Secrets of Mr. Sullivan’s visit
For the one-way analyses imposed by the grieta chasm, last week’s visit of Washington’s National Security Advisor is a pebble in the shoe for both sides.
Some find it hard to explain why, if the government is so obsessed with adhering to the Havana-caracas-managua axis, it should put so much effort into cosying up to Joe Biden. And, above all, why the US leader should take seriously a country that is well on the way to becoming ‘Argenzuela.’
Others find it hard to explain why, if the superpower is responsible for harassing popular governments like those of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, its envoys should be given such a friendly reception.
Some opted to say that the delegation headed by Jake Sullivan came to protest human rights violations in those countries and to urge Argentina’s populist government to “reinforce democracy in the region.”
Others prefer to minimise and play down the visit, unsure what their audiences might think if they celebrate meetings with the ‘messengers of imperialism.’
DIRECT ACCESS
Sullivan is one of the senior officials with direct access to Biden. Something of a nerd, at the age of 44, he brings an unusual experience to the sphere of security and public policy. His visit has strategic relevance because it is his first to the region, and he brings with him the National Security Council director for the hemisphere, the head of the US State Department’s regional office, the director of Technology and Security and the director of Cybernetics. And it is relevant because he is the White House’s third envoy this year.
The history of the visit to Buenos Aires began a month ago via virtual meetings between Sullivan and his Argentine counterpart Gustavo Beliz, first joined by Argentine Ambassador to Washington Jorge Argüello and then by Foreign Minister Felipe Solá and fellow-ministers Martín Guzmán (Economy) and Matías Kulfas (Productive Development).
But only in recent days did the full scope of the trip become known. Indeed, the first interpretation of government and opposition sectors alike was that it was a “rush visit” to potentially head off the advance of 5G Chinese technology in this country. This reading was based on the names and specialties of those making up the US delegation. The sources consulted mentioned that 5G was one of the points tackled. There were no concrete requests but there were some clear diplomatic messages on the part of the visitors, such as: “Nobody is against the countries of the continent doing business with China but we are sensitive over issues like national security.”
CHINCHULINES
After a lunch of almost three hours in Olivos last Friday, Alberto Fernández was left with the impression that his guests deepened their trust in him and Argentina. This might be wishful thinking derived from the fact that only the areas of agreement between the two governments were mentioned and that the visitors devoured the asado without even inquiring into the origins of that weird stuff locally known as chinchulines.
But what is certain is that in US eyes, Argentina has yet to show that it is an indispensable and trustworthy partner. And the cordiality which the president may have noted in his guests does not mean that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her Latin American pals have ceased to represent a worry for superpower diplomacy. At all events it might perhaps mean that the Democratic administration wishes to interpret pragmatically that Alberto is not the same as Cristina.
Amid the discomfort of the leaders on both sides of the grieta rift in understanding the true meaning of the visit’s message, it passed by almost unnoticed that a World Bank loan of US$500 million for the purchase of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines (the first loan of its kind from that organism) was defined while two investments were also announced – one of US$300 million from General Motors (delayed) and the other of US$200 million from the renewable energy company AES.
When Argüello is asked as to the message left by the visit, he replies: “The visit is the message.” He explains thatthe trip in itself represents a political message. His next objective is to translate this into a meeting between Fernández and Biden before this year is out.