Cristina Fernandez regrets Uruguay is not part of Argentina and praises Uruguayan liberator

President Cristina Fernandez deeply regretted that history did not allow Uruguay to be part of Argentina and blamed ‘so many other events that divided and separated’ the two neighbouring countries preventing them from being ‘a great, great nation’.

The president speaking in the province of Entre Rios praised the memory of Uruguayan liberator Jose Artigas, who set the foundations for an independent Uruguay, but also first tried to convert the United Provinces inherited from the Spanish empire into a federal state following on the US example. But he was defeated in his attempts by conspiration from the city of Buenos Aires.

“This flag of Entre Rios with its red sash across is the symbol of Artigas, who remains alive in the spirit of Entre Rios, that great Artigas who wanted to become Argentine and we didn’t let him, damn it, How was that possible? Sorry for the coarse expression”, said Cristina Fernandez during a political rally launching the campaign for the August primaries leading to the October mid term election that will seal the last two years of her second mandate.

“I get mad when reading history, when you read and find out that Buenos Aires at the time rejected the delegates sent from the Oriental Band (later Uruguay) and that is why today we are not an only great, great nation, as so many other events that happened and divided and separated us. From history we understand that we must make the reverse path, both inside and outside” added the Argentine president calling on the crowd to support her ‘country project’ led by the ‘people’s baton’.

“If we had followed Artigas legacy we wouldn’t be two nations”, emphasized Cristina Fernandez, who then referring to Argentina called for ‘national unity which does not mean agreeing in all and every issue, but agreeing in those that are essential for the development of the nation”.

There were no immediate reactions from Uruguay to the history statements, but it must be said that Artigas Federal League which included several Argentine provinces was finally defeated when a fearful Buenos Aires conspired with Portugal and later with Brazil to have him and his federal republican ideas ousted. Artigas died in exile in Paraguay but his lieutenants with the guarantee of Britain, managed ten years later an independent Uruguay, protected from the territorial ambitions of its powerful neighbours.

Horacio Brusquera, a Uruguayan historian said that Cristina Fernandez was partly right: although Artigas never wanted to become an Argentine (Argentina as such did not exist then) but rather a federal state, and “yes together it would have been a great nation with Uruguay the head and brains and Argentina the rest”, as history has repeatedly witnessed.

Auction of Pluna’s Bombardier aircraft collapses: terms “non attractive” and “non viable”

Uruguay’s attempt to auction the bankrupt national airline Pluna aircraft collapsed because none of the groups that showed an initial interest turned up arguing that the 136 million dollars for the seven Bombardier CRJ900 NextGen was “not attractive” and considered the whole business deal “non viable”.

Thenext auction is scheduled for October first at Carrasco airport

Minister Pintado said the auction was suspended to ensure “transparency” Minister Pintado said the auction was suspended to ensure “transparency”

The Uruguayan government suspended until October first the auction that was scheduled for Wednesday at the Carrasco International airport when three of the groups said they had lost interest.

In a heated press conference the Minister of Transport and Public Works Enique Pintado said the auction had been suspended to give the interested parties more time and refused to identify them, when they had already been published in the morning papers.

Pintado said he would only answer what he thought was relevant for the operation and journalists accused him of “not telling the truth” and trying to mislead them by saying the auction would take place “under the same conditions and terms”..

The three interested groups basically reported that the price demanded, 136 million dollars which is equivalent to the purchase loan the Uruguayan government is the guarantee before the Canadian Scotia Bank, is “too high” and “far from market values”. Further more among the conditions of the sale is that part of the Pluna staff left redundant must be re-contracted by the new owners of the aircraft, which is also unacceptable for those interested.

One of the groups from Argentina, Sol airlines said that “it was impossible to draft a viable economic plan under the current conditions with the assets offered, and compatible with what Uruguay represents for the region”

However in a letter to Minister Pintado Sol airline promised to continue expanding connectivity in the area between Montevideo, Buenos Aires and Rosario and in coming months would add the resort of Punta del Este.

Another Argentine group BQB which runs the ferries between Montevideo and Buenos Aires and has moved to the air business with a few links in the region, said “conditions are not attractive”, despite having paid 5.000 dollars for the terms of the auction, which also enabled it to inspect the aircraft.

Conviasa, the Venezuelan air carrier belonging to the government was allegedly also interested but finally did not turn up. Apparently the operation involving the Venezuelan airline will be addressed at “the highest level”, meaning presidents Jose Mujica and Hugo Chavez. But since Chavez is running for re-election October 7, not much can be done.

A fourth group, MacAir Jet belonging to the Argentine entrepreneur Francisco Macri apparently indicated it would be present at the October auction. But MacAir Jet basically does private and charter flights and when Pluna collapsed and was declared bankrupt last July, the group said it was prepared to manage the airline with a severe cost-cutting program, but never received a reply.

Minister Pintado alleged that only three interested parties was “not enough” to ensure transparency and therefore the suspension until October, but under the same conditions and terms.

However according to the law that opened the way for the auctioning of Pluna’s assets if there are no interested parties in the first call, in the second, the base price for the seven aircraft would be 100 million dollars.

According to aviation experts the 19 million dollars for each Bombardier (totalling 7 and 136 million dollars) is way out of price with market operations for such aircraft in the range of 11 to 12 million dollars.

Pluna, Uruguay’s flag carrier was started in 1936 and at its latest experience beginning in 2007 it was jointly managed by an Argentine private group which had a majority stake of 75%. But the private group alleged it could not compete with regional subsidized airlines and accumulated debts of 380 million dollars plus a 28 million dollars fuel bill. Besides the Uruguayan state is the guarantor of the Bombardier aircraft purchase.

Faced with this situation and when the Argentine group Leadgate threatened with abandoning the airline if there wasn’t further financial support from the government, the administration of President Jose Mujica declared the dissolution of the company and the sale of all its assets.

Following the collapse of Wednesday’s auction and not many encouraging prospects for October, President Mujica speaking with the press said he agreed to the dissolution of Pluna because his administration was not prepared to grant the airline an annual subsidy of 25 million dollars.

Regarding the possibility of having Pluna take off again with the State as partner and the redundant staff managing the airline, Mujica said there is only one problem: “who’s going to put the money to get the airline flying again?”

Uruguay reacts with silence to repeated Argentine provocations

The Uruguayan government said on Monday there will be no public statements on the latest “situations” with Argentina, and Uruguay will keep to what was agreed at presidential level during the last (31 July) Mercosur extraordinary meeting in Brasilia.

 President Mujica’s conciliatory policy towards Cristina Fernandez collapsing

“We will keep to what was agreed by President (Jose) Mujica with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez when they met in Brazil last week and that was to lower the level of discrepancies and avoid having the media expose exchanges relative to the situation”, said the Executive Deputy Secretary Diego Canepa following Monday’s cabinet meeting.

The Argentine government is demanding that Uruguayan officials who allegedly claimed there was an attempt by the Dutch/Argentine Riovia company in charge of dredging the River Plate access channels to bribe them for an extension of a contract, to make those very statements before an Argentine court.

Argentina said that until then it will freeze all negotiations related to the dredging of the Martin Garcia canal that is vital for Uruguay’s exports of grains, oilseeds and pulp from the port of Nueva Palmira, but which the government of President Cristina Fernandez has been deliberately delaying because of the powerful interests of Buenos Aires that does not approve of a successful competitive terminal just across the River Plate.

The Argentine freeze was implemented by simply not accepting one of the bidders for the deep dredging of the agreed Martin Garcia tender which would then enable vessels to leave Nueva Palmira fully loaded. The bidder questioned by Argentina is precisely Riovía, allegedly involved in the bribe attempt and which for years has been doing the dredging of the River Plate canals.

The bribe attempt was informed by the Uruguayan officials to a special committee of the Uruguayan parliament and the bidding process for the deep dredging Martin Garcia canal was also questioned by Uruguay’s National Auditing Office, particularly the terms for the temporary contract extension for Riovia to keep working until the results of the tender.

End of the line: Foreign Minister Hector Timerman found the perfect excuse to further delay a long exhausting conciliatory effort from President Mujica to have Argentina accept the deep dredging of the Martin Garcia canal, and stated that he expected the bribe allegations to be presented before the Argentine justice.

The Uruguayan government all along tried to downplay the incident with the sole purpose of getting ahead with the dredging. At the time the Uruguayan officials involved also tried to calm the waters arguing the ‘bribe attempt claims’ were merely ‘here-says’.

But Timerman pointed his guns to Ambassador Francisco Bustillo who together with Argentine ambassador Roberto Garcia Moritán are responsible for the River Plate Administrative Commission, CARP which manages all issues relative to the world’s widest estuary, including the maintenance and dredging of the access canals.

Bustillo who was directly involved in the alleged bribe attempt claim said in a press interview that who introduced him to the RIovía representative was none less than his counterpart Garcia Moritán. Riovia all along has argued that it was more practical to have an extension of their contract that gets involved in a costly, complicated tender process.

But Bustillo before joining CARP was ambassador in Buenos Aires and during his time there was a scandal involving the import of luxury cars free of tax for diplomats which where then sold in the Argentine market. In the case of Ambassador Bustillo, according to Argentine claims in 2007 he imported two Porsche, valued at 98.000 dollars each and two BMW M3 and X5.

Now Timerman has resurfaced the case and is demanding Uruguay exempts Bustillo of his diplomatic immunity so he can face charges of smuggling in Argentina.

And last but not least Argentina has now resurrected claims dating back to September 2011 arguing that the Uruguayan UPM-Botnia pulp mill annual production “is well above the agreed million tons” to ensure protection of the environment.

The pulp mill controversy, built on the shared River Uruguay, soured Uruguay/Argentina relations during almost six years and was finally de-activated when President Mujica was elected who adopted an entirely conciliatory attitude towards President Cristina Fernandez and following a ruling from the International Court of Justice in The Hague which was mostly favourable to Uruguay.

Meanwhile in Montevideo Ambassador Bustillo has requested authorization from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to press charges against Minister Timerman before a Uruguayan court for “political persecution” and Foreign Minister Luis Almagro said he would take to court all details referred to the Martin Canal bidding process.

However Uruguayan high ranking and former diplomats are recommending that ambassador Bustillo be removed from CARP and the canal negotiations, since he is “too irritating” for the Argentines, one of the few diplomatic cards left to overcome the escalating situation.

Members of the opposition have told President Mujica to forget his “conciliatory policy” towards Cristina Fernandez and have Uruguay unilaterally organize the dredging of the Martin Garcia canal for which he will have complete support from the entire Uruguayan political arch.

Paraguayan senators challenge Chavez version of attempted bribes to favour Venezuela

An international controversy has surfaced between President Hugo Chavez and Paraguayan senators as to who really tried to bribe whom regarding failed attempts to have Venezuela incorporated to Mercosur.

Senate Oviedo Matto claims it was Chavez brother who was offering money to vote in favour of Venezuela’s inclusion in Mercosur.

Venezuela first applied for Mercosur full membership in 2006, but only managed it this week after in special circumstances and with a process that international law experts describe as “highly questionable” when not null and void

On Friday a Paraguayan Senator quoted by the Spanish press said that the brother of President Chavez offered money to at least one lawmaker so that his country’s congress would vote the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur.

“The President of the Paraguayan congress Jorge Ovideo Matto claims that there were repeated offerings of money from emissaries responding to President Chavez brother begging for the approval of Venezuela’s inclusion in Mercosur”, according to Madrid’s conservative daily ABC.

“With me he (Chavez) never spoke, but yes he did send emissaries through a brother of his, I believe he has more than one brother, offering money. It was him (Chavez) that was offering money and was trying that way to change the vote of members from Congress” said Senator Ovideo Matto.

“The only thing I’m sure of is that Chavez sent money through members of Congress; that is a categorical fact, and not only to try and bribe lawmakers”, underlined the president of the Paraguayan Senate.

Venezuelan president Chavez earlier in the week revealed that “last year” he met with Senator Lino Oviedo (without specifying which of the two with the same last name) in Brazil where money was asked to accept the inclusion of Venezuela to the regional trade block, since only the Paraguayan Senate was pending approval for the incorporation.

Senator Oviedo Matto said the news is nothing new since the money offers by Chavez brother were made public by Senator Zulma Gomez before the Paraguayan Senate in October 2011. The lawmaker admitted having been approached by an emissary who was promising 100.000 dollars for those who voted for Venezuela.

Chavez talked about the issue on his return to Caracas from Brasilia where the three presidents of Mercosur; Cristina Fernandez, Argentina, Jose Mujica, Uruguay and Dilma Rousseff, Brazil, since Paraguay was suspended, formalized the inclusion of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur.

He said that on the suggestion from Brazil’s Lula da Silva, ‘some time ago’ he flew to Sao Paulo where he met with Senator Oviedo to talk about the issue. The talks included phone calls with President Fernando Lugo and former president Nicanor Duarte.

“Nothing was achieved since a bunch of extreme right Paraguayan Senators, instruments of the US empire, wanted millions of dollars for their vote, but I couldn’t permit extortion of Venezuela to prosper, and did not yield”, according to Chavez.

He added he told the Senators that “the time will come and the time came for the decent inclusion of Venezuela to Mercosur by the front door with no tricks”.

Paraguay was suspended from Mercosur following the removal from the presidential office of Fernando Lugo, following a summary impeachment described by the three full member presidents, as “a rupture of democratic institutions”.

Not without controversy Venezuela becomes Mercosur fifth full member

Following a full day of deliberations in Brasilia between Foreign Affairs ministers, the presidents from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, on Tuesday will formally receive Venezuela as the new full member of Mercosur, as was agreed at the regular mid year summit in Mendoza.

 The incorporation procedure has Uruguay’s Mujica and Astori in opposite positions

The historic event, as it is described by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, nevertheless has been plagued with controversy since the incorporation was decided on the absence of the fourth original Mercosur full member, Paraguay, suspended from the group until April next year, and contrary to basic consensus rules.

In Brazil the procedure used to implement the incorporation decision has been consistently criticized by opposition leaders, lawmakers and law professors. Likewise in Uruguay where even Vice-president Danilo Astori has openly clashed with President Jose Mujica saying the procedure is illegal and could represent the “kiss of death” for the Mercosur group which took off in 1991 in Paraguay.

Mujica has argued that sometimes the political must prevail over the juridical, and “this was one case”, adding that Venezuela as an energy powerhouse would further strengthen the group, balance inside forces and open other opportunities to expand in the region..

But Mujica will be focusing on other issues in Brasilia: the River Plate canal dredging differences with Argentina for which he is hoping on a bilateral meeting with Cristina Fernandez (despite her refusal to address foreign ministry affairs) and which has exposed a serious confrontation between the neighbouring countries.

The Uruguayan president will also hold talks with the host President Dilma Rousseff hopefully to sign several bilateral agreements referred to infrastructure, energy, ship yards, science and technology, plus attracting investments in new alternative energies such as wind.

The Brazilian Foreign ministry said in a release that with the incorporation of Venezuela, (the main oil producer of South America with 2.3million bpd) Mercosur will represent 83% of South America’s GDP.

Earlier in the day the foreign ministers addressed legal and practical trade issues so that Venezuela adapts to Mercosur nomenclature and the common external tariff plus the list of exceptions (safeguards) she’s entitled to. It was agreed Venezuela would have until 2016 to get all these issues straightened out.

Although the formal presidential summit of incorporation for Venezuela takes place on Tuesday with the attendance of Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez, Uruguay’s Jose Mujica, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and the host Dilma Rousseff, the full annexation will effectively occur on August 12.

On that day a month will have passed since Venezuela deposited its ratification of the Mercosur protocol, as demanded by the group’s rules.

Israel says Mercosur should be “much concerned” with the inclusion of Venezuela

Israeli ambassador in Uruguay Dori Goren said that the incorporation of Venezuela of Mercosur should “concern” the countries of the regional block given what he described as “Venezuelan support to Iranian agents that establish terror webs in the region”.

Ambassador Dori Goren claims Iranian agents are establishing terror nets in the region with the coverage of Venezuela.

“The incorporation of the government of President Hugo Chavez to Mercosur should be of significant concern for member countries” because in the continent “there are a lot of Iranian agents which operate establishing terror webs under the cover of Venezuela” said ambassador Goren in a Sunday interview with Montevideo’s leading newspaper.

Presidents from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, Cristina Fernandez, Dilma Rousseff and Jose Mujica are meeting on Tuesday July 31 in Brasilia to ratify the incorporation of Venezuela to the regional block which was approved at the Mendoza Mercosur summit of last 29 June.

President Hugo Chavez has promised to attend Brasilia for what he described as a historic event.

The Venezuelan request to belong to Mercosur dates back to 2006 and after Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil approved it, only Paraguay was pending because the Senate rejected the move arguing the ‘non democratic practices’ of President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez and Israel have had rough relations: the Israeli ambassador Shlomo Cohen was expulsed from Caracas on January 2009 following the Israeli army offensive against Palestinian territory in Gaza.

Chavez also has close relations with those countries aligned against the US beginning with Iran. He has visited Teheran and the Iranian president has been to Venezuela on more than one occasion and has also visited Chavez allies in Bolivia and Nicaragua.

Venezuela and Iran have signed a raft of agreements from trade and investment to defence and development of arms, and the relation is described as “strategic”.

Mercosur on the other hand has a free trade agreement with Israel and according to Ambassador Goren he was informed at the Uruguayan Foreign ministry that “the treaty will not be affected by the inclusion of Venezuela”.

“Venezuela will have to accept the agreements already signed among which obviously the free trade agreement with Israel”, Uruguayan diplomacy informed the Israel ambassador.

Nevertheless “we are waiting to see how things evolve and to what extent the inclusion of Venezuela in Mercosur can affect the trade relation with Israel, bilaterally with each country member and above all with the whole block”.

Ambassador Goren believes that for the moment, Venezuela’s incorporation will not affect diplomatic relations of his country with members of the block.

“Relations with Mercosur block members are very good, but the inclusion of Venezuela implies a very strong political and economic signal”, he emphasized.

Goren added that Israel’s relation with Venezuela “is very bad because it is one of the countries in the world which most supports Iran and particularly Teheran’s nuclear program”.

Iran “can still survive” all international actions because of the “economic support” from Venezuela and the aid it provides Teheran to deviate all economic actions through Venezuelan banks” said Ambassador Goren who underlined “this must be of much concern to Mercosur countries”.

The Mercosur Farce

Brazil discusses with Chavez arrangements for Venezuela’s Mercosur incorporation

Venezuelan President met on Wednesday with a committee from the Brazilian government to discuss mechanisms to speed the full integration of the country to the regional block. Brazil currently holds the Mercosur rotating chair.

“We addressed two main areas, one relative to the whole process of incorporation to Mercosur, inclusion mechanisms which we want to speed to recover lost time”, said Chavez following a meeting in the president Palace of Miraflores with a delegation headed by Alessandro Texeira, Development, Industry and Foreign Trade minister.

Chavez added that the first meetings both in Brazil and Montevideo have been agreed “so that we can continue working in the first issues such as nomenclature, tariffs and Mercosur norms”.

“We are ready to begin the process as soon as the full incorporation of Venezuela is officially confirmed 31 July in Brasilia”.

Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay with the absence of suspended Paraguay, decided at the end of June during a Mercosur summit the full integration of Venezuela, which was pending since 2006 because of the Paraguayan Senate to support the request. It was precisely the absence of suspended Paraguay which opened the way for the controversial and much questioned incorporation.

Chavez said the second issue addressed was referred “to the area of structural development, structural projects for the agro-industrial development and the production of food” and other areas.

“We have detected at least 230 products that can be exported from Venezuela to Brazil and other countries from the block in the near future”.

Nevertheless the Brazilian delegate Minister Texeira said Venezuelan has ahead important considerations such “as adapting to the new economic rules, foreign trade rules, but we have a full year for all the basics to be in place so that Venezuela can join the block and the Venezuelan people can harvest benefits for the economy”.

“For us the incorporation of Venezuela is strategic to strengthen the block and consolidate Latinamerican integration”, added the Brazilian minister who travelled to Caracas with a delegation of experts and the president advisor on foreign affairs, Marco Aurelio Garcia.

Chavez is scheduled to fly next week to Brasilia to attend the meeting in which Venezuela will officially become a full member of Mercosur. Previous to the ceremony he is scheduled to have a private meeting with President Dilma Rousseff and former head of state Lula da Silva.

Among the issues to be addressed according to Brazilian sources are Mercosur “foreign relations” situation. Mercosur has trade agreements with countries such as Israel and Palestine, but Caracas has no formal relations with Israel following the Gaza attacks. Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is a strong lobbyist for Jewish communities in Latin America and ally of Israel.

Similarly with Uruguay which is one of the first countries to vote for the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Furthermore Teheran is a close political and military ally of President Chavez and some members of the Iranian cabinet have pending arrest orders from Argentine Justice for their alleged masterminding of an attack on a Jewish institution back in 1994 which killed dozens and left hundreds injured.

However it is also a fact that even when China is Mercosur member-countries main trade associate, Paraguay does not have diplomatic relations with Beijing and actually recognizes the ‘rebel’ regime of Taiwan.

Brazilian influential newspaper blasts “Dilma’s anti-diplomacy”

Brazil’s influential newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo blasted Brazilian foreign policy and its handling of the Paraguayan political crisis. In an opinion column under the heading “Dilma’s anti-diplomacy” the newspaper argues that the current administration is politicizing foreign policy, the same way that her predecessor, Lula da Silva.

The conservative newspaper claims that since the Workers Party reached office, the eight years of former president Lula da Silva were rich in transforming Brazilian diplomacy into an “ideological exercise”. It mentions the case in 2006 when Bolivia troops took over Petrobras refineries (and Brazilian assets), and Lula da Silva called it an “act of sovereignty” and that Bolivia needed to be treated with “love”.

However with the arrival of Dilma Rousseff there were hopes of a change, particularly since the president committed her administration to the defence of human rights, including in Iran, whose president denies the Holocaust and heads a regime that beats and jails opponents and Lula da Silva referred to him as “compañero”.

It seemed that Dilma was prepared to abandon Lula’s childish Anti-Americanism and join sides with the civilized world in condemning Teheran. But the Brazilian president who likes to be called “the manager” is more intent in imprinting her own seal to foreign policy, says O Estado de Sao Paulo.

For example, when Dilma had the chance to show her statesmanship at the RIo+20 conference last June, she left aside the professional diplomats and preferred a watered down document with no decisive weight that seemed to please or be accepted by everybody, believing it was a diplomatic success.

Later when the opportunity to put out the fire caused by the removal of Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo, also last June, she ended adding fuel to the situation by accepting the thesis of a ‘coup’ and therefore Paraguay had to be sanctioned.

O Estado de Sao Paulo adds that later Dilma personally patronized the regrettable operation to include Venezuela in Mercosur, taking advantage of the suspension of Paraguay, which resisted all along the incorporation of President Hugo Chavez’ country to an already discredited South American block.

Basically Dilma’s excessive personalism in foreign policy does not differ from the political-ideological contamination of the eight years Lula da Silva was president. In both cases foreign policy decisions are adopted not according to national interests as mandates the Constitution, “but in line with those projects to affirm and retain power”. Under Lula da Silva the imprudent policy of siding with autocrats imperilled the independence of Brazil in the definition of its foreign interests and in the search of a “community of Latinamerican nations” the former president put the country “at the service of the delirious Bolivarian project”.

With Dilma the “Lulopetista” (blend of Lula da Silva and Workers Party) ideology persists in Brazil’s foreign relations, but with an added probably more explosive ingredient: her idiosyncrasies. The President does not get along with her Foreign Affairs minister Antonio Patriota, the “manager” insists in a diplomacy of results and is contrary to making concessions and to the flatteries which are part of the essence of diplomacy.

Finally the newspaper cautions that with two and a half years ahead Dilma, has ample chance to further imprint her personal views, further compromising the influence of Brazil in international affairs.