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Column 020215 Brewer

Monday, February 2, 2015

Argentine President is
again mired in
Corruption Allegations
By Jerry Brewer
President Cristina Fernandez of
Argentina continues to lose her
credibility on a world stage,
much beyond the recent events
in the alleged suicide of
Argentine prosecutor Alberto
Nisman on January 18.
In Nismans death, he was found
collapsed against the bathroom
door of his apartment with a
bullet wound in his head a 22caliber handgun nearby. A
security camera in the service
elevator of his apartment
building was not working, and
there were no cameras in its
stairwell. This just hours before
he was to testify before
Argentinas National Congress
regarding a criminal complaint
he filed against President
Fernandez and her inner circle.
Nisman, an Argentine prosecutor
since 2005, had been adamantly
seeking justice in the 1994
bombing of the AMIA Jewish
Community Center in Buenos

Aires that killed 85 people and

injured hundreds more. Nisman
claimed that Iran was behind the
bombing, and that the Argentine
government was trying to block
his efforts to prove it. He claimed
they were making secret deals to
forgive Iranian officials in the
1994 bombing in exchange for
increased trade and access to
Irans energy market.
And today, reportedly, hundreds
of hours of wiretapped phone
calls that Nisman collected have
yet to surface.
Nisman was described with a
reputation as an independent
and fearless prosecutor. Boldly,
he had stated that he had
definitive proof that the
Argentine government had tried
to negotiate the deal to safeguard
Iranian officials from
prosecution in the 1994 attack.
President Fernandez was quick
to label Nisman's death a suicide
on her Facebook page. But she
eventually said that she believed
the suicide was no suicide,
calling it an attempt to smear her
reputation.
The alleged and described
alliance and secret pact with Iran
is reminiscent of the deception,
subterfuge and allegations of
corruption against Venezuelas
late President Hugo Chavez, and
his own dealings and loyalty to
Iran. President Fernandez has
been described as a Hugo Chavez
protg.
Throughout Chavez's tenure as
Venezuela's leftist leader, he

willingly embraced the Iranians

and former Iranian President
Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. Chavez's
hypocrisy was graphically
demonstrated to a world
audience as he supported the
Iranian regime and its virulent
anti-Semitism, and his stubborn
denial of the Holocaust as well as
Iran's quest for nuclear
armaments.
As for Ahmadinejad, he
repeatedly called for Israel to be
"wiped off the map."
Chavez was no stranger to the
Middle East and the related circle
of terror networks lurking and
conspiring to do harm to the
Western Hemisphere. In 2001
Chavez paid state visits to Iran,
Iraq, and Libya. Fidel Castro was
quick to follow his protg with
visits to Syria, Libya, and
Iran. Chavez signed cooperation
agreements with Saddam
Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi, and
Iran's ruling mullahs. Iran
eventually became the second
largest investor in Venezuela.
Venezuelan Jewish leaders
complained about "verbal attacks
against Venezuelan Jews by
Chavez and members of his
PSUV party." The administration
had also been accused of
"ignoring and encouraging
various crimes committed
against Venezuela's Jewish
community," including the
vandalism of a synagogue and an
attack on a Jewish community
center in Caracas in 2009.
During the presidency of her late

husband, Nestor Kirchner (20032007), he was quoted in a speech

to Venezuela's National
Assembly as saying, "Venezuela
represents a true democracy
fighting for the dignity of its
people." And President
Kirchner's remaining days in
office closely followed his
alignment with much of the
Chavez doctrine.
Subsequently Argentina
descended to shamefully achieve
the reputation of "a pariah state
among international creditors,"
due to loan defaults, according to
Bloomberg Business.
As well, Chavez was later accused
of funneling hundreds of
thousands of dollars to the
presidential campaign of
Kirchners wife, Cristina
Fernandez.
Taking a page from the socialist
doctrine of Chavez on
expropriation, under President
Fernandez, Argentina announced
the seizure of a controlling
interest in the YPF oil company,
51 percent of which was owned
by Repsol of Spain. This action
mirrored many of Chavez's
actions in nationalizing
businesses in Venezuela. As well,
Fernandez parroted Chavez in a
fire-and-brimstone speech on TV
in which she blamed "foreigners"
for the energy shortages plaguing
her country.
In what raised many eyebrows
worldwide, in 2012 President
Fernandez joined neighboring
leftist governments in voting to
support a Palestinian state, this

with a large Jewish population in

Argentina that has been
victimized by terrorist bombings.
Claims of breaches in trust,
malfeasance and associated
skullduggery were hurled at
President Fernandez in April
2013, as an estimated one million
people took to the streets of
Buenos Aires to protest. This was
the third mass protest against
her rule since the previous year.
Chants of "Defend Democracy
and Justice," and calls for an end
to impunity, echoed across the
widest avenue in the world
Avenida 25 de Mayo as many
banged on pots and pans in
symbolic unity of discontent with
the government's actions and
direction.
With respect to the Nisman
incident, Fernandez has now
shifted some of the blame to
Argentinas intelligence service
(SI-Secretariat of Intelligence),
and she recently announced its
dissolution in favor of a newly
designed Federal Intelligence
Agency.
She claims the SI has not served
national interests.
Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of
Criminal Justice
International Associates, a
global threat mitigation firm
headquartered in northern
Virginia, with offices in Mexico
City and Barcelona,
Spain. TWITTER: CJIAUSA
Website: www.cjiausa.org.