Posted on 05/30/2003 1:53:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON - Stop the presses! Just as this column was going into print blasting Argentina's 3-day-old government for giving a hero's welcome to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and for claiming that there are no human rights violations on the island, I got a call from Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa.
Don't make a rash judgment that Argentina will team up with Venezuela and Cuba against the United States in international organizations, Bielsa told me during a telephone call Wednesday. And please take into account the timing and context in which ''I made my comments on human rights in Cuba,'' he pleaded.
Bielsa, a respected constitutional scholar with virtually no experience in foreign affairs, had been quoted by the Spanish daily ABC on Tuesday as saying, ``I wouldn't dare to say openly that there are human rights violations in Cuba. I don't have moral authority nor the position to make such a statement.''
Bielsa had been asked by ABC about the recent executions of three Cubans who were trying to flee the island aboard a hijacked vessel. He told the Spanish daily, ``If you look at things formally, there has been a trial, charges were made, there was a defense lawyer, a prosecutor. All the steps were taken.''
The new foreign minister's remarks were published as Castro was receiving a hero's welcome in Argentina.
LONGEST APPLAUSE
On Sunday, the Cuban strongman -- in his first foreign trip since the execution of the three men and the imprisonment of 75 dissidents on the island -- was given the longest round of applause during President Néstor Kirchner's inauguration at the Argentine Congress.
On Monday, Kirchner, the left-of-center former governor of a Patagonian province, gave Castro a longer audience at the presidential house than to any of the other 12 visiting leaders who had come for his inauguration. The meeting lasted more than one hour, according to all major Argentine newspapers.
Later that day, before much of downtown Buenos Aires was cordoned off to allow thousands of people to attend Castro's 2 ½-hour speech outside the University of Buenos Aires law school, Mayor Aníbal Ibarra gave Castro a medal of appreciation on behalf of the city.
Ibarra, a close political ally of the new president, told Castro at the ceremony, ''You are one of the most respected men in the world,'' according to the daily La Nación.
QUESTIONS ASKED
Is the Kirchner government turning back the clock 30 years and isolating Argentina -- which defaulted on its foreign debt two years ago -- even more from the world?
Is the new government a collection of 1970s leftist activists who live in a time bubble? How can people like you, who fought against a right-wing dictatorship, support a dictator who doesn't allow political parties, freedom of expression or independent unions?
When I asked Bielsa these questions, he replied that the ABC interview had taken place more than a week ago.
''I was not foreign minister last week,'' Bielsa told me. ``The [ABC] question specifically referred to the executions, and I felt I had neither the position nor the moral authority to make a judgment.''
And what would you say if I asked you in a broader sense whether Cuba respects human rights?
The foreign minister responded that he will make a judgment on that once he examines the previous government's reasons for changing Argentina's vote at the United Nations from a condemnation of Cuba's human rights abuses to an abstention.
''I consider the United States to be a friendly country,'' Bielsa added.
``Argentina has not decided to have an automatic alignment with Cuba and Venezuela to systematically confront the United States in international organizations.''
My opinion? I appreciate the foreign minister returning my call. But, as I told him, I have two serious reservations about his government's welcome to Castro.
First, Argentina -- which is still recovering from the scandalous image of its Congress celebrating the default on its foreign debt two years ago -- did not help itself by allowing Castro to steal the show at Kirchner's inauguration. You cannot applaud a dictator who has just executed people without an open trial, and then go hat in hand asking Washington and Europe to be considered a modern democracy worthy of more comprehension by international financial institutions.
But, more important, a country that has lived through a dictatorship, like Argentina, should be the first to speak out when journalists are given jail sentences of 25 years in prison for things such as possessing a typewriter and criticizing the government.
By walking away from its commitment to human rights, Argentina is paving the way for a return to dark days when people thought there is such a thing as ''good dictators.'' It should know better.
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