MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The downfall of the ‘loyal, orthodox’ Jorge Taiana

Taiana could not stand having his loyalty questioned

Suspicious deals with Venezuela, a ministry with different areas of influence, alleged leaks to the press, a close alignment with Washington and in spite of his submission, probably too ‘autonomous’ for the Kirchner couple’s taste seems to have condemned the orthodox Jorge Taiana as Argentina’s Foreign Affairs minister.

According to Argentine analysts and members of the opposition the subdued but respected Taiana was enduring the situation as a stoic diplomat and good Peronist ‘soldier’, until he was recriminated by President Cristina Kirchner for alleged leaks to the press regarding a possible Brazilian participation in the Uruguay/Argentina pulp mill.

The situation turned from sour to explosive when Mrs. Kirchner begun using words which are sacrosanct for orthodox Peronists. Allegedly she suggested Taiana should ‘act as loyal’ as Economy minister Amado Boudou. The word ‘loyal’ in the Peronist catalogue is used to contrast with ‘treason’ and loyalty even has a special Day in the Peronist calendar, October 17, which recalls when the former leader Juan Peron was rescued from those who had betrayed him, by the ‘loyal’ workers who had taken to the streets.

Said this Taiana was sitting on a Congress request for the summons of a former ambassador in Venezuela Eduardo Sadous who claimed that a parallel Argentine embassy was functioning in Caracas, and that Argentine businessmen had complained to him that any deals with the President Hugo Chavez regime had to be given the green light, --previous 15% toll--, by close aides from a current member of the Argentine cabinet, working from an office with virtually diplomatic status in the Venezuela capital.

Obviously before leaving Taiana formally authorized Sadous to go to Congress or rather informed him that legally there are no impediments for ambassadors to be questioned by lawmakers. The minister involved in the issue is Julio De Vido, one of former president Nestor Kirchner’s most trusted men, who runs all the energy deals and surplus budget funds show. One of De Vido’s representatives in Caracas was Claudio Uberti also involved in the suitcase scandal with 800.000 US dollars which was accidentally caught in a Buenos Aires airport.

Ambassador Sadous has now confirmed he will be going to Congress to talk with lawmakers and the incoming minister Hector Timerman has anticipated he will try to remind him “as a professional ambassador he can’t reveal confidential information. If he does, he will be committing a crime”.

Timerman went further and said that the alleged “parallel diplomatic office in Caracas” was the result of “media imagination” and only had words of praise for Minister De Vido, a man dedicated to fighting “big corporations and powerful lobbies”.

However the circumstances in which Taiana unexpectedly resigned only cast more doubts about the whole Venezuelan dealings and a inquiry committee has been anticipated by opposition lawmakers.

Taiana faced a more formal conflict in Washington with former ambassador Hector Timerman who succeeded him in the post. Timerman in direct line with Cristina Kirchner managed all Washington affairs and those related with the New York Jewish community. Similarly, with the international forums such as the G-20 of which Argentina is a member.

Besides Taiana as a good orthodox Peronist felt more at ease with an aggressive rhetoric towards Washington, --as happened under Mr. Kirchner--, than the more complacent attitude of Mrs. Kirchner towards President Obama and the Democrats. The former minister was not convinced of the complete Argentine alignment with the US in the Iran policy, which had been patiently worked out by Timerman.

Finally Taiana apparently had been too much in the limelight regarding issues such as the understanding with Uruguay regarding the pulp mill dispute and in making the arrangements for Mrs. Kirchner’s state visit next month to China which should help solve the Beijing decision to ban all soy-oil imports from Argentina.

“The Kirchners are very strict with their ministers, not much room for them to move. So the fact that a minister walks out on them and slams the door in such a tight and closed system only gives it more repercussion”, said Andrés Cisneros, former Deputy minister under Guido Di Tella .