ARGENTINA-US: Clinton Will Feel At Home

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Oct 14 1997 (IPS) - The third stop on U.S. President Bill Clinton’s South American tour is Argentina – where he will feel at home thanks to the U.S.- aligned foreign policy of the administration of Carlos Menem.

Clinton is the second U.S. president to visit this Southern Cone country since Menem first assumed the presidency in 1989. Political analysts point out that in 1990, when former president George Bush landed on Argentine soil, Menem introduced a shift in the country’s foreign policy with respect to Washington: from confrontation to alignment.

The U.S. president’s weeklong South American tour has taken him to Venezuela and Brazil. But the Menem administration underlines that Clinton’s visit to Argentina – in which he and his wife Hillary will fly to the southern Andean resort town of Bariloche over the weekend – will constitute the longest leg of his journey.

Clinton reaches Buenos Aires Wednesday, only 10 days before the Oct. 26 legislative elections in which the ruling Justice Party is facing the possibility of its first national-level defeat in 10 years to a new alliance formed by the two main opposition parties.

Former president Raul Alfonsin, a member of the Alliance, had asked the U.S. government to postpone the visit until after the elections to prevent it from being used as political ammunition. After Washington refused, the Alliance decided to also meet with the president and express its differences with the government.

Analysts say the United States will “pay back” favours from the Argentine government, one of its chief allies in the region, with public praise for the Menem administration’s economic accomplishments – while privately setting forth criticism from business sectors and diplomats of increasingly frequent reports of corruption.

According to the report prepared by his team, Clinton could look into the question of freedom of the press in Argentina, questioned in September by the New York Times and Miami Herald in connection with the still unresolved high-profile January murder of a photo-journalist and the lack of results in probes into anti- Semitic attacks.

On Thursday, Clinton will meet with a delegation from the Jewish community and family members of the more than 100 victims of two bombings – which took place in 1992 and 1994 – who will express their concern over the lack of headway in the investigations.

Political observers say the Argentine administration will try to capitalise on the visit, expanding on Clinton’s expected praise for Menem’s economic reforms, which tamed runaway inflation, opened markets and brought state coffers more than 20 billion dollars through privatisations of public enterprises.

Under Menem, direct U.S. investment in Argentina increased fourfold while trade doubled. And although U.S. companies did not significantly participate in auctions of public companies, that could change as 38 airports are still to be privatised.

Before setting out this week’s tour Sunday, Clinton asked the U.S. Congress to approve his invitation for Argentina to become a non-NATO ally, in recognition of its sending two ships to the Gulf War, its support in the restoration of democracy in Haiti and its participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations.

Argentine Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella said a few days ago that “Argentina’s relations with the United States determine this country’s position in the world.”

General Wesley Clark, chief of the U.S. army Southern Command, responded that Argentina is the United States’ “top ally” in Latin America.

Argentina’s withdrawal from the Non-Aligned Movement was the first dramatic gesture of alignment with the United States. Since then, Menem’s criticism of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba has been constant.

This week, Menem is expected to ask Clinton to back his demand for religious freedom in Cuba. He may also announce his refusal to attend the 1999 Iberian-American summit in Havana if Castro fails to introduce political reforms.

The Argentine government also plans to announce its acceptance of a first contingent of would-be Cuban emigrants who have been living at the U.S. Guantanamo military base in Cuba since attempting to leave that country in 1994.

Most nations in the region said no to Clinton’s request that they take in Cuban immigrants, to avoid intervening in the affairs of another state.

With respect to Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) – one of the key issues on Clinton’s agenda pushing for continent-wide integration in a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) – Argentina will present a united front with Brazil with respect to giving priority to the consolidation of the subregional bloc.

But it could accept a U.S. invitation to negotiate its own association with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA – Canada, Mexico and the United States) after Chile does so – that is, if Clinton is successful in his bid to obtain “fast-track” authority in Congress that would give him the necessary negotiating power.

In their meeting with Clinton, the leaders of the opposition coalition will reject the U.S. recommendation that the armed forces be involved in the fight against drug trafficking, and underline their fears that the non-NATO alliance could trigger uneasiness among Argentina’s partners in the region.

But above all, the opposition – which prefers not to discuss corruption with Clinton so as not to put him in the role of “inspector” of local affairs – will express their intention to back Mercosur above initiatives for a hemispheric free trade area.

Only a march planned for Thursday by six small leftist parties – which represent less than a combined one percent of all voters – in opposition to Clinton’s visit will tarnish his welcome. The protest will take place in front of the building where the U.S. president will meet with business representatives from Argentina and the United States.