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Adam Freedman

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Posted Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1999, at 9:00 PM ET

The good news is that my story about Peronist Loyalty Day ran in this morning's Buenos Aires Herald. The bad news is that I cannot get the damn Peronist campaign song out of my head. It is not a pleasant tune (but then, it can't be easy to come up with lyrics that rhyme with "social justice").

At midday, I took the subway to the Herald. The television sets on the subway platform played the usual selection of Argentine advertisements: the lottery, anti-cellulite cream, the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Not to be a downer, but it was one of those days haunted by Argentina's rogue past: fugitive Nazis and military juntas. Part of it was that Andrew had just come back from vacation. Andrew is the Herald's senior editor. Aside from being the sort of fellow you'd like to have a drink with, he is famous in Argentina for having reported on human-rights abuses during Argentina's "Dirty War" against the Left during the 1970s. The military rewarded his efforts with death threats that forced him into a prolonged self-exile in London. Seeing Andrew after several weeks' absence brought back thoughts of Argentina's dictatorship, which I have, thankfully, experienced only vicariously through his writings.

I checked the wire services. There was a lull in the campaign because the presidential candidates were preparing for their crucial close-of-the-campaign events. Fernando De la Rúa, candidate of the opposition Alliance Party, holds his closing rally tomorrow in the provincial city of Rosario. My colleague Marcelo and I agreed that we would both go so as to cover different angles of the event. I called Graciela at the Alliance's press office to get accredited. Unlike the Peronists, who require two forms of identification from journalists, the Alliance is happy to issue credentials over the phone. I'm always tempted to give my name as Prince Charles or Sting, just for the souvenir press pass.

More ghosts of Argentina's past in the afternoon. I went to a press conference given by a German human-rights group that is trying to bring criminal prosecutions in Berlin and Nuremberg against Argentina's former junta leaders. "Just like the Spanish are doing to Pinochet," a spokesman said. The organization rather optimistically plans to wait until just after the election, when the winners are in an expansive mood, to persuade the new government to cooperate with the German proceedings.

Fat chance. The ex-military dictators and their junior officers have been shielded from prosecution in Argentina. Some of them still belong to the police or armed forces; others have turned to politics. One of the current candidates for governor of Buenos Aires province served as a police inspector (alias "the Madman") under the dictatorship. He has dodged dozens of criminal complaints for murder and torture. One of his main ethical precepts, according to a recent interview, is that a police officer must never go on a date with the wife of a prisoner. Hands up, everyone who feels safer!

The spokesman for the German group conceded that Argentine politicians were not likely to extradite the generals to face prosecution abroad. So he spent a good deal of time discussing a plan to get Interpol to capture the ex-dictators. That part I enjoyed. It is impossible, and I mean impossible, for me to hear the word "Interpol" without feeling a little tingle of excitement ("Not now, Moneypenny, Interpol's on the line").

All the abstract talk of human rights suddenly became concrete when a woman in the audience stood up to make an impromptu speech. The former military regime had abducted, tortured, and killed her husband and two daughters, she gently explained to the silent room. What really haunted her was that her two infant grandchildren had been sold to well-connected families, and she could never track them down. Her voice began to break. "They owe me those babies!" she screamed.

Hey, pardon me, boys, but after a day like that I was in the mood for something on the lighter side. I kept with the German theme--there was a party at Silke's apartment. Silke is a German expat working for a beer company. We sat on her balcony, enjoying the spring weather (remember, the seasons are upside down here) and eating carry-out Chinese food. I talked for a long time to Vera, also German, about my plan to return to New York and to keep writing. Diego, an Argentine, wanted to know why Americans cannot adopt the metric system. Inevitably, now that I'm leaving Buenos Aires, I realize how many friends I have here.

Diego urged me to eat another dumpling. I told him I was full.

"You'll have to pay just the same," he said, grinning. "More wine?"

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Posted Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1999, at 9:00 PM ET
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Adam Freedman went to Argentina as a lawyer and ended up as a columnist and Sunday editor of the Buenos Aires Herald.
COMMENTS

The Fraymaster adds:


Cristina Guzman, of Diputada de la Nacion, writes:

I have read your article on Slate concerning the Argentine political campaign, and your chronicle of the speeches in Rosario on November 20th. I was deeply shocked by some your remarks regarding the speech of the Alliance's candidate for vice-president, Mr. Carlos "Chacho" Alvarez.

You say that the "average Argentine will tell you that excessive U.S. influence is responsible for economic stagnation and a general moral decline." This is not true. I have been a national representative from one of Argentina's poorest provinces for five terms. I also lead a traditional local party that supports the Alliance, and I must say that it is rare to hear from the public that "excessive U.S. influence" is responsible for our economic and moral ailments. People in Argentina are very aware that economic and moral problems are due to dramatic failures by Menem's administration, and are not so naïve to think that what is happening in our country is because of "excessive U.S. influence."

You also say that when Alvarez made a plea for preservation of our cultural identity, "The crowd gave a such bloodthirsty roar that I found myself thinking: 'Taxi! U.S. embassy, and step on it!'" As a joke, I find this quite amusing. As an assessment of facts, I find it inaccurate. To defend our right to cultural identity is by no means a call for "Yankee go home," beyond the fact that Argentina has also attracted an unprecedented flow of investments from France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Chile and other countries besides the U.S. Telling the American public that the Alliance or its candidates are calling to combat the U.S. or its companies seems to me as a total lack of seriousness.

The Alliance is a pluralistic coalition, made up from the common goal to stop the failures of Menem's administration to give political credibility and long-term social sustainability to market reforms. We are aware that globalization is here to stay. It is a ruthless misinterpretation to suggest that Alvarez or the Alliance is against U.S. investments. To defend the right to our own cultural identity cannot be seen as an antagonistic feature in any way.

Moreover, preservation of our cultural identity should be seen as a sign of political development, since lack of identity often leads rulers to embrace models or patterns which uncritically taken, will lead to deception. (By the way, this is what happened to President Menem, who recently stated that "our teachers have let us down.") The Alliance will foster the way to profound changes in the polity, but not by the way of idiotic nationalism, but by the way of self-aware openness, giving juridical stability and political and social sustainability to market reforms. The American public should know this, and should not be misled by the subjective impressions of an accidental journalist.


And this reader writes:

I enjoy seeing this often unnoticed part of the world in a publication I enjoy immensely. Sadly, previous mentions of Argentina in Slate have mostly included passing sneers at nazi-harbouring and Evita Perón--which I dare say is more than the country is about--and a spot-on analysis by Paul Krugman of Peronist candidate Eduardo Duhalde's appeals to the Pope for economic deliverance. I'm pleased to say that according to polls, Duhalde's big mouth and sloppy economics will cost him badly, and he may be heading for the most resounding defeat of the Peronist party ever. But I guess we'll find out on Sunday.


(10/21)

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