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That's why I never vote for Democrats and Republican who squander our money this way,

Don't cry for me Argentina.

At the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was the richest country in the world, with gold reserves larger than those of the U.S. or any European country. It seems that even when Latin Americans can transcend the historic causes of their underdevelopment, as Argentines did in the beginning of the last century and Cubans in the middle, some innate compulsion to self-destruction will return them to their former condition.

Now that Argentina has recovered in part from its monumental collapse of recent years it should be required to honor its obligations, and if it still refuses to do so should be subject to special duties and tariffs that will effectively close the U.S. market to them. If this still doesn't convince them to pay, then its assets in the U.S. should be seized. In fact, seize the assets first. Don't give them the chance to empty their accounts.

This is how Latin American will be taught to pursue sound economic policies and guard its credit as its greatest asset. The writing-off or forgiveness of debts only perpetuates fiscal irresponsibility, if not outright larceny.

It is remarkable that Argentines now accept $3.5 billion in aid from Venezuela, their traditional rival in South America. The Argentines were always a very proud people, too proud in fact for the liking of most Latin Americans. But, apparently, no more.

Professor de la Cova alluded to the musical Evita, which is very loosely and irreverently based on the life of Eva Perón, Argentina's iconic first lady. The "moral conscience" of that play is none other than "Che" Guevara, who appears like a Greek chorus to remind Evita that her ambition will be her undoing. The strange thing, of course, is that "Che" was an ardent supporter of the Perons. In fact, he was even employed by them as a chivato, spying on Argentine expatriates abroad. Compared to "Che" Guevara, of course, Evita was the saint her people revere her as.

Petition signed; but won't express my feelings on this matter in writing.

Check this article out. It talks about how Cuba wants every country to have a "voice and a vote" in the World Baseball classic. What hypocrites. Mayebe the should give there people on a voice and a vote before demanding it of other countries.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2808644

"Es Dios el juez supremo.
No hay quien se le resista.
Ya estoy acostumbrado
su ley a respetar."
Carlos Gardel -- Adios Muchachos

It's hard to pay your bills if you can't export. The US does not allow the importation of Argentina's prime export, beef.

Just like with sugar, cotton, orange juice, ect. US agricultural protectionism hurts the US consumer.

As an ametuer chef, I would love to be able to purchase Argentine pampas beef. It has a much better flavor than US beef.

Argentina, even by Latin American standards, is also highly anti-US and pro-Castro. In other words, it doesn't deserve to be cut any slack.

Val, Henry et all:
what a great subject to comment. I happen to live in Argentina and can comment at will on my experiences here. Mexico is probably the only country more corrupt in Latin America than Argentina. Our eperiences here are filled with stories where corruption abounds. When I decided to move here after retirement ( I was married to an Argentine at the time, I am now happily divorced) I brought a vehicle with me because as a US citizen I was entitled to bring said vehicle free of import duties for my own use. After months and months of futile dealing with the Argentine bureaucracy and getting nowhere with them, we spoke to a friend who told us: "you don't know how to go about this. Let me do it for you". We then went back to the Inmigration office where he asked the guy who had told me the matter will take 8 to 10 months to resolve, and asked him when and where he went to lunch. We met the shady character at a restaurant where we greased his palm to the tune of 400 argentine pesos, and wonder of wonders, the matter was resolved in 24 hrs!!!Later the same problem arose when we went to Customs to get the vehicle out, and again a sum of money was the incetive that finally got the vehicle out of the govt's storage. This is only one of countless experiences where bribes had to be used to get a document that the Argentine Miami Consulate had assured us we would have no problem obtaining here.
But what do you expect from a country where a Jewish site was car bombed 10 years ago and no one knows who rented the vehicle or where the tapes are that the police made? Where a woman was killed in her home with 4 shots to the head and the police coroner's report said she had drowned in the bathtub!! Nobody from the police actually saw the four holes in her head!
Recently we had to suffer the speech of Hugo "the clown" Chavez insulting the US in front of a crowd of leftwingers while no one noticed the "clown" had stayed at the Sheraton with his 300 minions who were his travelling crew, instead of an Argentine hotel. Naturally no one here cuestioned that fact.
Argentina has surrendered her foreign policy to this "clown" while aligning itself with the worst example of a man in charge of a country in the region. Maybe no one noticed Cahvez did not visist Chile, Peru or Colombia to spew his venom and insults during his recent tour. I do not think Ms. Bachelet, Mr Garcia or Mr. Uribe would have allowed a president of another country to come into theirs, to make political speeches and set the foreign policy of the host nation. But Mr. Kirchner did, while he washed his hands from the matter telling their officials not to attend the meeting. But the meeting was organized by a member of Kirchrner's cabinet who just happens to be the son of a former ambassador to Cuba. Coincidence? I don't think so. So back to the matter of the money owed the US taxpayers. Good luck trying to collect a penny of it. Try asking the Italian taxpayers and investors who were foolish enough to buy Argentine bonds in the decade of the 90's. They were told by the Argentine Govt to go fly a kite.
Also Mr. Kirchner wrote two letters to the Cuban tyrant asking for Dr.Hilda Molina to be allowed to visit her grandchildren here. Kastro's response: complete silence and he just ignored the letters and never answered them. And yet he was treated like a visiting celebrity here whenever he visits and actually lectured the Argentine President on energy matters and child moratlity during his last visit for the Mercosur. Kstro, who has been unable to provide energy for Cuba and has failed at anything he has imposed on the Cuban people,a man who has turned Cuba into the biggest Christmas tree in the world, (lights on here, lights off there) for this country is an energy expert! And he was applauded and greeted as an expert on several matters here. Amazing! And no one dared cuestioned him on human rights violations or the jailing of reporters and peaceful human rights advocates in Cuba. Actually, in all the media he keeps being referred to as the President of Cuba, while anytime they mentioned Pinochet, he is referred to as the "dictator". Clearly a case of double standard". A tyrant from the left is not a tyrant, while those on the right are quelified for the name. Kastro who had never held a free election in 48 years is an "elected President" for the media here. What a joke! Disgusting.

Mexico is corrupt, but it's not that bad. Remember, there are about 1 million American Citizens who live, work and retire in Mexico. I was just in Los Cabos and Mazatlan and the pace of real estate development would shock you.

The majority of this new development is being purchased by US & Canadian citizens.

kutas:

I do not know if what you are saying is true because New York restaurants do serve the grass-fed free-grazing Argentine beef, which, to me, tastes more like venison than beef. But tastes will differ.

I do know that for many years the Spaniards were forbidden to export their chorizos to the U.S, because of sanitary concerns. They circumvented this prohibition by purchasing meat from Holland and using that to make the sausages they exported to the U.S.

It is not a question of Argentina being unable to sell its beef: if the U.S. won't buy it, other countries will and do. The question is about Argentina repaying a $3.5 billion loan on which it has defaulted and which it can easily satisfy with its $35 billion surplus.

Cubamoto:

Come back to the U.S. The pampa is not safe for you anymore. Do not commit the mistake of the Cuban exiles who remained in Venezuela.

Mexico is seriously corrupt. I have relatives who've lived there for nearly 30 years, and they say the corruption pervades everything at every level--basically, people simply figure that's just the way things work.

I remember, years ago, my mother sending some gift packages there from the US, mostly clothing items, nothing of great value. They never reached their intended recipient. When she inquired at the post office here, she was told that the US Post Office wouldn't even insure packages to Mexico, because the risk was too high. Don't know if that's still the case, but you get the idea.

Please read this petition. If you agree with what is stated, please sign it.

http://www.petitiononline.com/05201902/petition.html

We do this to ourselves by countinously being guilted by the U.N. into giving low interest loans or economic 'aid' to third world countries which we have no reasonable expectation of getting back.

I can understand offering an 'economic aid' package (eg. a bribe) to a poor country in exchange for them changing one of their policies. For example the 'aid package' we offered Turkey if they would allow U.S. troops to use that country as a staging area to invade Iraq.

But doing shit like pouring billions into the black hole that is Africa in order to satisfy the Black caucus or the U.N. only allows crooked rulers' to line their pockets and props up broken and often regimes so that they can continue promoting their failed policies. All the while the taxpayers are picking up the bill. Both parties are equally guilty when it comes to this stuff.

Ziva,

I really don't think we should force Argentina to honor it's obligations. Most of the funds investing in Argentine debt should have properly quantified the debt and hedged and diversified their portfolio accordingly. Anyone who didn't should learn from their mistakes.

Now should Argentina pay the debt back for it's own sake? That's a bigger question with implications for both it's currency and the ability of it and other Latin countries to finance future spending.

The real danger here is when groups like the World Bank and the IMF underwrite Latin American spending when they don't need to. These are the groups that are at fault, for helping to fund poor government in Latin America and Africa.

The debt shouldn't be forgiven, but Argentina may still have good reasons for not paying it back. This would lead to sound investing and spending by the respective parties and would be an overall positive for the still third-world.

Regards,
Gabo

A positive development for the Third World would be that its leaders learn not to steal.

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