Christian Science Monitor from the May 27, 2003 edition By Jonathan M. Miller

BUENOS AIRES – On Sunday, Argentina inaugurated a new president, Néstor Kirchner, and virtually every head of state in Latin America was here to lend support. Fidel Castro was the biggest celebrity in town, followed by Lula da Silva from Brazil, and Hugo Chávez from Venezuela.

The best that the US could come up with was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez. Perhaps this wasn't an intended snub, because the White House similarly sent only its US Trade Representative to Lula's inauguration in Brazil. But all the Argentine media have noted the absence of a higher-ranking official.

Unfortunately Mr. Kirchner needs the boost of as many visiting dignitaries as possible. Emerging from the worst depression in the nation's history, Argentines are desperate that he perform well. But he becomes president with only 22 percent of the vote. Former President Carlos Menem, the winner of the first round of voting, withdrew his candidacy rather than face certain defeat in a runoff. However, he did not withdraw in a concession of defeat, but rather to rob Kirchner of the legitimacy of an electoral mandate.

Oddly, many Argentines assume that the US supports Menem, whose scandal-plagued presidency from 1989 to 1999 set the free-spending policies that are widely believed responsible for the current economic disaster. Menem is perceived as having strong ties to the Bush family, because the elder George Bush met with him on five trips to Argentina after leaving the presidency and several times in the US.

As president, Menem's foreign policy was always one of complete deference to the US; his own foreign minister once used the term "carnal relations" to describe the Argentine-US relationship.

On the campaign trail this year, Menem came out in favor of paying back Argentina's entire foreign debt, however unrealistic that may be.

Argentina's economy remains unstable after a meltdown during 2002. Bank financing remains nonexistent, unemployment approaches 20 percent, and what was once a broad middle class has collapsed into poverty. Many Argentines assume that the US wishes to punish Argentina for its default on its foreign debt and wants to keep Argentina weak.

Kirchner will need to consolidate power, and it remains unclear whether he'll do so by buying friends through patronage and corruption or through legitimate political reform. As a provincial governor, he packed the judiciary and subordinated most checks on his power. Further, he reached the presidential runoff thanks to an alliance with interim President Eduardo Duhalde, who leads a Peronist machine in greater Buenos Aires that is often viewed as being as corrupt as Menem's.

But Kirchner also presented a strikingly moderate inaugural address, calling for fiscal discipline, a crackdown on tax evasion and corruption, and new public works, with no populist bombast.

When the US engages a country, whether with trade, aid, or just high-level visits, progressive forces find themselves with greater political space.

US backing can encourage reformers to take risks against a corrupt status quo, because the US can offer new opportunities for trade or recognition. It's hard to imagine how the Bush administration plans to negotiate the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas when it fails to send a top official to major Latin American events.

The presence of Secretary of State Colin Powell or Vice President Dick Cheney at Kirchner's inauguration would have been the sort of healthy support that prevents painful interventions later. The markets would have taken note, and Argentines would perceive that the US wants their country to be successful.

Instead, in a country whose new president needs legitimacy to confront huge problems, and where his despised opponent flaunts Bush family ties, the US leaves it to Fidel Castro to party with the winner.

Today, even the US students studying in Buenos Aires are pleading for tickets to get to hear Mr. Castro. It's too bad there's not another show in town.

• Jonathan M. Miller, a law professor at Southwestern University School of Law, established Southwestern's summer law program in Argentina and has published two books in Argentina on Argentine constitutional law.

Posted on Mon, May. 26, 2003 By BILL CORMIER Kansas.com-Associated Press

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentina's new president, Nestor Kirchner, greeted a host of Latin American leaders on Monday, outlining his plans to reshape a nation gripped by deep economic woes.

Kirchner, a center-left politician, promises a more protectionist stance for South America's second-largest economy, vowing to defend jobs and industry in a country mired in five years of recession.

He spent his first full day in office meeting presidents Alejandro Toledo of Peru, Jorge Batlle of Uruguay, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, whose visit here almost eclipsed Sunday's inauguration, met with Kirchner for about an hour.

"Fidel! Fidel! Cuba, Cuba, Cuba! The people salute you!" hundreds of people shouted as he left the meeting, smiling at the crowd before he entered his limousine.

Many of the leaders meeting with Kirchner applauded his desire for greater regional ties among Latin American nations.

"We need to create a new bloc of nations to negotiate with the North," Chavez said. "It would be a Latin American front."

Kirchner is seen as the latest leader in Latin America whose left-of-center leanings underscore a renewed effort by regional governments to find answers to rampant poverty and troubled economies.

Many of the presidents arrived in Buenos Aires after attending a regional summit in Lima, Peru, where they called for greater unity among struggling economies and fairer trade practices from wealthier nations.

Toledo told reporters that Latin American countries need to find "new mechanisms for finance and investment in social programs" in countries afflicted by poverty and despair.

He said he and Kirchner share similar views on how to help rebuild Argentina, a country that defaulted on most of its $141 billion public debt as its economy unraveled 18 months ago.

In recent months, the economy has shown signs of an uptick, and analysts expect its gross domestic product to expand by up to 4 percent this year.

But Kirchner will be hard-pressed by international creditors to refinance the burdensome debt and also make good on promises for a multi-billion dollar public works project to build homes, roads and meet other social needs.

Half of Argentina's 36.2 million population now live at or below the poverty line, and Kirchner used his inaugural speech on Sunday to promise to seek ways to defend "national capitalism." He asked that international markets be patient while he seeks to resurrect the country's languishing economy.

• Fidel attends ceremonies and is greeted by Duhalde and Kirchner • New president stresses that the debt cannot be paid without assuring Argentines of work, education for their children and access to healthcare

BY JOAQUIN RIVERY TUR AND JORGE LUIS GONZÁLEZ —Granma daily special correspondents—

BUENOS AIRES.— Néstor Kirchner has assumed the presidency of Argentina with a speech in which he emphasized change in the midst of the initial measures taken by the new government and in the presence of 12 presidents including Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

President Néstor Kirchner  receives the presidential  command baton from the  hands of outgoing leader  Eduardo Duhalde.

After being sworn in together with Daniel Scioli, the vice president, Kirchner directed his first message to the nation in a speech whose basic focus was change. "Change is the name of the future," he stated.

In a direct reference to the practice of neoliberalism, Kirchner noted that in the 90’s the pauperization of Argentines went ahead regardless. He highlighted that the situation of reducing politics to electoral results and government to circles of economic power must not be repeated.

He made it clear that "there would be no magical or lifesaving ploys, and nobody should think that things will change from one day to the next."

He advocated a better and more just redistribution of income. "We want to restore the values of solidarity and social justice that will allow us to change the current reality."

The new president stressed: "We know that the market organizes, but it does not articulate and the state is needed to install equality where the market excludes and abandons it. The state has to protect the most vulnerable sectors; in other words, workers and pensioners."

He added that "society is impoverished when government ignores the people. Juridical security must be for everyone and not only for those with power or money."

Kirchner announced that subsidies had to be guaranteed for those below the poverty line in order to give them access to healthcare, education and housing.

"These are necessary policies," he added, "that have to be impervious to pressure wherever it comes from."

He also placed emphasis on a regional policy, fundamentally through MERCOSUR and, at national level, emphasized that consumption will be at "at the center of our expansion strategy, and that of the population must be able to grow."

The state is to be involved as an economically active entity, promoting public works, not at a Pharonic level, but basically housing and infrastructure. "We have to refute neoliberalism with an increase in the national economy and the creation of new jobs," he explained.

"We cannot have recourse to adjustments and increasing our indebtedness. Creditors will have to understand that they can only get their money if Argentina is doing well," the new leader affirmed, adding that debt is a central issue, but it cannot be paid without ensuring Argentines work, education for their children, and access to healthcare.

He noted that, above everything else, the armed forces must be committed to the future and not the past, and in the international context noted that MERCOSUR must be strengthened and extended to new Latin American members, while proposing a serious a wide-ranging relationship with the United States and the European Union.

For the first time in Argentine history, the transfer of power and the presidential  sash, as well as the command baton, took place in the National Congress rather than the Rose House.

Kirchner effected another national touch with a different choice of command baton. He abandoned the one with the golden hilt in the French style, for a national one with Argentine symbols wrought by goldsmith Juan Carlos Pallardo. The official ceremony began when the outgoing president, Eduardo Duhalde, received the delegations attending the investiture. When Fidel arrived the television cameras followed him and captured the strong embrace Duhalde gave him before greeting the other guests.

HUNDREDS OF ARGENTINES GREET FIDEL

President Fidel Castro was a strong attraction for hundreds of Argentines who greeted him on the night of Sunday, May 25 outside the Four Seasons Hotel, where he is staying.

The crowd chorused solidarity with Cuba slogans ("Cuba, Cuba, Cuba, the people greet you") and carried posters with Che’s portrait, as well as Cuban and Venezuelan flags, thus also supporting the Bolivarian Revolution in that latter country.

One of the Argentines affirmed that it was a historical day for Argentina and that "perhaps the greatest living revolutionary in the world is treading on this soil and we have been able to see him, and see so many people who have fought for a more just society. For us (choked) it is probably one of the greatest joys in our lives that Fidel is here and, for the sake of millions of workers and young people, hopefully we might have a country that is just and where there is work for everybody."

Another person wanted to say that "the Argentine homeland is also the homeland of Fidel, Bolívar, the great Latin American homeland that our fathers dreamed of."

In addition to greeting Duhalde and attending a lunch offered by the outgoing president, the Cuban leader attended the swearing in of the president and vice president and, in the evening was present for a reception given by Kirchner at the Foreign Ministry where he greeted and conversed with the new leader and his wife.

Also present at Kirchner’s investiture were the presidents of Ecuador, Lucio Gutiérrez; Uruguay, Jorge Batlle; Colombia, Alvaro Uribe; Venezuela, Hugo Chávez; Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Chile, Ricardo Lagos; Panama, Mireya Moscoso; Guatemala, Alfonso Portillo; Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada; and El Salvador, Francisco Flores.

<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 25 May 2003, 13:50 UTC

Nestor Kirchner takes office Sunday as Argentina's sixth president in 18 months, facing the challenge of guiding his country out of economic depression.

Mr. Kirchner, a Peronist from Patagonia, must renegotiate some $60 billion in defaulted foreign debt and restore his country's relations with the international community. To jump-start the domestic economy and increase employment, he has promised a multi-billion dollar public works program.

As a three-term governor of sparsely populated Santa Cruz province, the new president is untested on the national and world stages. He has criticized U.S. policies on free trade, the embargo on Cuba and the war in Iraq.

Several regional leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, will watch as Mr. Kirchner takes the oath of office and receives the presidential sash.

Mr. Kirchner is the first elected president to take power since December 2001, when five leaders ruled in two weeks. He was thrust into office earlier this month when his rival, former President Carlos Menem, dropped out of a run-off election.

Tariq Ali Saturday May 24, 2003 The Guardian

Unsurprisingly, the UN security council has capitulated completely, recognised the occupation of Iraq and approved its re-colonisation by the US and its bloodshot British adjutant. The timing of the mea culpa by the "international community" was perfect. Yesterday, senior executives from more than 1,000 companies gathered in London to bask in the sunshine of the re-established consensus under the giant umbrella of Bechtel, the American empire's most favoured construction company. A tiny proportion of the loot will be shared.

So what happened to the overheated rhetoric of Europe v America? Berlusconi in Italy and Aznar in Spain - the two most rightwing governments in Europe - were fitting partners for Blair while the eastern European states, giving a new meaning to the term "satellite" which they had previously so long enjoyed, fell as one into line behind Bush.

France and Germany, on the other hand, protested for months that they were utterly opposed to a US attack on Iraq. Schröder had owed his narrow re-election to a pledge not to support a war on Baghdad, even were it authorised by the UN. Chirac, armed with a veto in the security council, was even more voluble with declarations that any unauthorised assault on Iraq would never be accepted by France.

Together, Paris and Berlin coaxed Moscow too into expressing its disagreement with American plans. Even Beijing emitted a few cautious sounds of demurral. The Franco-German initiatives aroused tremendous excitement and consternation among diplomatic commentators. Here, surely, was an unprecedented rift in the Atlantic alliance. What was to become of European unity, of Nato, of the "international community" itself if such a disastrous split persisted? Could the very concept of the west survive?

Such apprehensions were quickly allayed. No sooner were Tomahawk missiles lighting up the nocturnal skyline in Baghdad, and the first Iraqi civilians cut down by the marines, than Chirac rushed to explain that France would assure smooth passage of US bombers across its airspace (as it had not done, under his own premiership, when Reagan attacked Libya), and wished "swift success" to American arms in Iraq. Germany's cadaver-green foreign minister Joschka Fischer announced that his government, too, sincerely hoped for the "rapid collapse" of resistance to the Anglo-American attack. Putin, not to be outdone, explained to his compatriots that "for economic and political reasons", Russia could only desire a decisive victory of the US in Iraq.

Washington is still not satisfied. It wants to punish France further. Why not a ritual public flogging broadcast live by Murdoch TV? A humbled petty chieftain (Chirac) bending over while an imperial princess (Condoleezza Rice) administers the whip. Then the leaders of a re-united north could relax and get on with the business they know best: plundering the south. The expedition to Baghdad was planned as the first flexing of a new imperial stance. What better demonstration of the shift to a more offensive strategy than to make an example of Iraq. If no single reason explains the targeting of Iraq, there is little mystery about the range of calculations that lay behind it. Economically, Iraq possesses the second largest reserves of cheap oil in the world; Baghdad's decision in 2000 to invoice its exports in euros rather than dollars risked imitation by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and the Iranian mullahs. Privatisation of the Iraqi wells under US control would help to weaken Opec.

Strategically, the existence of an independent Arab regime in Baghdad had always been an irritation to the Israeli military. With the installation of Republican zealots close to Likud in key positions in Washington, the elimination of a traditional adversary became an attractive immediate goal for Jerusalem. Lastly, just as the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki had once been a pointed demonstration of American might to the Soviet Union, so today a blitzkrieg rolling swiftly across Iraq would serve to show the world at large that if the chips are down, the US has, in the last resort, the means to enforce its will.

The UN has now provided retrospective sanction to a pre-emptive strike. Its ill-fated predecessor, the League of Nations, at least had the decency to collapse after its charter was serially raped. Analogies with Hitler's blitzkrieg of 1940 are drawn without compunction by cheerleaders for the war. Thus Max Boot in the Financial Times writes: "The French fought hard in 1940 - at first. But eventually the speed and ferocity of the German advance led to a total collapse. The same thing will happen in Iraq." What took place in France after 1940 might give pause to these enthusiasts.

The lack of any spontaneous welcome from Shias and the fierce early resistance of armed irregulars prompted the theory that the Iraqis are a "sick people" who will need protracted treatment before they can be entrusted with their own fate (if ever). Such was the line taken by David Aaronovitch in the Observer. Likewise, George Mellon in the Wall Street Journal warns: "Iraq won't easily recover from Saddam's terror" - "after three decades of rule of the Arab equivalent of Murder Inc, Iraq is a very sick society". To develop an "orderly society" and re-energise (privatise) the economy will take time, he insists. On the front page of the Sunday Times, reporter Mark Franchetti quoted an American NCO: "'The Iraqis are a sick people and we are the chemotherapy,' said Corporal Ryan Dupre. 'I am starting to hate this country. Wait till I get hold of a friggin' Iraqi. No, I won't get hold of one. I'll just kill him.' " No doubt the "sick society" theory will acquire greater sophistication, but it is clear the pretexts are to hand for a mixture of Guantanamo and Gaza in these newly occupied territories.

If it is futile to look to the UN or Euroland, let alone Russia or China, for any serious obstacle to American designs in the Middle East, where should resistance start? First of all, naturally, in the region itself. There, it is to be hoped that the invaders of Iraq will eventually be harried out of the country by a growing national reaction to the occupation regime they install, and that their collaborators may meet the fate of former Iraqi prime minister Nuri Said before them. Sooner or later, the ring of corrupt and brutal tyrannies around Iraq will be broken. If there is one area where the cliche that classical revolutions are a thing of the past is likely to be proved wrong, it is in the Arab world. The day the Mubarak, Hashemite, Saudi and other dynasties are swept away by popular wrath, American - and Israeli - arrogance in the region will be over.

• Tariq Ali's new book, Bush in Babylon: Re-colonising Iraq, will be published by Verso in the autumn

tariq.ali3@btinternet.com