MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine opposition blasts Nestor Kirchner’s Unasur candidacy

This time apparently Mr. Kirchner will have the full consensus

One of the leaders of the Argentine opposition warned that it would be “tragedy for the Americas” if the ex President Néstor Kirchner is designated as General Secretary of the South American Nations Union (Unasur).

“It would be a tragedy for America if Néstor Kirchner turns out to be designated as the head of the Unasur because the post should be occupied by a democratic man” said lawmaker Elisa Carrió, head of the Civic Coalition, during a political rally.

Ms Carrió considered that “it would be the same risk if Hugo Chávez was in charge. We have to be very careful with the new-born institutions because those in charge are part of a foundation and they can make it develop or die.”

Carrió reacted after the Bolivian President gave an explicit support to Kirchner's candidacy.

“I'm convinced that the integration of the Unasur is been accelerated, and I want to express our support for Argentina's ex President Néstor Kirchner so he can be designated as Unasur's general secretary” announced Evo Morales during last week’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's visit to Bolivia.

Kirchner's candidacy to head the Unasur was launched by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. But the initiative was objected by the ex President of Uruguay Tabaré Vázquez, while Peru and Colombia did not announce their position. Any Unasur decision must be unanimous.

Uruguay and Argentina are divided over a pulp mill constructed along a shared border river. Argentina argues it was nor formally consulted on the issue, as demanded by a treaty dating back to the seventies, and sponsored pickets that have blocked for over three years an international bridge linking the neighbouring countries.

Former Uruguayan president Tabare Vázquez accepted to hold talks on the dispute but demanded that pickets be lifted. However the Kirchners said they could not interfere with people’s right to protest. Vazquez then vetoed Kirchner nomination to Unasur and the dispute turned personally acrimonious.

But with the coming to office of Jose Mujica, a close friend of the Kirchners, things have changed and the Uruguayan president has promised discussions on “whatever is necessary” to overcome the dispute.

President Mujica would therefore not veto the former Argentine president as Unasur permanent secretary general. The recent visit to Peru of President Cristina Kirchner where she publicly apologized before President Alan García and Congress, for Argentina’s supply of weapons to Ecuador in 1995, during an armed border conflict with Peru, is also expected to help change Lima’s position.

Regarding Colombia, President Alvaro Uribe is soon leaving and with his successor there could be a new start, particularly since Mrs. Kirchner is intent in gradually distancing Argentine foreign policy from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

Cash and credit strapped Argentina is in the midst of a negotiation to return to global money markets and needs to show a less radical stance in international affairs: a more positive criticism of the world financial system and of the strong US military presence in Colombian bases.