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Off The Record: Diplomatic advice that irritated the President
La Nacion
September 01, 2008

For the Ambassador to the United States, H ctor Timerman, a well-intentioned exercise in "diplomatic nicety" didn't go over well. A few days ago, he sent a note to President Cristina Kirchner in which he suggested that it had been a mistake to praise U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during the press conference she held on August 2. In the letter, Timerman argued that these statements could be interpreted as the President "interfering in the internal political life" of another country, said government sources. They say that the President didn't like anything her ambassador had to say and that, upon receiving the letter, applied some famous "Patagonian frost" to Timerman. In line with that note, say other sources, not one representative of the Kirchner government participated in the Democratic convention that nominated Obama.

Everything is bad for Redrado

Another official who the President is more annoyed with is the chief of the Central Bank, Martin Redrado. His recent statements on the need to control inflation (a prohibited word in the Kirchner dictionary) were annoying, but above all the worst displeasure was over the alledged moved by Redrado against Economy Minister Carlos Fern ndez. Within the presidential office, they say that the rumors around changes at the Palacio de Hacienda and about an imminent plan to reopen the private debt swap came out of the Central Bank. At the moment of her biggest anger, Cristina Kirchner went so far as to ask Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa to communicate her displeasure to Redrado (who is an official that is autonomous of the Executive Branch). They were going to meet the day before yesterday, but in the end their chat will be some other time.

Shannon's interest

According to what came out in the past few days, the meeting between President Cristina Kirchner with U.S. undersecretary for the Americas at the State Department, Thomas Shannon, had avoided the most disturbing problems on the Argentina agenda for that country: the case of the "bagman" Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson and the Paris Club. In turn, Mrs. Kirchner was very detailed with information on her trip to New York on the third week of this month, to attend the General Assembly of the UN: she will visit New York University and attend an opening of the Nasdaq, the electronic trading bourse of the U.S. As always, she will speak before the Council of the Americas under the hospitality of its president, Susan Segal.

For Shannon another thing interested him during the chat. To get the President to have a more balanced view of the Bolivian crisis, which is to say that she recognize the legitimacy of the governors opposing Evo Morales. It seems he returned to Washington with the feeling of having pulled it off.