Argentina tells US ‘butt out’

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Buenos Aires Herald

Saturday, March 24, 2007
Argentina tells US ‘butt out’

Argentina yesterday urged the US "not to meddle" in its domestic affairs after Washington complained about the Argentine government’s having allowed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to head an anti-Bush rally earlier this month when US President George W. Bush was visiting Uruguay.

"It is not he (US State Department’s Under-Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns) who can tell the President of the Argentine people (Néstor Kirchner) whether he can allow (the rally) or not," Interior Minister Aníbal Fernández said.
(snip)

"I always say that we have managed to now have a mature relationship with the US, and that relationship implies to respect our individual decisions and not to meddle in decisions that have nothing to do with the (bilateral) relationship," Fernández said.

Burns was quoted by the La Nación newspaper as having told Bordón in Washington: "I am sorry, ambassador... I regret that that rally was held in Buenos Aires the same day that our president was in Montevideo. I don’t think this was the right thing to do. And I regret to say this, Mr. Ambassador, but this is the feeling of our government."



Read more: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/argentina/note.jsp?idContent=368581

[tridim]

1. Ever get deja vu?

;)

[BushOut06]

2. It makes me giddy seeing all these countries tell Bush where to stick it

It's about friggin these countries started standing up to US imperialistic attitudes. For over two hundred years, the US has acted like it owned the entire Western hemisphere.

[raccoon]

14. Says something about the balance of power, doesn't it?

[dolo amber]

3. Jesus H I spend too much time in the Lounge

I read that as "Angelina".



That said...color me not surprised. This bumper sticker I found online today rather sums it up:

[Robbien]

4. Where does BushCo get off believing it can micromanage other countries?

No one gave the US the authority to do so and it appears Latin America isn't allowing BushCo to grab that authority.

[rodeodance]

5. te he. funny

[Vidar]

6. Bravo Argentina!

[Judi Lynn]

7. We should create a DU pool, guessing when the first anti-Kirchner attack will land!

They already tried alcoholism rumors about Lula years ago, and that went nowhere, then a lot of noise about corruption in his administration, and then they ran out of steam, since nothing really panned out from those rumors.

Looks like Kirchner is up to bat next!

[Peace Patriot]

10. Love those pix, Judi Lynn! I remember reading something Chavez said about baseball--

that, as a kid, his family couldn't afford baseballs and bats, so he and his friends played with sticks and rocks. When he became president, he determined to change that, and started a government program to build baseball fields and provide equipment all over Venezuela, especially in poor areas. He brags now that Venezuela has more baseball fields than any country in the world.

So, when he puts on a baseball uniform (as above), he's not just playacting (in contrast, say, to Mr. AWOL* and his phony AF flight suit).

There has also been a lot of attention paid to music education and funding--with the Venezuelan children's orchestra (world famous), which takes the poorest of the poor kids off the streets and teaches them classical music and instruments, and also support for a renaissance in indigenous music (as opposed to imported corporate monoculture).

These are the sort of things that AP and the WSJ never report--the cultural underpinnings and benefits of real revolution.

[Judi Lynn]

13. We've had a poster or two on these threads attempting to claim he is trying to control

Venezuelans by his emphasis on creating new Venezuelan art interests! Apparently they are attempting to spin it as a "dictator" thing....

Here's the program, speaking of baseball, designed to bring physical health to Venezuelans of all ages and stages:

Barrio Adentro Mission (Sports)
This program began in February 2004 and its goal is assisting the sport skills of students, senior citizens, pregnant women, people with disabilities and all people wishing to improve their standard of life and health.

So far, 150,504,060 people (including all sports programs) have registered in this program. 43,976,715 people belong to sports, 25,259,343 people to physical activities at school, 980,574 people are training, 480,593 consultations and 40,417,071 recreation activities have taken place, 31,663,978 sport programs have been carried out and 7,726,786 people are registered in therapeutic sports.

The goal of this mission is to take care of national sports through sport assistance centers located in each municipality and through the Training Schools for Sport Talents (one per state), specifically for high performance sport.
(snip)

http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org.uk/ven/web/2006/missions/social_missions.html

[Peace Patriot]

8. So did Uruguay, which rejected Bush's slimy "free trade" deals, and stuck with

Mercosur--the South American trade group, and probable precursor to a South American "Common Market." That was one of Bush's missions--to "divide and conquer" Mercosur. He failed in every respect. Just before he hit Colombia, the rightwing thugs there--whose plans included assassinating Chavez--were caught and put in jail, in a huge rightwing paramilitary scandal, involving drug trafficking and murder. Thugs and murderers, of course, are Bush's natural allies, but his pal President Uribe of Colombia was obliged to distant himself from these plots, in what appears to be a general continent-wide agreement among all Latin leaders having to do with Latin American self-determination. Even the rightwing/corporatist president of Mexico felt obliged to publicly lecture Bush on the sovereignty of Latin American countries (and even mentioned Venezuela in this context).

Oh, the times they are a-changin'!

Viva la revolución!

[SpiralHawk]

9. "We don't need no steenkin Commander AWOL and corrupt republicon cronies."

- Dudes from Argentina

[Downtown Hound]

11. You know what's so funny?

Most of these countries would never have spoken to Clinton like that. He commanded respect from foreign leaders. Bush commands disgust and contempt, and impotence. They know he can't do anything to them, he's a paper tiger with no bite. And he's supposed to be the "war president." What a joke.

[Hieronymus]

12. Argentina refused to allow a US ship to dock ..

during Bush's visit in So. America. That really pissed Bush off. It was speculated that it was carrying stuff for the visit .. :toast: