This should make for interesting reading:
The government has finally made public a critical report of the mistakes made by its military dictatorship in its war against Britain to recover the Falkland Islands in 1982. The so-called Rattenbach report was so critical of the military junta that Argentina’s last dictator ordered it kept secret for 50 years.
For those of you who can read Spanish, you can find it here with several pdf links.
I think Boz strikes the right notes here with regard to former president of Argentina and husband of current president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, who died today at age 60.
A couple of points to add to Boz's points:
Rest in peace.
One of Latin America's most beautiful and moving musical voices has been stilled. Mercedes Sosa died Sunday in Buenos Aires. She was 74.
She was from Tucuman province in the north of the country and her music reflected these traditions. A lovely and moving voice was her greatest gift:
She will be missed, but has left a wonderful legacy. Rest in peace.
So Real Madrid have dealt for both Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo? Color me unimpressed. Not that they're not good players; they're excellent, but Real Madrid has a very suspect back line. They needed defenders and blew a wad of money on attackers. Bad move.
I'm largely in agreement with this article about Italian football. it just hasn't been the same for several years and it shows. When AC Milan gets knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the quarterfinals if I recall correctly and no Italian team makes it to the semis of the Champions League, that speaks volumes.
Argentina is having a tough time in qualification for the 2010 World Cup, which starts one year from today. They are currently fourth in the qualification group after losing anemically yesterday to Ecuador in Quito. While there remains four games and the Albicelestes are still in fourth place, which is one of the qualifying positions, one can't help but wonder how much of the bloom would come off Coach Diego Maradona (a dreadful choice in my opinion as witness his treatment of Juan Riquelme) if Argentina failed to qualify.
Much was made recently when FIFA recommended altitude limits on games, which would have placed cities like La Paz Bolivia off limits. So how is Bolivia's record in WC qualifying for the 2010 World Cup? They've won three games, drawn three and lost eight. All three they have won in La Paz, but they have also drawn twice in La Paz and lost twice in La Paz. I was wrong in supporting the altitude restrictions. When your team is as dreadful as Bolivia is, altitude doesn't make a difference.
Boz has been doing yeoman's work on the Argentina/Venezuela/US Bags O'Cash scandal, but as he is celebrating his nuptials, I'll point out that President Chavez's name has come up in this scandal as an active participant in the cover-up:
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez was personally involved in efforts to conceal his nation's participation in the scandal surrounding a briefcase that contained $800,000, according to testimony obtained by the FBI and presented last week in Miami federal court.
The money, confiscated by Argentine customs officials, was allegedly to be a campaign contribution to that nation's current president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
According to the court documents submitted on June 27, Venezuelan businessman Franklin Durán declared that his former associate Carlos Kauffman pointed the finger at Chávez during his deposition to the FBI, citing several sources.
Both Durán and Kauffman have been implicated in the case and are accused of acting as unregistered agents of the Venezuelan government.
In his testimony, Kauffman told the FBI that lawyer Moisés Maionica assured him that, ``President Chávez was involved in the matter and that he had placed DISIP [Venezuela's intelligence service] director [Henry] Rangel Silva in charge; and that Rangel told him that President Chávez was personally involved in the case.''
Granted, this is uncorroborated deposition testimony, but depositions are made under penalty of perjury. I would imagine that this will only heat up and that there is far more to be gleaned in the days ahead.
Chavez is also having to deal with dissatisfaction in the military:
Venezuelan military officers have expressed growing alarm at attempts by President Hugo Chávez to turn the armed forces into a political instrument of his socialist revolution.
One general has been detained and hundreds of other officers reportedly sidelined for protesting against the ideological drive. Chávez has ordered the armed forces to adopt the Cuba-style salute "Fatherland, socialism or death" to put the institution at the heart of his effort to transform Venezuela.
A few years ago this would be the cause of a great deal of concern: a disgruntled military at odds with a president in Latin America. Chavez himself is guilty of taking the law into his own hands. These days, a disgruntled military will just give Chavez the chance to remove those who don't like him and appoint those who are more loyal to him.
In the long run, it should be that way. As much as I dislike Chavez, civilian control of the military is paramount to stability and democracy in Latin America. What impact this will have, if any, on Chavez's popularity remains to be seen. Still, Chavez has no business politicizing the military. The military swears allegience to the constitution, not to a form of government.
This was my first trip to Brazil in two years, an uncharacteristically long time for me, having made fifteen previous trips from June 1995 to February 2006, but it afforded me the ability to see changes that I might not otherwise have noticed.
I spent my time in and around Belo Horizonte, a city of some 3 million and the capital of the state of Minas Gerais. There is plenty of good news to be found here. Construction in the region is booming. Housing developments are springing up outside of the city in significant numbers. While this is a mixed blessing as it accelerates sprawl and could make Belo Horizonte's difficult traffic downright unbearable, it is an encouraging sign of an expanding middle class and, considering that some of the best and brightest of Minas Gerais left the country in the 1980's and 1990's for better opportunities, all things considered, I find this thrilling.
There is a sense of optimism in the air that has been noticeably lacking in my previous visits. All of my nieces and nephews who have graduated college are gainfully employed in their respective fields. Others are planning to enter college with a reasonable expectation that they will also be able to find work upon graduation.
The nation is energy independent, and within a few years could become an oil exporter. Even Brazil's largest neighbor sees wisdom in emulating its success.
As Boz notes, the incident involving Venezuelan businessman Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson entering Argentina with US$800,000 in cash in August of this year is back in the news with the arrest of four suspects amidst allegations that the money was being sent from Venezuela to aid the campaign of Cristina Kirchner, who was elected president.
President Kirchner is outraged by the arrests and the allegations made in the arrests. Time will tell if there is any substance to the allegations, but the other issue is an elemental issue of hypocrisy. As commenter Tambopaxi notes in Boz's post, US financial support for opponents of Hugo Chavez is a sore point for Chavistas, yet it appears that Chavez is providing financial support for an Argentinian candidate.
My question for President Kirchner is this: given that her husband's government has actively pursued Iran for the AMIA and Israeli Embassy bombings, why embrace a man who has embraced the leader of the government accused of committing acts of terrorism on your territory?
I'm hardly an America love it or leave it type. I have no problem with making informed, well-grounded criticisms of my nation's government when merited.
However, should I take seriously a multiple-rehabbed, possibly brain-damaged, ex-footballer who cannot control his addictive behavior or ignorant statements, whose sole World Cup Championship will forever be tainted by the fact that he cheated to attain a major victory in the run to the championship and who blamed his inability to defend the championship on the mafia, when he says “I hate everything that comes from the United States. I hate it with all my strength.”
Naah.
Here's an artist's rendering of Maradona's first training session of national team coach:
Fortunately, even the AFA has more sense than to give Maradona that job.
Did Diego Maradona, promise help for someone imprisoned in Cuba, through his contacts with Fidel Castro, accept $50,000 for it and do nothing.
Right now it's little more than he said, he said, but I wouldn't put it past him. Nothing Maradona does or is accused of doing would surprise me. Nothing.
So Felisa Miceli, Argentina's Economy Minister resigns over an investigation into $60,000 found in a bag in her office bathroom? She used to be president of Banco de la Nacion? Has she never heard of safety deposit boxes?
The truly abominable judgment of those in positions of power never ceases to amaze me. Boz seems to think that this was good for the Kirchners before the campaign starts and I certainly agree. Nothing is gained through festering.
Still, one must wonder what - or even if - she was thinking.
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