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Adam Freedman

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Posted Thursday, Oct. 21, 1999, at 9:00 PM ET

It was an exceptionally hot day. In the Plaza de Mayo, women were sunbathing and the fringe parties were out in force, looking for votes in next Sunday's presidential elections.

Just steps away from a Burger King, the United Left was decrying the trend of "globalization," the code word for U.S. economic and cultural domination. An apocalyptic loudspeaker warned that globalization would replace cultural differences with a dangerous uniformity. I thought that rather unfair to Burger King, which is, after all, famously receptive to special orders.

Of all the third-party candidates (i.e., those other than the ruling Peronists or the opposition Alliance), only Domingo Cavallo, of Action for the Republic, gets taken seriously. A former economy minister, Cavallo guided Argentina's opening up to foreign trade and investment. Given that record, he is about the only candidate who cannot engage in anti-globalization rhetoric--it would be tantamount to saying, "Whoops, sorry!" Cavallo's poll ratings have rarely touched double digits.

When I arrived today at the offices of the Buenos Aires Herald, I learned that, with four days to go before the election, Cavallo has conceded defeat. He predicted that the Alliance candidate Fernando De la Rúa would win. As I saw last night, the Alliance has been critical of globalization. De la Rúa has declared that "the era of carnal relations with the U.S. is over." That is what Argentines want to hear in 1999.

It was not always so. The Herald, for example, grew out of Argentina's last great globalization in the late 19th century. Back then, the British controlled the railroads, the banks, and the wool industry. Thousands of Englishmen from that era decided to stay in Argentina. Their descendants make up the somewhat bizarre Anglo-Argentine community, a group with its own country club (Hurlingham), private schools (St. Andrew's and St. George's), and, of course, the Herald.

Jimmy, an old-school Anglo-Argentine, was at the Herald today to deliver advertising copy. He has a David Niven mustache and was wearing a linen suit. Like many of his generation, he speaks English with the earnest, throaty accent that one associates with cinematic RAF commanders delivering lines like "Come on, chaps, let's give Jerry what-for."

Jimmy has family in Patagonia. I made the mistake of the mentioning my fondness for Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia. "That book?" said Jimmy. "Why, it's, it's ... it's a lot of rot, that's what it is."

The British heyday in Argentina ended when Juan Perón came to power in 1946. Perón expropriated the railways and other foreign interests. He also began a policy of protectionism that was only reversed, ironically, by another Peronist--the current president, Carlos Menem, together with his former economy minister, Cavallo. Now, the tide is turning against Menem's "carnal relations with the U.S."

Which brings me to Eduardo Duhalde, the Peronist candidate to succeed Menem. Duhalde is closing his campaign with a rally tomorrow. Since De la Rúa has already closed his campaign, this will be the last big event before the election. I plan to cover it for the Herald.

That meant I had to face Duhalde's press office. Peronists hate the press; they all seem to yearn for the days when Perón and Evita could shut down newspapers that displeased them. Last Sunday, after the Loyalty Day rally, an unlucky reporter was beaten up, for no apparent reason, by a gang of Peronist thugs.

In the late afternoon, I took a break from training my replacement at the Sunday supplement and went to Duhalde's campaign office on Corrientes Street. I approached a woman sitting under a picture of Evita and announced myself as a reporter for the Herald. She looked up in panic, as though a bomb were ticking away and she couldn't figure out whether to cut the green wire or the red wire.

After examining my passport and a copy of the Herald with my name in it, she reluctantly gave me a press credential. I asked her when the press bus would be leaving.

"Bus?" she said.

"Big long thing with wheels." Actually, I said, "Yes, to go to the rally."

This annoyed her. "Don't you have some other way to get there?"

"Chauffeur's sick."

She picked up the phone and, after a sharp conversation, handed the receiver to me. An unidentified man conspiratorially said, "OK, OK, here's what you do," and then gave me directions to catch the bus. I can't shake the feeling that he is expecting me to arrive with a wad of bills or a kilo of hashish.

One more day and the campaign will be over.

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Posted Thursday, Oct. 21, 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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