MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Obama propose political consultant and elite fund-raiser as next ambassador in Argentina
The White House has confirmed that US president Barack Obama has proposed fellow Democratic Party member Noah Mamet as the new ambassador in Buenos Aires, to replace outgoing incumbent Vilma Martínez. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesNo account ambassador for a no account country(it could be so different)
Aug 01st, 2013 - 03:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0“...not a career diplomat and is known to have raised more that 500,000 dollars to Obama's last presidential campaign.”
Aug 01st, 2013 - 07:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0Good to know how Mr. Obama thinks.
Argentina is so off the radar of US interests it doesn't matter who they put there.
Aug 01st, 2013 - 08:17 am - Link - Report abuse 0That's how Ambassadors are picked unless it is a country of relevance and Argentina does not fit that criteria. Though the outgoing Martinez was quite good in her role, more than Argentina required.
Aug 01st, 2013 - 09:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0If you matter you get an expert who knows their stuff ~and~ has the president's ear. If you don't you get... this sort of guy as part of the spoils system (or someone like Shirley Temple, if you're lucky). If you *really* don't matter you get someone they really don't want around in DC.
Aug 01st, 2013 - 12:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The poor sod.
Aug 01st, 2013 - 02:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Despite attempts to sweep corruption under the rug, the Argentine government is not doing much to address the public’s concern. In fact, President Kirchner tried pushing to institute new judicial reforms that would alter how judges are appointed and would thereby make them more susceptible to political pressures from the ruling party. Various groups around the world have expressed concern that the new laws will undermine an independent judiciary at a time of mounting charges of official corruption. With the way things are going, unless the Kirchner Administration is stopped it looks like we can expect Argentina to rise in the ranks of next year's Global Corruption Barometer. If the ruling party has the slightest victory this October, Argentina and the people will havae at least 4 more years of an inward contracting nation, withdrawing from normal internation relations.
Aug 01st, 2013 - 08:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The entire political economy of Argentina is blighted by the Kirchners’ brand of “crony capitalism”—one of the most corrosive and hardest-to-eradicate forms of corruption. Foreign investors complain about widespread government and private-sector corruption as well as pervasive demands by government officials for bribes. Money laundering, trafficking in narcotics and contraband, and tax evasion plague the financial system. Furthermore, the U.S. State Department’s 2009 Investment Climate Statement for Argentina notes that the corruption is so endemic and deep-rooted that U.S. businesses (which are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) frequently complain that “their adherence to the letter of the tax and regulatory codes at times places them at a competitive disadvantage.
con't
Go on!!!!!!!
Aug 02nd, 2013 - 09:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0Sadly, the “K Corruption List” is very long:
Aug 02nd, 2013 - 07:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0In 1993 as governor of Santa Cruz Province he expatriated 654 million dollars in public funds into tax havens of which only small amounts trickled back; when a local lawsuit was filed on this case he maneuvered the case and ended up being acquitted by judge Santiago Lozada who is his nephew-in-law;
Widespread public works bribery in the Infrastructure Ministry run by crony Julio De Vido; when former economy minister and whistle-blower Roberto Lavagna publicly disclosed this in 2005, Mr. K promptly fired him;
Embezzlement of government railway subsidies under crony transport ministers Ricardo Jaime and Juan Pablo Schiavi; both are under investigation over a railway accident that killed 51 passengers in February 2012 in Buenos Aires’ derelict, run-down and unmaintained passenger trains;
Cristina Kirchner’s 2007 presidential campaign funding where a Venezuelan crony was caught trying to bring into the country a suitcase stashed with 800.000 dollars cash “for Cristina’s campaign”, as well as campaign contributions from illegal drug front-companies;
Public funding for the “Madres Plaza de Mayo” NGO - a front for 70’s terrorists’ rights – embezzled by its head Sergio Schoklender (who spent decades in jail for murdering his parents in 1981), whose treasurer is Felisa Miceli, a former K economy minister forced to resign in 2005 after bundles of hard cash were found in her ministry toilette.
con't throughout
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