Argentina: Still Entrapped by its Past

It is not a good month to be a politican in Argentiina. Three very distinct activities - any of which would be a substantial liability - are in concurrent play. These events will have a lasting part in international finance, law, and Argentine credibility.

'Mr. Menem's Less-than-Merry Christmas'

Former Argentine President Carlos Menem is the key witness and accused in ongoing investigations of corruption in previous Argentine governments. Mr. Menem and his economy minister Domingo Cavallo engaged in activities far beyond the scope of their government portfolios. Mr. Cavallo doubled as a weapons dealer. Mr. Menem obtained personal favors of various kinds via excessive use of his Presidential authority.

To prevent Mr. Menem taking the easy out of the trial by vleeing the country, Argentine authorities constrained his right to travel. Mr. Menem petitioned for permission to visit friends and family in Chile during the Christmas holidays. His request was rejected due to lack of assurance Mr. Menem would return. Mr. Menem vigorously protested the rejected request, but the investigations and the trials continue. More trouble from Mr. Menem's and Mr. Cavallo's potentially curious activities undertaken in the name of the Christmas spirit is the last thing the current President Nestor Kirchner would like to have to explain.

'The Dirty War Revisited'

Besides the enslaught of revelations about Mr. Menem et. al., Argentines are in the midst of grappling with another bleak era in their history courtesy of a Spanish judge who sees his task as rooting out all vestiges of torture. From 1976 to 1983 Argentina was ruled by a succession of military commanders who prosecuted what was known as the "dirty war" against their opponents. The most widely committed attrocities during the "dirty war" including sedating imprisoned or newly arrested opponents and dropping their listless bodies from airplanes. Most of these drops occurred over open water where the victims would have no chance of rescue in the unlikely event they survived the hurdle downward. Another tactic was the rape of imprisoned women. The women were raped until pregnancy resulted. They were detained until they delivered the baby. Immmediately after the delivery, the women were executed, and the babies were apportioned to the families of high ranking military personnel to obliterate all traces of the children's descent from the leading families of the juntas' opponents.

In 1997 Captain Scillingas of the Argentine Army testified in a Spanish court that he participated in these attrocities. Then he retracted his account. Now Mr. Scillingas is in court again to retract his retraction, but rather than standing as a witness, he stands as the accused. His trial began on 14 January 2005 - conveniently the same day the Argentine government launched its latest round in its ongoing charm offensive designed to flatter the IMF.

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