Cristina Kirchner and the crowning of clumsiness

Anyone willing to retrace the path of Cristina’s government controversial initiatives developed since their arrival to power in 2007 will, surely, have enough material to analyze. Nevertheless, it is difficult not to agree that the ruling subsystem has helped public opinion to easily certify that Argentina has definitely moved out the way observed by Western civilization. Just small fragments of capitalism still survive in the country, only available for a wealthy class ready to pay the exorbitant price of, for example, real state designed to ABC1 consumers or trips abroad making use of their own savings (since only the wealthiest members of society can afford to buy foreign currency at the blue dollar exchange rate). A vast majority of population is currently immersed in the undesirable routine of struggling to survive: kirchnerism in Cristina’s interpretation has rounded up a perfect task, standardizing 'downwards'. 'Poverty for all' could perfectly be the slogan drafted in Ernesto Laclau’s scrapbook and which President Cristina Fernández Wilhelm de Kirchner insists on implementing. Except for, of course, the upper class and its most loyal representative: a leading cluster which has never heard of hardship or the true price increase at supermarkets. Thus, Argentines have become the unhappy members of a huge zoo where every experiment is legal and plausible of application.

Only one thing was missing for a nation that slowly but surely comes closer and closer to a proto-capitalist scheme: to provide the essential consistency input of its foreign affairs. And the last ten years have only served its planned corruption: to the de facto society with Castrochavist Venezuela (involving, of course, satellites of dubious status like Bolivia, Nicaragua or Ecuador), a gemstone-hungry ¨cristinism¨ endorsed the circumstantial and undesirable friendship of Angolan José Eduardo Dos Santos’ dictatorship. A notorious tour including a crammed with distrust visit to Azerbaijan starred by Guillermo Moreno and a small group of fellow entrepreneurs from the shadows of trademark counterfeiting. With the illustrious visitor unprovided with information about the fact that the oil business in those lands has long been closed between the local Civil Service and certain western powers, the pathetic entourage rounded off as another waste of funds to the detriment of the National Treasury. Hence, silence concerning the former Soviet republic official management and its results.

The epitome of a bizarre modus operandi coven represented by Argentina’s International Relations and Minister of Foreign Affairs Héctor Timerman´s perfect embodiment is, however, yet to be seen. This consisted of -as expected- setting the impunity agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which the same voices paraphrasing 'inflation' as 'growth stress' have named 'The Truth Commission'. In her latest column at Clarín (in Spanish, http://www.clarin.com/politica/justicia-peligroso-tener-razon_0_86751330 ...), the intellectual Susana Viau swiftly and emphatically summarized the reason why AMIA case has never been investigated with a shred of order and method. The fauna that appears to have come out from the Inferno of Dante Alighieri himself -nourished by the most execrable human beings emerged from the Argentine intelligence services, the local Jewish community, the Courts and the political leadership- was precisely in charge of investigating the elusive truth. It turned out, eventually, that even the highest dignitaries from the Semitic community and several victims’ relatives (hypothetically, the original victims) ended up involved in juicy business opportunities that the situation implied.

However, if it is a question of being generous with regard to the Republic´s risks arising from Tehran´s friendship, it would be unfair to limit the Iranian variable to the imperfect repetitions related to the AMIA factor. Suffice it to say that, not in vain, the world’s media begin to echo -increasingly- Persians and Venezuelans’ friendship. Perhaps in synergy with the regional geopolitical impact observed by the terminal disease running over Hugo Chávez’s intellectual capacity to regain power. Even those who choose to believe in Tehran’s declaimed innocence about the Jewish Mutual attack in Buenos Aires and in the impossibility of a relationship tying together the tandem regime of Ahmadinejad-Khamenei and Hezbollah (on the basis of a ¨plausible denial¨ when it comes to terrorist attacks execution), must become aware of the fact that Iran is not the best option regarding national interests. At some point, it is unacceptable that the tough defense of personal economic interests and the militancy concentrate in the promotion of distorted benefits of a racist nation like Iran that -openly- regards western men as 'impure', 'infidel' or 'unworthy'.

Basically -and beyond ethical considerations- the current scenario is the least likely to seal any agreement with the Islamic Republic. Especially when, in the mid or long term, U.S. military intervention in the Middle East is guaranteed and is complemented by economic sanctions designed by Washington and the European Union in unison. Signs abound: the State of Israel makes regular air force raids into Syrian territory (Tehran's ally) testing, in the process, the early warning systems of its Iranian opponent. And the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspectors certify that the program of sensitive material enrichment in the analyzed country’s atomic centrals is anything but peaceful.

Looking to the military venture that the future holds for the Middle East, the sweetened solidarity from Argentine government -embodied by Cristina Kirchner and Héctor Timerman- to the benefit of the Islamic Republic could bring, at least, a serious compendium of sanctions that Argentines could have to pay painfully, hand in hand with the interruption of much of their foreign trade. No matter how much the head of state desires to feed her fantasies, because Argentina is not actually 'outside world'. If the approach with Iran comes up on account of a little enhancement of bilateral trade exchange and in order to make a few extra dollars, it will be almost useless to risk it all for just a small win.

Unless -as it seems to be- Cristina Elisabet Fernández Wilhelm’s arrogance and stubbornness push her into a destructive venture to achieve the crowning of clumsiness, accomplishing the demolition of the country remains even when she has yet to reach half of her second term.

* Translated into English by Débora Gravano Jordán | e-Mail: debora.gravano @ gmail.com