Argentina's Macri purchasing over $2 billion in U.S. military equipment.
An investigation by the top-rated Argentine news program El Destape revealed that on the administration of Argentine President Mauricio Macri made a formal request to the United States Government to approve a purchase of well over $2 billion in military equipment.
The procurement, which included fighter jets, war tanks, medium and long range missiles, missile launchers, attack helicopters, and a wide variety of munitions and other equipment typically used in a war theater, was reportedly made on June 16, 2016, through the offices of Argentine Ambassador Martín Lousteau with the stated purpose of "combating terrorism."
El Destape obtained the complete list of weaponry requested by the Macri administration by way of an official Argentine Embassy letter to Congressman Pete Visclosky, a senior Indiana Democrat and the Ranking Member on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. Some of the material, El Destape found, has in fact already been purchased.
The request, the largest single Argentine military order since shortly before the ill-fated Falklands/Malvinas War waged by the last dictatorship in 1982, was far in excess of the request presented to the Argentine Congress during the FY2017 budgetary process last year.
The Lousteau letter revealed, moreover, that while the list was not revealed to Congress as a whole, it was known to at least two congressmen belonging to Macri's right-wing "Let's Change" caucus: Eduardo Amadeo and Luciano Laspina, who according to the letter personally lobbied Congressman Visclosky in April 2016 for approval.
Amadeo, in particular, is known for his far-right views and for his links to ultra-nationalist elements in the local media and Argentine Armed Forces.
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