Wrong side of history

By Robert Cox
From Where I Stand

CHARLESTON, South Carolina — The deal that Héctor Timerman has signed with Iran is a deal with the devil. It places Argentina on the wrong side of history. It reminds me of Argentina’s neutrality during most of World War II, a decision that had a negative effect on the nation’s economic progress, allowing Brazil, an ally of the democratic powers, access to the technology that helped it to forge ahead industrially and on the world stage.

In the 1930s and 40s, the ruling military dictatorships and the election of Colonel Juan Domingo Perón to the presidency, imprinted fascism on Argentina, causing lasting damage to the nation’s psyche. Argentina has yet to throw off the ugly image that it was a haven for Nazi war criminals.

The deal that Héctor Timerman has signed with Iran is a deal with the devil. It places Argentina on the wrong side of history. It reminds me of Argentina’s neutrality during most of World War II, a decision that had a negative effect on the nation’s economic progress, allowing Brazil, an ally of the democratic powers, access to the technology that helped it to forge ahead industrially and on the world stage.

In the 1930s and 40s, the ruling military dictatorships and the election of Colonel Juan Domingo Perón to the presidency, imprinted fascism on Argentina, causing lasting damage to the nation’s psyche. Argentina has yet to throw off the ugly image that it was a haven for Nazi war criminals. In the international imagination, Hitler is still “alive and well and living in Argentina.” Even the Beatles, living in their yellow submarine, sent the defeated Blue Meanies off to Argentina. It seemed appropriate.

Well, with this embrace of Iran, ruled by a bunch of women-hating religious fanatics who appear determined to secure a nuclear weapon, Here We Go Again.

To my mind, Timerman walked into a trap. The brazen ambition that gave him the drive to scale the heights of the administration of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, leaping peak to peak from being a minor journalist to consul in New York, ambassador in Washington and, finally (definitely finally) foreign minister, has led him into the quick sands of treachery and betrayal.

Here we have a Jew courting a regime whose president. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust and who wants to wipe Israel off the map. And Ahmadinejad is a moderate alongside “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khomeini.

For what? Timerman defends this unconscionable appeasement of an anti-democratic theocracy by arguing that by chumming up to Iran, justice will be served and the Iranian officials who are believed to have ordered the atrocious 1994 terrorist attack on AMIA, the Jewish social centre in Buenos Aires, will be brought to justice.

Any way that you analyze the agreement to set up a “truth commission,” it is impossible to avoid reaching the conclusion that the last thing that either of the parties want is the truth.

This sinister farce has a precedent, the failure of the trial in The Hague to secure justice in the case of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi made fools of the British authorities by offering up two men for trial. But, to the disgrace of then prime minister Tony Blair, justice took second place to the lure of business deals with oil-rich Libya and Gaddafy got off the hook. Fortunately, justice caught up with Gaddafi 24 years later. He was overthrown and killed in September 2011. The search for the truth about the Lockerbie has resumed with Scotland Yard detectives at work in newly freed Libya.

It is necessary to note that President Fernández de Kirchner was an admirer of Gaddafi, which may help to explain why she has no qualms about dealing with the Iranians. When it comes to human rights, the lady is prone to overlook the transgressions of regimes that she sympathizes with.

What is suspicious about Timerman’s motives in seeking closer relations with Iran is that he kept his contacts with the Iranians secret, denying that he was reaching out to Tehran while doing precisely that.

I have seen no analysis of the agreement that indicates that justice will be served and I find it impossible to believe that justice is uppermost in Timerman’s mind. The best explanation is that the only way to vault the barrier to closer relations between Buenos Aires and Tehran was to dress up the rapprochement as a means to achieve justice. In fact, it seems crystal clear that it is Iran’s buying power that is the draw. This is a dangerous move.

The announcement of this deal with the devil was the step too far that I have been fearing. Since returning to Argentina three years ago to live for four to five months each year in Buenos Aires, picking up our lives that were interrupted by the military dictatorship, I have felt like a human canary in a mine. We have been keeping a careful watch on the quality of the air in the mine shaft.

Because of the authoritarian style of government of Néstor Kirchner when he was governor of Santa Cruz, there was reason to fear that democracy would not be fully respected. Kirchner’s mandate rested on a mere 22 percent of the votes cast in the 2003 elections, it was understandable that he needed to build a political power base. So it was that he was allowed a great deal of slack as he established his authority. Néstor Kirchner came close to crossing the line from a democracy to an authoritarian regime, but he never went too far. It was after his death that Argentina began to look more and more like Venezuela under Hugo Chávez.

Returning to Buenos Aires after a 30-year absence, alleviated by annual visits, but out of touch with aspects of life that become clear only when you are living in a country for a length of time, my wife and I found much to admire. Those odd words “social inclusion” that come from the jargon of social workers and political scientists took on real meaning as we met people who were finally able to obtain a pension. It was obvious that life under the Kirchners was better for the poor, although it now seems clear that instead of instituting policies to eradicate poverty, as has been done in Brazil, the policies introduced by the Kirchner administrations have merely made the lives of some of the poor better. The eradication of poverty does not even seem to be a distant dream.

But we did find so much to enjoy. The explosion of creativity in the arts, in fashion, in design, can be seen in microcosm in the recreation of barrios like Palermo, glamourized as Palermo Soho. Hollywood and Queens. The theatre in Buenos Aires is unrivalled in its diversity, cinema is vibrant and concerts abound. There has been an explosion in the arts and artisans have flourished.

But there was always a threatening shadow over democracy. The assault on the opposition press, followed by threats to the independence of the judiciary became increasingly matters of concern.

And now, this move to embrace one of the most repressive regimes in the world has set the alarm bells ringing. Will the air of democracy be poisoned? It is time to speak out. A strategic embrace of Iran is not acceptable.

Argentines have too often lived in an acceptance world — acceptance of the fascism that underlies Peronism, acceptance of so many years of military rule and/or dominance. Enough is enough.

bobc59@gmail.com