in this case) argues that Korea was controlled by a colonial Japanese government when it accepted the world-recognized designation of Sea of Japan in 1929.

Japan argues that “Sea of Japan” predates the Korean occupation and denies influencing its international use.

The dispute has been considered without resolution by a commission on standardizing names at the United Nations.

What is remarkable to me is the fervor with which South Korea has dedicated efforts — and a considerable amount of money — to change the name. Diplomats, university professors and statesmen have been sent around the world to visit governments, news media and others simply to get them to change the name in their official usage.

I don’t have any advice for the Washington Post, my former employer, where I was once the editor in charge of Asian news, and where I once received an earnest and convincing delegation of South Koreans who wanted to discuss the issue. Days later, I also received a visit from the Japanese embassy, where officials apparently had gotten wind of the lobbying effort.

But wouldn’t there would be a lack of incentive to make a quick decision on changing the name? The latest advertisement must have added well-needed revenue to Washington Post coffers somewhere in the range of $40,000-60,000. Using the “wrong name” more than once could add up to real money.

P.S. I even suspect that a South Korean tracking program spotted the use of “East Sea” and “Sea of Japan” in this blog item. While it sounds like good money, WorldDesk doesn’t run advertising, doesn’t accept funding from government organizations and seeks to be balanced at all times. We’ll go with both names, right down the middle, for free.

- Peter Eisner

A butcher in Argentina.

Rule of thumb: When a government official has to make a statement to the news media that “there is no crisis,” the translation usually is — there’s a crisis.

That sounds like where we are right now with the Argentine beef industry, where it appears that the proud country of the pampas may eventually have to start importing meat.

La Nacion in Buenos Aires, quoting the Argentine Farm Federation, says that cattle supplies are at their lowest in 45 years. “Argentina is on the verge of importing meat to cover internal demand and would lose as much as $1.5 billion in export income” as a result.

As for the government, the response is: Not true at all.

Agriculture Secretary Carlos Cheppi denied the claims by the Farm Federation and other organizations.”There is no crisis…it is a big lie.”

But it feels like a crisis in the nation that consumes more beef and is probably more proud of its carnivorous pursuits than any country on earth.

Say what you will about meat-eaters — for an Argentine, it’s downright embarrassing. It would be like Britain losing the Colonies, GM going bankrupt, or [the old] AT&T being sold to a French communications company.

It’s tough to swallow for Argentinians, whose 41 million people eat about 143 lbs per capita of beef every year, 50 percent more than the second biggest beef-eaters in the world — that would be people in the United States.

But it’s more than just the numbers. Argentinians are proud of their beef, its quality and its availability across social classes. Until recently at least, it was possible to go into a basic downtown diner in Buenos Aires and have an overstuffed steak sandwich, fries, salad and wine for very few dollars.

Now prices are going up, on beef and across the board, and the blame is falling on the increasingly unpopular president, Cristina Kirchner, and her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner.

“Six economy ministers in six years, what more can we expect,” headlines a story in the newspaper La Nacion, written by Roberto Cachanosky. “The Argentine economy is paralyzed, the fiscal situation is critical, unemployment is growing, poverty is increasing, inflation shot up right after [June parlimentary] elections and the struggle for the distribution of income is on the verge of falling apart.”

Argentinians know no depths of pessimism about their economic woes, and distrust of their leaders. But this seems like a new low, said Cachanosky.

“There are things you don’t have to see to know they exist,” he wrote. “For example, I’ve never seen an atom, but I know the atom exists. In the case of the economy, there are things that you don’t have to see to know how they’re going to turn out.”

- Peter Eisner

For more, watch the Worldfocus signature story “Farmers, drought and taxes cripple Argentina” and listen to our online radio show on Argentina’s farming crisis.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user diametrik under a Creative Commons license.

Lines to vote in Argentina, with masks to protect against H1N1.

I once asked a doctor how to avoid catching a cold. He said to wash my hands and keep three feet away from everyone. Problem is — that’s no fun. Matters of politics, human relations and cultural mores operate at closer quarters.

Argentina is in the grip of what seems to be a full-blown swine flu epidemic, call it what you will — H1N1 or influenza A. The country’s health minister has announced 44 deaths as a result of the epidemic.

All the heightened awareness has been publicized in the week after President Cristina Kirchner and her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, saw their governing Peronist Party lose badly in national elections, deemed a referendum on the Kirchners’ hold to power.

Some people wondered whether the elections should have been delayed as the flu epidemic started taking hold. The Buenos Aires newspaper, La Nacion, reports that the government cited 1,587 flu cases days before the Sunday elections, and may have been undercounting.

Suddenly, this week the count of infections is running much higher — perhaps as many as 100,000 cases so far. All along, one theory was that the Kirchners, facing low polling numbers, were trying to rush the election no matter what before their popularity got even worse.

Just after the election results, the health minister resigned. Her replacement, Dr. Juan Manzur, announced a series of measures to keep down the number of flu infections.

School trips were delayed, federal and state courts sessions were in recess, and sports and cultural events are postponed around Buenos Aires and the provinces. People have taken to wearing masks, pregnant women and the infirm can take time off from work and people with symptoms are encouraged to stay out of crowds. And officials say the national drink, yerba mate, may be a healthy choice — but avoid sharing and passing it around as is usually done, in ornate gourds with silver straws.

The economic fallout has been significant. Newspapers report fewer shoppers on the streets, restaurants are less crowded and tourists, particularly those from Brazil, are staying away.

The only good word about the worldwide flu epidemic is that pharmaceutical manufacturers are preparing supplies of vaccines that should be ready in two months. Until then, vote by absentee ballot and stay three feet away from everyone — or, at least, postpone any thoughts of visiting your soulmate in Argentina until the disease runs its course a bit.

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user blmurch under a Creative Commons license.

Voters headed to the polls in Argentina.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner suffered a setback in congressional elections on Sunday, with her Peronist party losing control of both houses.

She and her husband — former President Nestor Kirchner, who lost a bid for a congressional seat — have dominated Argentina’s political landscape for years. But a sagging economy and ongoing battles with farmers over export taxes have taken their toll on Kirchner’s approval rating.

For more, listen to our online radio show on Argentina’s farming crisis.

Oliver Balch is a freelance journalist based in Argentina. He writes at the “Frontline Club” about the implications of the election results.

Kirchners On the Ropes

I waited and waited and waited last night for Argentine strong-man Nestor Kirchner to speak. Just after midnight, I joined the general flow of people towards the door. All was quiet at campaign HQ. That boded ill for the country’s ruling party. Things, obviously, had not gone well at the mid-term polls.

The scene couldn’t have been more different from two years ago. In the same conference hall in the same Buenos Aires hotel, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (Nestor’s wife) had waved to the cameras and blown kisses to the millions who had voted for her.

The popularity of Argentina’s first elected female president (known simply by her first name, ‘Cristina’) has plummeted since that triumphant night in 2007. A protracted conflict with the country’s all-powerful rural bloc last year cost her dearly. She’s never really bounced back.

Yesterday’s mid-term was her chance to turn that around and breath new life into the “K Model” of politics. It didn’t happen that way. A centre-right coalition headed by dissident Peronist Francisco de Narvaez and backed by the business tycoon Mauricio Macri (former chairman of Boca Juniors) pipped the Kirchners to the post.

Analysts are busily assessing what the result means. One thing is clear. This is good for Argentine democracy. Congress has become an increasingly lame dog under the Kirchner reign, which began with Nestor’s election in 2003. Both enjoyed a parliamentary majority in the Lower House. Now that’s gone.

Logic would suppose that they will need to tone down their centrist presidential style and seek to rebuild alliances in Congress. But logic and politics are uneasy bedfellows, especially in Argentina. The new deputies elected yesterday won’t sit until December (the midterms were brought forward from October to July 28). A deluge of policies could feasibly be pushed through between now and then.

The worst case scenario would be that the Kirchners refuse to take the parliamentary route. With strong support among the ‘social classes’, as Argentina’s disenfranchised are called here, they could seek to rule through the street. It would be the first time. Argentine political activists like nothing better than a march or strike. The electorate might have shown a disgruntlement with the Kirchners, but the unions remain behind them. It’s amazing how much trouble transport workers can make if they decide to down tools (or, worse, block roads).

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user blmurch under a Creative Commons license.

The debate over agricultural policy in Argentina could pave the way for political transformation.

The country was once the world’s biggest exporter of beef and was known as the “bread basket” of South America. But Argentina may be forced to import beef next year, and many of the country’s farmers blame government restrictions on exports.

In recent months, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has refused to lower hefty export taxes despite continued protests. She and her supporters may struggle to retain power in this month’s Congressional elections, with an approval rating of roughly 30 percent.

Read Worldfocus blogger Peter Eisner’s commentary: Argentina’s president faces uphill battle as economy tightens.

Tensions have been exacerbated by the looming economic crisis and a severe drought, the worst in some 70 years, which has devastated crops.

Watch the Worldfocus signature story “Farmers, drought and taxes cripple Argentina.”

Some farmers are now planning to run for election, hoping to leverage public support and pave the way for a new congressional majority that could lower taxes.

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the state of Argentina’s farms and what the future holds for the country’s economy and leadership.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests.

Cristian Harris is an assistant professor at North Georgia College and State University. His research focuses on the impact of international trade on the formation of domestic political divisions, as well as trade policy and development in Argentina and Latin America.

Marcelo Regunaga is a former secretary of agriculture for Argentina and the vice chairman of the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council. Now a professor, Marcelo has consulted for several organizations, such as the United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.

Marie Trigona is a Buenos-Aires based writer, radio producer and filmmaker who reports on labor struggles, social movements and human rights in Latin America. She formerly worked for the Buenos Aires Herald and now contributes to Free Speech Radio News and other independent news sources.

Associated photo courtesy of Flickr user Alicia Nijdam under a Creative Commons license.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Ben Piven

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Listen to our online radio show on Argentina’s farming crisis.

For a snapshot of how the U.S. economy affects everyone, have a look at the travels and travails of the president of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

And for a confounding case of a great country where democracy never quite gets its act together, have a look at Argentina as well.

Kirchner is midway through her four-year term of office, but questions are being raised about whether she can make it to the end of 2011. The problem involves both style and substance.

The president faces considerable criticism for the flailing Argentine economy. She’s been criticized for measures that expanded state control and for provoking anger by imposing trade tariffs on farm goods. Her style of governing is often characterized as arrogant — the same charge often faced by her husband, Nestor Kirchner, who preceded her as president.

This week, Kirchner was attending a meeting of the International Labor Organization in Geneva, where she and other leaders railed at international financial organizations that provoked the world credit crunch and recession. The results have been strange, to say the least. She said:

My government has just provided credit to General Motors so it wouldn’t shut down. If someone had told me that as president I was going to give a loan to an American multinational car manufacturer, which had just been nationalized by an African American president of the United States, it would have sounded insane.

Mi gobierno acaba de dar un crédito a General Motors para que no cierre sus puertas. Si alguien me hubiese dicho que como presidenta iba a dar un préstamo a una multinacional automotriz americana, que acababa de ser estatizada por un presidente afroamericano de los Estados Unidos, me hubiera parecido un delirio.

Argentina holds congressional elections on June 28, moved up from later in the year by the president and her party in hopes of shoring up waning support. It may not be enough. Clarin, Argentina’s leading newspaper, raised the possibility that Kirchner might be forced to resign or hold early presidential elections if the congressional losses are great.

Unfortunately, that would not be a shocking precedent. Argentinians are proud of 25 years of democracy after the departure of a cruel, murderous military dictatorship. But few of the country’s presidents in recent years have surrendered the blue and white presidential sash at the constitutional end of their terms. One of the few is Kirchner’s husband, Nestor, who served from 2003 to 2007. He is now blaming the news media — especially the leading daily, Clarin — charging they were stirring up rumors and trouble about his wife’s tenure in office.

Clarin reported on Kirchner’s criticism of its own reporting, saying the ex-president “accused Clarin of ‘inventing, lying, manipulating information and threatening the social peace and institutional stability of the nation.’ ”

- Peter Eisner

Also, watch the Worldfocus signature story “Farmers, drought and taxes cripple Argentina.”

President Alan Garcia of Peru. Peru’s GDP expanded by 9.8 percent last year — faster than China’s — but has slowed significantly.

The Latin American economy is expected to contract 1.5 percent this year as countries face losses from declining exports, tourism and remittances.

But while Iceland was called “the first political casualty of the global credit crisis” after its prime minister resigned, blogger Thiago de Aragão writes that in most Latin American countries, people seem to separate politics from their pocketbooks.

Thiago is the Latin American senior research associate at the Foreign Policy Center in London and he writes at Latin American Politican Analysis.

Latin America: Politics and Economics divided

Politically speaking, the impact of the international economic crisis is expected to be extremely relative in Latin America. Contrary to what happens elsewhere in the world, here political and economic issues are easily sifted apart. [...]

There are odd situations, such as Peru. Here, in spite of the economy’s best performance ever (which may change or plunge because of the crisis), president Alan Garcia faces one of the worst cases of popularity evaluation across the whole region. In Peru we now witness an overt cleavage between economy and politics that hadn’t been seen in Latin America for a while. The thriving economy has taken the Peruvians to unprecedented wealth levels, yet their president isn’t seem as someone capable of inspiring political and institutional stability.

In Brazil things are somewhat different. Both low-income and low-middle-class populations are now entirely catered for by the country’s economy. Since these ranks of Brazil’s population have subscribed to the notion that “politicians are all the same, they all cheat”, there is nothing to be worried about if the economy is in good shape. It isn’t that president Lula’s administration isn’t a reasonable one, but significant political advancements that are yet to be made (the political, tax and labor reforms) hardly affect the vast majority of the country’s population. This vast majority of people is quite content only to be able to plan ahead the purchase of, say, a household appliance in the beginning of the year, knowing exactly how many installments they will have to pay by December.

The Brazilian upper classes are the ones that care about political issues, specially those that affect them directly, i.e. the battles for the end of the CPMF, lower excise tax for cars etc. Issues such as education, health and crime rate are lost in the political limbo. The upper classes in Brazil can afford private schools, health insurance and safe neighborhoods. Because the low-income population is living their best economic moment ever, coupled to the fact that they lack political organization to demand improvements in such critical areas, things more or less are kept going by way of compromise.

Colombia, however, is a clear example of both political and economic advancement. The country’s economy is growing steadily, foreign direct investments increase year by year, industry leaders are constantly attracted by the country’s infra-structure modernization programs. Furthermore, there has been tremendous advancement in regard to Colombia’s worst political nightmare: the FARC. Nowhere has a government managed to reap good economic and political fruits and appraisals because of good seeds sown. However, it is important to acknowledge the mounting risk that this success can be adversely affected if the Colombian president attempts at running for a third term in office.

Except for countries drowning in social issues, such as Bolivia, in Latin America economic issues have an overriding role as far as a country’s stability is concerned. In Brazil, economic issues go hand in hand with everything else for the low-income population. Because for this part of the population, “if economy is right, then everything else is right, too.” In Peru we witness a dissension in opinion, in that “economy is well regardless of the president”, whereas Colombia as a whole, or at large, in any case, including the upper classes, perceives that both economy and politics are going very well.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Presidencia de la República del Ecuador under a Creative Commons license.

Cristina Fernández, the president of Argentina.

Latin American leaders like Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and Argentina’s Cristina Fernández — both the first elected female presidents of their countries — have been heralded as examples of gender equality in politics and inspirations to women worldwide. But other Latin American countries retain cultural stereotypes about gender and few women hold office.

Kristen  Sample is senior programme officer at International IDEA and writes at “OpenDemocracy” exploring how different electoral systems have resulted in such varying levels of power for Latin American women.

No hay mujeres: Latin America women and gender equality

Thirty years after the start of the third wave of democracy in Latin America,  the region’s policy-makers and civil society have the “final frontier” of this historic process in sight: to ensure that democracy works for all citizens in equal measure, regardless of gender.

In Latin America there has in recent years been an increase in both the number and percentage of women in politics - embodied by the rise to power of two female presidents, Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Cristina Fernández in Argentina. Their election has, in turn, generated a renewed debate on the state of women in politics today in the region. The reality, perhaps surprising, is that the progress of women in assuming elected office in Latin America varies considerably: between and even within countries, nationally and sub-nationally.

[...]The choice of electoral system has an enormous impact - perhaps more than any other single factor - on the number of women elected to public office.

Chart detailing the percentage of women representatives in elected office in Latin America. Chart: OpenDemocracy

For instance, one basic ground-rule: “list” systems - in which electors select from lists of candidates - are far better at facilitating the election of women (and minority-groups) than first-past-the-post system systems (as found in the United States, Britain and Canada) as they encourage parties to develop comparatively more balanced candidate lists. When a party has to bet on one candidate for a legislative seat - as in the case of a first-past-the-post system - the slot generally goes to a man. When the party presents a list of candidates to represent a legislative district, however, it is more apt to balance the list by assigning selected slots to women. That’s why of the ten countries with the highest percentage of women legislators, nine have some variation of the list system.

Two specific examples demonstrate the importance of the design of the electoral system to more balanced representation:

Why does Argentina have 40% women legislators, while neighbouring Brazil has only 8%? Both countries have list systems with gender-quotas, but they’re only effective in Argentina where parties run “closed” lists and are required to alternate men and women in “electable” positions higher up the list. Brazil, on the other hand, allows parties to present a number of candidates equivalent to as much as 150% of the number of seats being contested and there is no sanction for non-compliance with the quota. Additionally, Brazil’s candidate-centred “open” list-system makes success more dependent on access to campaign funding, an area in which women face greater disadvantages.

Why do women account for nearly one in three legislators in Peru, but only one in thirty mayors? There are at least two reasons for this. First, representatives in collective bodies (legislatures, town councils) in Peru are elected from “list positions” while executives  (president, departmental president and mayor) are chosen from a first-past-the-post system. Second, a 30% quota applies to the legislature and local councils, but not to mayors or other executive positions.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ¡Que comunismo! under a Creative Commons license.

A poster in Argentina urges citizens not to hoard money.

Argentina is facing problems keeping enough small coins in circulation, and the shortage causes problems for citizens trying to do everything from riding the bus to laundry.

Benjamin Gedan is a Fulbright research scholar living in Montevideo and studying the Uruguayan media. He writes at his blog, “Small State,” about how the change shortage has impacted daily life in Argentina.

In a land without coins, drama in every transaction

I didn’t cause this crisis, but I sure didn’t help fix it.

Packing up my Montevideo apartment last week, I noticed that I’d accumulated a handful of Argentine monedas (coins). At least four one-peso coins, and that’s not counting the one I held onto for a few months this winter before giving it as a welcome gift to my friend Pedro, an Argentine expat who was visiting relatives in Buenos Aires.

Normally, a few local coins might seem like a harmless souvenir. But among the many shortcomings of the Argentine government, it turns out, is an inability to keep enough coins in circulation, helping to slow an economy already careening toward another financial crisis. The sheer bizarre hilarity of what Slate magazine has called “the world’s most annoying economic crisis” is subjecting the Kirchner administration to a stream of ridicule unusual even for an Argentine leader.

“Each daily transaction from shopping at the supermarket to riding a bus involves careful planning, literally down to the last cent,” Time magazine wrote in November. Small shops give candy instead of change. Big supermarkets round off the difference in their favor.

The cause of the coin crisis is not clear, or, as Slate put it, “no one can say what’s causing this absurd situation.” Some blame a “black market of hoarders” who sell coins in bulk to retailers, according to Time. That sounds plausible to me; among the coin-sellers operating in Buenos Aires are businesses owned by the same bus companies that refuse to accept bills, tokens or electronic fare cards from riders. Others, however, blame the Argentine government for not minting enough coins to meet demand and for failing to crack down on the illegal sale of metal currency.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user remi de nimega under a Creative Commons license.

A policeman watches an anti-Israel protest in London.

The fighting in Gaza has sent thousands of protesters into streets around the world.

In the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, children joined marchers waving flags and banners on Wednesday supporting the Palestinians in Gaza. In Lebanon, a crowd in Beirut cheered calls to back Hamas and to be ready for more Israeli attacks on Arab countries.

Hundreds of Palestinians in Argentina marched to the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires demanding that Israel withdraw from Gaza, while in Turkey, protesters gathered outside a basketball game scheduled between an Israeli and a Turkish team — forcing riot police to protect the Israeli team members as they fled before the game could be played.

A blogger at “My Random Compulsion” writes from Nablus, a town in the West Bank, about marching in protests there.

Blogger “Yohay” writes about an anti-war demonstration in Tel Aviv and posts pictures.

Blogger “Rayyan” describes anti-Israel demonstrations in London, which marched across the city to the Israeli embassy. Another blogger, ”Sunny” of The Guardian’s “Comment is Free” blog, writes that he attended the same demonstration but was troubled by the religious overtones and other aspects of the march.

Anti-Israel protests in Paris turned violent, and the “ParisDailyPhoto” blog posts images of the resulting damage.

The “Islam in Europe” blog provides an overview of protests across Europe, including some in Germany, Finland and Greece.

In Iraq, a mass rally against the Israeli offensive turned deadly when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the protest.

Blogger “Pamela” writes that a pro-Israel rally in New York City drew wide support.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Joe Cross under a Creative Commons license.

People march at a gay rights parade in Buenos Aires.

Argentina was the first Latin American country to honor homosexual civil unions and has long been a popular destination for gay tourists — who represent a fifth of visitors to the country and spend an average of $250 a day in addition to hotel costs. Gay tourism has proven a boon to the country’s economy.

Benjamin Gedan is a Fulbright research scholar living in Montevideo and studying the Uruguayan media. He writes at his blog, “Small State,” about the thriving gay tourism industry in Argentina and Uruguay’s efforts to attract gay travelers.

Gay tourism leaves Buenos Aires awash in ‘pink dollars,’ Montevideo hoping for a piece

Serving up empanadas last Sunday in Montevideo so my visiting in-laws could meet some of my Uruguayan pals, my wife’s parents got more of an introduction to Uruguay than I had planned. I don’t recall how it came up, but a friend from Melo told a fascinating tale about gay life in her remote, rural hometown (Melo is near the border with Brazil, a good 390 kilometers, or 242 miles, from Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo). It turns out, we learned, Melo has a surprisingly active gay community and plenty of opportunities for discreet experimentation among supposedly straight, and occasionally married, locals. The Comunidad de Homosexuales de Cerro Largo has even asked that the city be proclaimed the “Capital Gay del Mercosur,” La República has reported. But according to guest-blogger Todd Martinez (see photo below), a Fulbright researcher in Montevideo, the rest of Uruguay has a long way to go if it wants to compete for gay tourists:

This month, the Economist reported on the importance of the “pink dollar” (gay tourism) to Argentina’s thriving tourist industry. They aren’t the first to notice: a year ago, The New York Times published a similar piece highlighting the opening of the Axel Hotel, a posh “heterofriendly” hotel in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires. In 2008, Buenos Aires was named “Best International City” by the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association thanks to its nightlife and progressive climate (same-sex unions were legalized in 2002). An estimated one in five tourists to the city is gay, and considering gay tourists spend $250 a day in addition to lodging, far more than their straight counterparts, it’s safe to say that Buenos Aires’ bet on the pink dollar is paying off.

So it’s no wonder that neighboring Uruguay also wants a piece of the action. Tourism is one of Uruguay’s most important industries, and for luring the pink dollar, Uruguay seems to have some key elements in place: progressive politics (gay common law unions were legalized in 2007); beautiful beaches; a fantastic price-to-quality ratio; and the same Mediterranean gene pool that gives Argentina its reputation as a country of supermodels. But “gay tourism” hasn’t spilled over into Uruguay for a number of reasons.

First of all, Montevideo’s gay venues don’t hold a candle to the gay megadiscos, cafes and spas of Buenos Aires, and a large portion of gay Uruguayans seem disinclined to patronize the few venues that do exist.

Also, while they come from the same stock as Argentines, Uruguayans lack the seductive panache that makes Argentine men and women that country’s greatest tourist attraction.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user alitow under a Creative Commons license.

From Kenya to Argentina, from Egypt to India, world citizens speak out about U.S. foreign policy, culture and infrastructure.

Below, see the final piece of the series. In it, David Marash travels to the Czech Republic to sample Czech opinion of the U.S. — somewhat boosted by American tourists but soured by U.S. foreign policy.

Correspondent Edie Magnus and producer Bryan Myers travel to two neighborhoods — La Boca and Palermo — to sample Argentinians’ thoughts on media, infrastructure, healthcare and justice systems in their country and in America.

High prices have created a public outcry — from tortilla riots in Mexico to protests over grain prices in parts of Africa.

Last year, more than 25,000 Indian farmers committed suicide.

In Iran, food prices climbed 50 percent in September alone.

Pakistan is stockpiling wheat and its military guards the flour mills.

And, Malaysia forbids people from taking sugar, flour or cooking oil out of the country.

Worldfocus producers traveled to Argentina, India, Kenya and Ukraine and reported on the causes and effects of rising food prices.