Argentina in Agony :
"Coup d'Etat" feared

 

Buenos Aires, Argentina - 1/23/2002 - (ACN) The once great nation of Argentina continues in a downward spiral into a black hole of despair and suffering. The nation is being crushed by the weight of a 140 billion dollar external debt owed to international money lenders. The collapsing nation is in turn crushing the aspirations and dreams of its proud people, and specially its young citizens. Hunger is now rampant and many are dying for lack of essential medicines that they can not afford. An increasing number of its citizens have been forced to beg and many families are now sleeping in the streets.

The new government of President Eduardo Duhalde, the fifth in less than a month, is confronting increasing violent demonstrations and riots by a people who have lost trust and faith in the nation's politicians whom they view as corrupt and as simply lackeys of the international money lenders. The scrooges of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have now issued orders to President Duhalde that they want to see more suffering through the implementation of harsher government austerity measures so that they can be paid. An international rumor has it that the IMF is prepared to order the Armed Forces of Argentina to undertake a "Coup d'Etat" in case Duhalde fails. Argentina has a long history of "Golpes de Estado" which the military then uses to exterminate leaders who pose a danger to the status quo.

The current problems of Argentina started with the corrupt and now extremely wealthy ex-president Carlos Menem. Carlos Menem had very close ties with both George Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. as well as with Enron Corporation through a gas pipeline deal in Argentina. Menem's friendship with Bush Sr. helped Argentina get credit from the IMF. President Menem was popular at first because he was sustaining the Argentinean economy with borrowed money from the international money lenders. The Argentinean people did not know, however, that he was "hocking" the nation. The high interest rates that the international "loan sharks" demanded eventually started piling up on the country. Carlos Menem and his close-knit network of other corrupt politicians and "paper-pushing" bureaucrats meanwhile lived high-on-the-hog and to this day are some of the wealthiest people in South America. The tab is now left for the Argentinean people to pay. This is not much different to what happened to the Enron employees. Many lost all their retirement funds but the executives made billions of dollars which are now in Swiss and other secret bank accounts.

Meanwhile, you can "bet your bottom dollar" that the international money lenders will get their money one way or another. These scrooges have been in the money lending game since time immemorial. They know how to put the screws on borrowers and can "squeeze blood out of a turnip". La Voz de Aztlan has just learned that an Argentine-born Israeli was named governor of Argentina´s central bank. Mario Blejer, who was born in Argentina and immigrated to Israel in 1968, was named deputy head of the bank in August, following a crisis over cuts in salaries and pensions. He was appointed governor of the bank last week, after his predecessor´s resignation. A financial figure who has worked with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Blejer is believed to have been chosen because of his connections with the IMF and the Bush administration, according to the Israeli daily Ha´aretz.