Mattis pledges closer defense cooperation with Argentina

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Robert Burns, Ap National Security Writer
Updated 11:32 am CDT, Wednesday, August 15, 2018

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday pledged closer defense cooperation with Argentina.

Standing beside his Argentinian counterpart, Oscar Aguad, Mattis said the military partnership can be strengthened. He alluded to the help the U.S. Navy provided Argentina last November when one of its submarines went missing with 44 sailors aboard.

Mattis's visit is the first to Argentina by an American secretary of defense since Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2005.

Mattis and Aguad announced no specific agreements, but both said they hope for better relations between their two countries.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Mattis-pledges-closer-defense-cooperation-with-13157987.php

---

New York Times:
America’s Role in Argentina’s Dirty War
By The Editorial Board
March 17, 2016

A few months after a military junta overthrew President Isabel Perón of Argentina in 1976, the country’s new foreign minister, Adm. Cesar Guzzetti, told Henry Kissinger, America’s secretary of state, that the military was aggressively cracking down on “the terrorists.”

Mr. Kissinger responded, “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly,” an apparent warning that a new American Congress might cut off aid if it thought the Argentine government was engaging in systemic human rights abuses.

The American ambassador in Buenos Aires soon reported to Washington that the Argentine government had interpreted Mr. Kissinger’s words as a “green light” to continue its brutal tactics against leftist guerrillas, political dissidents and suspected socialists.

Just how much the American government knew about Argentina’s repressive “Dirty War,” which lasted from 1976 to 1983 — and the extent to which it condoned the abuses — has remained shrouded in secrecy.

More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/opinion/americas-role-in-argentinas-dirty-war.html

~ ~ ~

Obama sorry for U.S. policies during Argentina's 'dirty war'
Kamilia Lahrichi and Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
Published 11:56 a.m. ET March 24, 2016 | Updated 10:42 p.m. ET March 24, 2016



U.S. President Barack Obama, left, and his counterpart from Argentina Mauricio Macri,
right, make a floral tribute to the victims of the military dictatorship at Parque de la
Memoria in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 24, 2016, during the tour of the wall, next
to the Rio de la Plata.
(Photo: DAVID FERNANDEZ, EPA)

U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires during the administration of then-President Jimmy Carter to document human rights abuses and identify the disappeared. Such men did so despite threats to themselves and their families, Obama said.

The new records will be added to a trove of more than 4,000 documents already declassified compiled by U.S. diplomats and used in Argentina to prosecute those accused in the abuses, Obama said.

. . .

Documents from the administration of President Gerald Ford, who was in office during the 1976 coup, show that top U.S. officials knew of the impending coup and did little to stop it.

. . .

On Feb. 28, 1976, less than a month before the coup, Hill wrote the State Department again with the good news that few Argentine politicians believed the United States was actively fomenting a coup. "Our stock with democratic civilian forces therefore remains high, but at same time our bridges to military are open," Hill wrote.

More:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/24/obama-speaks-us-role-argentinas-dirty-war/82206754/

[sandensea]

1. Mattis knows Macri's days are numbered, and wants to know if the agreed U.S. bases will outlive him.

These bases (three in all) were authorized by Macri by decree last month - a brazen violation of Argentina's Constitution, which obligates presidents to seek congressional approval before green-lighting the presence of any foreign troops.

A contingent of U.S. Marines (and Israelis) was already detected on June 7 in front of the presidential office building (the Casa Rosada).

Here, you can see them going in and out of the National Bank building (!). No explanation was given.



One of the bases is already being installed: the one in Neuquén (the largest city in Patagonia) - which not coincidentally happens to be next to Vaca Muerta, the world's 3rd-largest unconventional oil/gas field.

The other two, still in the planning stages, would be next door to the world's 2nd-largest clean aquifer (the Guaraní - though the U.S. already had two bases in neighboring Paraguay), and in the world's closest continental point to Antarctica (Tierra del Fuego).

My guess, then, is that these bases were at the very top of Mattis' Buenos Aires agenda.

And he no doubt knows that Macri, whose Bush-like policies have pushed Argentina into its worst crisis since 2002, will not only not be re-elected, he may not finish his term. Macri has 16 months left - which is a small eternity, as quickly as things are unraveling.

That said, it is entirely possible that the next administration - even a potential Cristina Kirchner administration - will reauthorize at least one of these bases (probably the one already being built).

Whoever takes office next year will have a very full platter, what with the debt crisis Macri is leaving them. They'll no doubt want to work with the U.S. as much as possible to help resolve it, and a base in Patagonia may be small political potatoes (China, after all, already has a small satellite communications base in the same area).

In any case, All the Best to Gen. Mattis - the only Cheeto cabinet secrtary fit for his post. Hope he has a nice time in Buenos Aires.

Thanks for posting these interesting news, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

2. The U.S. under Trump got into Argentina under Macri in no time at all. Shocking!

As soon as the progressive left office, and Macri cheated his way into office, he started tearing up everything the progressives had accomplished and replacing the people-serving measures in place with actions which started stripping away public services and breaking down the economy radically, rewarding the wealthy, crushing everyone else, and now he already has U.S. personel in the country.

Shocking, grotesque, and, as you point out, actually illegal because it didn't vaguely relate to Argentina's laws in place. Done in the manner of a true tyrant.

You undoubtedly have captured people's attention with the implication that Macri has become so toxic that he might not serve his term. If he left, it still will take such a long time to rebuild the country, repair the deadly damage inflicted already.

Macri is a real Trump, or maybe Trump is a real Macri. They both are killing their countries.

You have packed a tremendous amount of information into this post for those of us who can't easily get news about Latin America countries. In so many ways it seems our corporate media has always pretended nothing exists south of the border with Mexico, unless a lot of brain-washing is needed for support against leftist leaders elected by the masses in any and every country. They go after every one, using any tool at hand, to ridicule, demean, and deliberately lie in order to convince citizens that any and all leftists cannot be allowed to run the countries their masses have elected them to lead.

As everyone has ever noticed, all right-wing leaders, no matter how bloody, or even the fact some of them, like Paraguay's Stroessner, who gave shelter to mega-Nazi monster Dr. Mengele after WWII, ruled for 35 years, committed genocide against the indigenous people, and enslaved the survivors, the US military political people will FULLY support them, torturing tens, hundreds of thousands, kidnapping, murdering, it's all cool with the U.S. if it's done by right-wing dictatorships.

So wierd, and still so many US citizens don't know a thing about it, they live in ignorance and apathy, don't know, don't care. A lifetime of brain-washing day after day makes sure the slow ones never wake up.

US military in Argentina already. Absolutely unbearable. No other president even considered doing anything like that. So Cold War, so vile. Trump is bringing the most ignorant, polarized, idiotic, foolish part of the Cold War right back as if it never left.

[sandensea]

3. Sad; but true.

You asked if any other Argentine president had allowed U.S. troops in, and there was one (that I can think of): Carlos Menem.

Menem created a minor flap of his own back in 1991 by inviting a U.S. aircraft carrier (the USS Kitty Hawk) to dock for a couple of days at the naval base in Mar del Plata - and, like Macri, without congressional approval.

Ever the good host, Menem even had prostitutes bused in from Buenos Aires to entertain the visiting sailors.

Just a few months earlier, his Foreign Secretary (a very amiable man called Guido di Tella) had stated that Argentina wanted "carnal relations" with the U.S. - and I guess they got them in Mar del Plata alright.

As you can imagine, the stand-up jokes just wrote themselves that year.

Here's footage from the event (sans the prostitutes, of course). Enjoy!