Discomfort, surprise, unease, and confusion. The public call of the United States for the national and provincial authorities to reach an "appropriate solution" to the situation of the Kraft Foods Company, with its base of north american capital, has sounded an alarm to the government of Cristina Kirchner and has thrown a blanket of doubt onto the future of serpentine, bilateral relations with Washington.
One day after this diplomatic call was put out by the administration of Barack Obama, and in an atmosphere of social tension--with workers' marches in distinct points of the country and with the conflict still unresolved--the Pink House abruptly suspended yesterday a scheduled meeting between the Head of the Cabinet, Anibal Fernandez, and the North American Ambassador to Buenos Aires, Vilma Socorro Martinez. The meeting was scheduled for 11 o'clock yesterday, according to Fernandez' office, and had been arranged between the parties ten days before with the objective of opening a channel for dialogue between the embassy and one of the principal cabinet ministers. But at 9:30 it was cancelled. The official explanation of the Government was that the head of the Cabinet received a call from President Kirchner, and was forced to modify his schedule to go to the residence in Olivos. The peculiar part of this case is that the minister shares an office with the Head of State, and literally works side by side with the President. "This has no relation to the Kraft case", was the first statement given by ministry spokespersons. Meanwhile, in the north american embassy there reigned the usual prudence with respect to diplomatic ruptures. "The embassy does not comment on the details of the ambassador's schedule or that of other functionaries", was the concise explanation offered to LA NACION by the north american diplomatic corps. In the subtle language of diplomacy, this signifies that Washington has decided to take the most deliberate measures to evaluate the impact of the first gesture by Martinez in Argentina, that, to be sure, had strong political transcendence. By evening, the Pink House sought to smooth over the rupture and said that the head of the Cabinet would communicate during the work day with the embassy to schedule a new date for the meeting with Martinez, which is still undefined. Kraft Foods had reached a boiling point with the dismissal of 157 employees, which then led to more forceful measures that included the workers' takeover of the plant in General Pacheco for more than 20 days, and their subsequent ousting with repressive force by the police, leaving a dozen injured and 70 detained. Faced with this scenario, the embassy expressed yesterday its concern to the Government for the future of the company, and the day before yesterday it made public that its intention was "to protect north american investments that has been a source of employment for 155,000 argentines". In diplomatic jargon, this represents a loud and comprehensive signal of the White House's concern faced with eventual outbreaks of union conflict in other businesses represented by north american capital. The delivery of this north american gesture was the first official mission by Martinez in Argentina, after having arrived there less than one month ago. Last night, the uncertainty of future bilateral relations worked its way to the Foreign Ministry. The present Minister, Jorge Taiana, expressed concern among his colleagues for the tone of the north american complaint, according to sources among his most intimate circle. The uneasiness is responding, more than anything else, to the open expectations created by the progressive profile of Ambassador Martinez, with which it was hoped to arrive at a more empathetic understanding, in order to overcome the ruptures which has characterized relations with the White House since the ascension to power of Christina Kirchner. Yesterday, the Government stated officially that it would not accept "pressure" from the north american embassy to resolve the conflict of the ex-Terrabusi, and declared that the diplomatic representation can only establish the difficult situation which the company is going through. The Minister of Labor, Carlos Tomada, explained the situation. "All of our ambassadors, when there are expressed interests of argentine businesses, intervene only to verify the case, but not to apply pressure or intervene directly, not like that", affirmed the functionary. ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
