New Wikileaks documents

Spanish official says Kirchner couple 'regrettable,' questions handling of farming crisis

Spanish newspaper El País released a new batch of leaked US diplomatic documents, in which high-ranking officials in the Spanish government harshly criticized several Latin American leaders, including the Kirchners.

According to the daily, the documents detail the conversations of several advisors and officials who met behind closed doors with US embassy officials in Madrid.

All conversations took place during George W. Bush's administration.

In July 2008, the US State Department received a message containing the statements of former Spanish Secretary of Stafe for Ibero-America and current Foreign Minister Trinidad Jiménez García-Herrera.

According to the document, Mrs. Jiménez used to criticize the Kirchner marriage during the farming conflict, calling their attitudes toward the matter "shameful," considering how "vast and rich in resources" Argentina is, and said that she hoped for a "viable, organized opposition."

She explained she regretted how "weak" Argentine political parties were, pointing out that she was concerned over the "unionized" opposition in the farming sector, which threatened to cause chaos in the country.

She said, however, that she considered "Cristina's overdependence on her husband as part of the problem, since his confrontational manners were exacerbating the crisis."

Another document, signed by the US embassy in Madrid on May 30th 2008, details a confidential meeting between current Spanish Secretary General to the Presidency Bernardino León and former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Thomas Shannon, who were later joined by former Spanish president José María Aznar. During their encounter, they discussed the "fear" shared by Spanish businessmen due to the Kirchners' "populist" government.

"León said he was concerned about Argentina. Spanish companies in Argentina were concerned about the government's populist tone, political polarization and corruption levels."

The documents mention some "questionable" people in the president's inner circle, and suggests that many in Argentina lived by the old saying ‘a politician who's poor is a poor politician.'"

Mr. León then said that Spain and the US had much to do in Argentina and complimented President Bush for maintaining a positive relationship with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

"Mr. Shannon mentioned he had recently visited Argentina and that a group of high-ranking US government officials had visited Buenos Aires in order to restart the strained relationship with the country."

Their goal was to reestablish bilateral relations based on their shared interests, instead of their differences. He predicted that the struggle between different Argentine sectors had "barely started, since the farming sector strike was on its first round.

He then stated that once a crisis was over, finding revenue and a way to spend it was a tendency within the Peronist movement. "Ironically, as the domestic situation worsens, the government could try to reach out to other countries on an international level."

Finally, the documents revealed that Shannon said that "having a very close relationship with Hugo Chávez could have a high cost for Argentina, as shown by Chávez's recent decision to nationalize the Sidor Argentine company."

The latest document, dated from January 2009, details a meeting between Trinidad Jiménez, Shannon and Bernardino León in which they discuss the decision to nationalize the Aerolineas Argentinas airlines and the concerns of Spanish businessmen.

"León told Mr. Shannon that the Spanish government supports the Marsans group in their case against Aerolíneas Argentina, but warned that Spain would take action in order to improve bilateral relations with Argentina before a visit by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to Madrid in February 2009."

"Shannon replied that the US has gone to great lengths in order to maintain a good relationship with Argentina, with mixed results. Mr. León seemed to agree that the Kirchners were a "regrettable team" and doubted that "Argentina's perverse system" could ever be fixed, although he said he remained "hopeful" that the Argentine population would someday reclaim their political space.

He closed by offering to deliver any message from the US to the president during her visit in February."