Washington – Argentina is dispatching a senior diplomat to Washington to answer the Bush administration’s increasing concern over President Nestor Kirchner’s apparent tilt leftward in recent weeks, U.S. officials say.
Kirchner has been easing moderates out of his cabinet and courting Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez. And at the 34-country Summit of the Americas in Argentina last month, he strongly opposed President Bush’s efforts to promote free trade.
So far, the Bush administration has opted to deal with the issue in private rather than in public, analysts and U.S. officials in Washington say.
“The Argentines know where we are, we’ve spoken to them pretty clearly about it,” said a senior U.S. official who asked for anonymity to avoid affecting his dealings with Argentine officials.
Buenos Aires is dispatching its No. 3 diplomat, Roberto Garcia Moritan, to Washington on Monday to discuss the issue with the Bush administration, the official added. Requests for comment by the Argentine embassy went unanswered.
Washington officials and analysts say the main U.S. concern is Kirchner’s relations with the populist Chavez. The Bush administration has accused Chavez of becoming increasingly autocratic and supporting radicals around the region. The Venezuelans deny both charges.
Only a week after the Summit of the Americas, Kirchner flew to Caracas, where he signed energy deals and obtained Chavez’s pledge to buy more Argentine bonds, which would reduce Argentina’s dependence on the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Argentine leader also has become a leading proponent of Venezuela’s full membership in the Mercosur trade bloc, which includes Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. And Chavez has said he wants to buy Argentine nuclear technology. U.S. officials have expressed confidence that Argentina will reject the proposal.
Kirchner’s broader turn leftward was signaled by his dismissal of moderate minister of Economics Roberto Lavagna and his appointment of Nilda Garre, the ambassador to Caracas and a proponent of closer ties with Chavez, as defense minister. He also gave the foreign ministry to Jorge Taiana, a member of the left wing of Kirchner’s Peronist Party.
U.S. officials and analysts say they are puzzled by Kirchner’s shift because Bush has made efforts to be friendly to the Argentine president since his election in 2003.
Bush met with Kirchner at the White House shortly after the election, when the Argentine economy was beginning to recover from a collapse in early 2002, and helped Kirchner secure a much-needed deal with the IMF.
But at the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, U.S. officials say, Kirchner seemed more concerned with scoring points with his domestic audience, which generally dislikes Bush, than keeping good relations with Washington.
The Argentines allowed live broadcasts of those portions of the event that were critical of U.S. postures – including Kirchner’s own opening speech and a blistering Chavez attack on U.S. policies – but not the comments of presidents who favored free trade.
Riordan Roett, with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, said the U.S. government is reluctant to make public its discomfort with Kirchner in part because that might upset Brazil, which has close ties with Argentina. Bush has aggressively courted Brazil’s moderate leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Some observers also caution against reading too much into Kirchner’s overtures to Chavez, whose deep pockets could help Argentina in its negotiations with the IMF.
Befriending Chavez “gives Kirchner more mojo” in his dealings with the IMF, Ken Frankel, who has taken part in business dealings in Latin America and is now a partner with Hodgson Russ LLP, wrote recently in the newsletter Latin America Advisor.
“Kirchner may say and do some quixotic things, but barring highly unanticipated political turns elsewhere in Latin America, he’s smart enough not to cast his lot with Chavismo.”
