Argentina seizes US cargo plane - the United States has "more interests than friends"

without a doubt, there's a lot more to this than meets the eye...

just sayin'...


US Air Force C17 Globemaster
in Buenos Aires

Argentina to protest US Air Force cargo incident

Argentina said it will lodge a formal protest with Washington after seizing what it said were undeclared weapons and drugs on a US military aircraft last week.

The US Air Force C-17 transport plane was searched and its cargo seized by customs officials on Thursday at Ezeiza international airport after arriving with experts and material for a hostage rescue training exercise, Argentine officials said.

In a statement late Sunday, President Cristina Kirchner's government said it would lodge a protest with Washington and ask it to cooperate in a probe into the air force's attempt "to violate Argentine laws by bringing in camouflaged material in an official shipment."

Argentina has said it seized "sensitive material" that had not been declared in a manifest submitted by the US embassy.

"Among the material seized, which the State Department makes no reference to, are from weapons to different drugs, including various doses of morphine," the foreign ministry said in Sunday's statement. [emphasis added]

Assistant US Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela called Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman on Saturday, but "refused to explain why they tried to pass this material," the ministry statement said.

The incident follows US President Barack Obama's decision to exclude Argentina from his first scheduled trip in March to Latin America. Obama will travel to El Salvador, Brazil and Chile but not to the latter two's South American neighbor, Argentina.

Timerman reacted to this decision by saying that the United States has "more interests than friends." He said Obama would not visit Argentina because "it won't buy arms or even sign a defense agreement."

here's additional perspective on the matter from mercopress...

In the protest note Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman urged the US government to assist local authorities in the investigation, called for an official apology and warned that the seized material would not be handed back.

“For the sake of Argentine security, they owe us a response” he stated and indicated that “this was not the first incident of such nature.”

[...]

In the protest note Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman urged the US government to assist local authorities in the investigation, called for an official apology and warned that the seized material would not be handed back.

“For the sake of Argentine security, they owe us a response” he stated and indicated that “this was not the first incident of such nature.”

[...]

Regarding the local government’s seizing of sensitive material, the State Department assured that they were taken after an “unusual and unannounced search of the aircraft’s cargo.”

“The actions taken by Argentine officials involved in this incident are puzzling and disturbing,” the State Department’s spokesperson said, adding that the material was inappropriately seized for which they are seeking explanations from the local government.

an "unusual and unannounced search of the aircraft’s cargo"... sounds to me like the argentine customs officials were doing their job, a move that obviously is not common where the "interests" of the sole remaining global super-power is concerned... leads me to wonder just how much interesting cargo gets transported around the world unchallenged... my hunch...? more than we can possibly imagine...

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A hat-tip to Mike at Crooks and Liars

holy crap...! i am sitting here at ezeiza (the buenos aires international airport), cruising on the hospitality lounge wifi, waiting for my flight to sao paulo, where i change for dubai and then on to kabul... i just checked in with the blog and found that traffic is going through the roof thanks to a mention in mike's blog round-up at crooks and liars...

thanks for the mention, mike...!

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U.S. issues indictments for crimes committed in Argentina? Help me out here...

seriously, help me out here... i posted on this story back in early october, even though it occurred in early august... (yeah, sometimes i'm a bit slow... so sue me...!)

from the washington post...

Days after authorities discovered a suitcase full of nearly $800,000 that had been taken on a private airplane carrying Argentine and Venezuelan officials, one of those officials has resigned and suspicions of a government scandal have grown.

A Venezuelan businessman was detained at a Buenos Aires airport Saturday when customs officials found $790,550 in undeclared cash in his luggage. The incident preceded Monday’s arrival here of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, leading to questions about the possibility of a link between the businessman and the Venezuelan or Argentine governments.

Aeropuerto Internacional Ezeiza, Buenos Aires

ANYWAYZ, i've been following the story excerpted below for the past week, figuring it was going to cause some heartburn for officials in both argentina and venezuela, and, sure enough, it has...

A U.S. grand jury indicted four Venezuelans and a Uruguayan on Thursday on charges of acting as unregistered foreign agents for Venezuela who allegedly tried to cover up a scheme to smuggle $800,000 in cash to Argentina.

The indictment formalizes charges brought last week when four of the five were arrested in connection with the case, which touched off corruption allegations in South America and diplomatic tensions between Washington and Buenos Aires.

U.S. prosecutors say the men represented the anti-U.S. government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and alleged in court that one of the defendants said the money was destined for the campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who won Argentina's presidential election in October.

[...]

The Venezuelan-American businessman accused of trying to smuggle the $800,000 in a suitcase into Argentina visited the presidential palace two days after the incident, an Argentine prosecutor said on Thursday.

The money was seized by Argentine customs in August.

The case has caused an uproar in Argentine. Chavez has accused Washington of seeking to undermine Argentine-Venezuelan relations, while Washington says its probe is not politically motivated.

Prosecutor Maria Luz Rivas Diez said a former Argentine government employee testified the man with the suitcase, Guido Antonini Wilson, visited Argentina's presidential palace two days after the money was confiscated.

"Apparently he was with other people at a sort of toast or celebration, while in another office an accord was being signed with Venezuela," Rivas Diez told Radio Del Plata.

Argentine government officials, who allowed Antonini to leave the country but now seek his extradition from the United States to question him about possible money laundering, did not immediately comment.

The case -- dubbed the "suitcase scandal" by Argentine media -- erupted after Antonini carried the cash on a private jet chartered by Argentina's government to ferry Argentine and Venezuelan officials from Caracas to Buenos Aires.

[...]

On Wednesday, Argentina's Congress, in which Fernandez's center-left coalition holds a majority, passed a resolution condemning the United States over the investigation.

Fernandez, a former first lady and senator, succeeded her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, who has publicly accused Washington of engineering a smear campaign against his wife.

now, HERE'S my big question... where does the u.s. get off indicting these guys for a crime that DIDN'T EVEN TAKE PLACE INSIDE THE U.S...? anyone...?

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U.S. Federal Reserve Bank's shipment of $80K to Argentina's Central Bank stolen at Buenos Aires airport

Aeropuerto Internacional Ezeiza, Buenos Aires

another caper from down south...

Two airport Customs workers were under arrest yesterday in connection with the disappearance of 80,000 dollars from a bag entering Argentina from the United States. After searching the lockers of freight and Customs workers at Ezeiza airport police also found cameras, cell phones, perfumes, gold watches and other valuables which they believe to have been stolen from air passengers’ luggage.

The deputy-trustee of aeronautics, Julio Postiglioni, said that there were “many indicators” to suggest that the 80,000 dollars missing, after arriving from a United Airlines flight from Washington, were stolen directly from the plane’s cargo bay as it was stationed at Ezeiza airport. The money had been sent from the Federal Reserve of the United States and was en route to the Central Bank in Argentina.

ok, now remember, this is ARGENTINA we're talking about, where folks don't just grumble about their privacy being invaded... they STRIKE...!

On Thursday, baggage handlers went on strike for six hours in both Ezeiza International Airport and Jorge Newbery metropolitan airport in protest after police began searching their lockers. Workers accused police of “repressive tactics” in their investigation.

as a regular in and out of ezeiza and argentina, i'm always fascinated when i read the goings-on... i've posted several times on argentina's air traffic control (here and here), an oxymoron if there ever was one... i haven't posted on some of the larger recent scandals (with the exception of former economy minister, felisa miceli, and her bathroom cash stash)... but here's a rundown of recent history...

The spectacular part of the news surrounding Thursday’s surprise airport strike was the robbery of 80,000 Central Bank-bound dollars from Washington’s Federal Reserve at Ezeiza international airport — especially coming less than two months after a far larger sum of undeclared currency [$800K*] was detected in a Venezuelan businessman’s suitcase at Aeroparque downtown airport, not to mention the 2004 Southern Winds cocaine-laden suitcase scandal now undergoing trial.

* oh, yeah, about that $800K...

Days after authorities discovered a suitcase full of nearly $800,000 that had been taken on a private airplane carrying Argentine and Venezuelan officials, one of those officials has resigned and suspicions of a government scandal have grown.

A Venezuelan businessman was detained at a Buenos Aires airport Saturday when customs officials found $790,550 in undeclared cash in his luggage. The incident preceded Monday’s arrival here of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, leading to questions about the possibility of a link between the businessman and the Venezuelan or Argentine governments.

on the snarky side, argentina is so-o-o-ooo small time when compared with the billions disappearing in iraq...

p.s. argentina's presidential election will be held this month on the 28th, where current president nestor kirchner's wife, cristina fernandez de kirchner, is the leading candidate... does that bring anything to mind...? hmmmmm...?

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More air traffic safety, Argentina-style

here's a follow up to my post from friday and from another post back in march...

friday...

Two months after a bolt of lightning wrecked the radar at Argentina's main international airport, pilots and air-traffic controllers say the government response has been too slow and passenger safety is at risk.

today's wapo...

Argentina's radar problem has provoked the loudest calls for action. Although manually guiding aircraft landings is still standard procedure in many parts of the world -- including large parts of Russia and China -- it is less common in major urban centers. It also requires staff to be specially trained and the rate of air traffic to be reduced, said Marc Baumgartner, president of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations.

Asking controllers to abruptly switch from radar-guided direction to manual methods without properly training them is, he said, "like asking the check-in agent to fly the aircraft."

[...]

Argentina's Ministry of Defense, which oversees all air traffic control, continues to play down such fears. Defense Minister Nilda Garré said Thursday that Spain plans to lend a radar system to Argentina until it installs a permanent replacement later this year.

[...]

Enrique Piñeyro, whose 2006 documentary, "Air Force, Incorporated," detailed numerous flaws in Argentina's air traffic control system. One day after the documentary hit theaters here, President Néstor Kirchner announced that he would replace military oversight of air traffic with civilian control. The switchover still hasn't happened, though officials promise it will in the coming months.

last march i posted on piñeyro's documentary...

last year, wanting to see a movie but not seeing anything playing that i liked, i stumbled into a documentary about civil aviation in argentina, called fuerza area s.a. (air force, incorporated)... as a regular flier in and out of buenos aires, i was horrified... this little snippet from the movie web site gives you some of the background but, naturally, nothing like the impact of the movie...

In this documentary the director shows the behind-the-scenes of the disastrous state of civil aviation in Argentina. Much of this is due to the inexplicable situation in which civil aviation is entirely militarized and under total control of the Air Force since the last military coup thirty years ago. Argentina is the only country with this rare privilege.

With hidden cameras in the control tower and 3D animations to convey the true version of two fatal air crashes in Argentina, the director (an aircraft accident investigator himself) makes his point on how corruption within the Air Force is directly affecting air safety. We see and understand many incredible close calls of aircraft on the verge of a fuel emergency and almost hit by rockets, and the recordings of their real conversations. Television footage depicting corruption of Air Force officials poses a strong warning on would be accidents.

and i also posted on this...

Pilots at Argentina's largest domestic airline, Austral, ended a short strike late on Thursday over a faulty radar system after the government guaranteed the safety of air traffic control.

The unionized pilots had said the radar system was not showing the exact coordinates of planes landing at or leaving the country's two biggest airports, both in the Buenos Aires area -- a claim disputed by [Defense Minister Nilda Garre].

Aeropuerto Internacional Ezeiza, Buenos Aires

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Flying down to Argentina? Read this first.

Aeropuerto Internacional Ezeiza, Buenos Aires

back in march, i posted on argentina's broken air traffic control system and the problems they were having as a result of faulty radar systems at both buenos aires airports... as a regular flier in and out of one of them, ezeiza, the country's biggest international airport, and as a former airline employee, i take more than a casual interest in aviation issues, particularly when they concern my safety...

this was from that march post...

Pilots at Argentina's largest domestic airline, Austral, ended a short strike late on Thursday over a faulty radar system after the government guaranteed the safety of air traffic control.

The unionized pilots had said the radar system was not showing the exact coordinates of planes landing at or leaving the country's two biggest airports, both in the Buenos Aires area -- a claim disputed by [Defense Minister Nilda Garre].

ok, so i flew out of ezeiza back to the u.s. one month and four days ago... today, i read this...

Two months after a bolt of lightning wrecked the radar at Argentina's main international airport, pilots and air-traffic controllers say the government response has been too slow and passenger safety is at risk.

One pilots' association has reported several near-misses, although another group of pilots and government officials accuse it of alarmism.

"The (defense) ministry... has tried to cover up all the problems that exist," said Jorge Perez Tamayo, president of Argentina's Association of Airline Pilots (APLA).

Earlier this week, an international body representing air-traffic controllers also criticized the government for its slow response since the March 1 lightning strike.

i love that line about "alarmism..." the following quote is even better...

"It causes a feeling of insecurity and risk, both for Argentine passengers and foreigners, who aren't used to these things like we are," said Ana Giese, a Buenos Aires student.

oh, yeah, indeed... the typical response when anybody, argentino or foreigner, gets frustrated with the lackadaisical way things are dealt with in argentina: "hey...! remember...! you're in ARGENTINA...!"

i actually remember the storm that caused the problem... it was fierce and i knew it had caused air traffic control problems, but i was unaware it had completely knocked out the ezeiza air traffic control radar... im also astounded that, two months later, it's still a problem... and i fly back the end of july... < sigh >

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