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| IMF Meeting Fails to Ease Currency Fights The International Monetary Fund's annual meeting failed to ease currency battles roiling markets, pushing the dispute off to a summit next month of leaders of the Group of 20 countries, with no clear resolution in sight. online.wsj.com |
Chile miners: Rescued foreman Luis Urzúa's first interview Foreman said his secret for keeping the men bonded was democracy, but others mention fears of death and cannibalismSpeaking from a hospital bed at the San José mine, shift foreman Luis Urzúa – the man who kept the Chilean miners alive for two months – said his secret for keeping the men bonded and focused on survival was majority decision-making."You just have to speak the truth and believe in democracy," said Urzúa, his eyes hidden behind black glasses.As nurses, doctors and psychologists rushed around him in a chaotic scene, the world's most famous foreman sat in bed, his arms folded across a thick chest, and spoke about making tough decisions 700 metres below ground when all hope seemed lost. "Everything was voted on ... We were 33 men, so 16 plus one was a majority."However, as the first accounts of life for the trapped miners start to emerge, a complicated picture of squabbles, disagreements and even physical confrontations suggests that the official version may be rather sanitised.Immediately after the collapse at the mine at lunchtime on 5 August, he sent men to investigate. Some drove a pickup, inching up a ramp. With clouds of dust limiting visibility to less than a metre, they were unable to see the path and crashed."We were trying to find out what we could do and what we could not," said Urzúa. "Then we had to figure out the food."Like a ship's captain, 54-year-old Urzúa was the last to leave after 70 days trapped below the Atacama desert. He was winched to the surface shortly before 10pm local time on Wednesday, amid extraordinary scenes of emotion and celebration across Chile.President Sebastián Piñera greeted him with tears in his eyes. "You're not the same after this and neither are we," Piñera told him. "We will never forget this."The government hailed the men as models of solidarity, but in a separate interview with the Guardian, Richard Villaroel, another member of "los 33", said the truth was not so simple. There was the waiting for death, the hopelessness, the petty squabbles and the nagging, unspoken fear of cannibalism.Villaroel painted a more complex picture of the drama than the official version which has dominated media coverage. "We were waiting for death. We were consuming ourselves — we were so skinny."Speaking as the men were whisked to a hospital in the nearby town of Copiapo, the 23-year-old mechanic said the mood inside the collapsed mine had swung wildly from despair and division to euphoria and unity.The first 17 days were the worst, before a probe from the surface punched through to their cavern, as the miners prepared for a lonely, drawn-out death by starvation.Villaroel thought he would never see his unborn child. "I was afraid of not meeting my baby, who is on the way."Some men were so despairing that they climbed into bed and would not get out.The daily food ration from the meagre stocks was about half a spoonful of tuna or salmon. "We talked about it at the first meeting we had when we were trapped. We all agreed that we would all share the food that was there. You just had to rough it. Every 24 hours eat a small piece of tuna. Nothing else."Their bodies shrivelled. Villaroel lost 12kg. "We were getting eaten up, as we were working. We were moving, but not eating well. We started to eat ourselves up and get skinnier and skinnier. That is called cannibalism, a sailor down there said. My body was eating itself up."Did the men fear cannibalism of the other type? Villaroel paused. "At that moment no one talked about it. But once [help came] it became a topic of joking, but only once it was over, once they found us. But at the time there was no talk of cannibalism."The water in the mine the men were forced to drink was polluted. "It had a bad taste. It had lots of oil, from the machines, but you had to drink it."Urzúa tried to instill a philosophical acceptance of fate. "Every day [he] told us to have strength. If they find us they find us, if not, that's that. Because the probes [drilling towards the men] were so far away so we had no hope. Strength came by itself. I had never prayed before, but I learned to pray, to get close to God."Villaroel said the men divided up into work groups. "We the mechanics were part of one group, we took care of the trucks. Other people organised the food, rationed it."When the probe finally reached the men, euphoria swept them. "It was huge happiness for us all. We sang the national anthem as soon as the tube arrived. We painted it. With so much adrenaline in that moment we could not think."Once the miners realised they would be saved they signed a "blood pact" to not reveal all that happened beneath the Atacama desert, he said.In a video-conference with relatives last week, Dario Segovia, a 48-year-old drill operator, made a not-so cryptic allusion to troubles: "What happens in the mine, stays in the mine."One secret, it seems, is the division that plagued the group for a time. Despite the pact, there are several cracks in the official version of steadfast unity and solidarity between "los 33".The earliest suggestion of divisions came in the first video the miners sent up: only 28 featured. The other five — Juan Aguilar, Raúl Bustos, José Henriquez, Juan Illanes and Villaroel — were nowhere to be seen.Where were they? The authorities offered no explanation. José Villaroel, Richard's father, said the mechanic had been upset at colleagues who "showed off" for the camera. When relatives sent down cameras for each miner, Villaroel was among a small group who sent them back up.Another miner, Osman Araya, told his brother Rodrigo that three groups had formed and that there were squabbles over space and work practices. Daniel Sanderson, a miner on the surface, said he received a letter from one of the trapped men describing disagreements which escalated into physical confrontations. "They broke into three groups because they were fighting. There were fistfights," said Sanderson, who ended his night shift and left the mine just hours before the collapse. Asked to describe the nature of the conflicts, Sanderson, replied: "That's part of the pact".The Spanish newspaper El PaÃs reported that the five missing from the video had been working for a separate sub-contractor and had formed their own group dynamic — living apart from the others and plotting their own escape strategy involving tunnels.The division ended when the sub-contractor boss, who was on the surface, ordered the five to integrate.An early test of the "pact" will be whether the men equally share income from interview fees, book royalties, movie rights and gifts which are set to flood in.They have reportedly agreed to sign a legal contract promising to pool the bonanza. With some men likely to earn far more than others — notably Urzúa and Mario Sepúlveda, a natural showman — there may be temptation and family pressure to make individual deals.The men, in dressing gowns and slippers, got a glimpse of the attention their story has generated by peering out of their hospital windows and seeing throngs of journalists below. An estimated 1 billion people around the world watched the televised rescue.Some of the men were expected to go home as early as today. Three required dental surgery and one was recovering from pneumonia, but otherwise the miners were in good shape, said Jorge Montes, the hospital's deputy director.President Sebastián Piñera visited the men and promised to review labour rights and health and safety laws.ChileJonathan FranklinRory Carrollguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Military recruiters told to accept gay applicants By ANNE FLAHERTY 2010-10-19T17:08:45ZWASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pentagon spokeswoman says recruiters have been told that they must accept gay applicants, following a federal court decision striking down the ban on gays serving openly in the military.... hosted.ap.org |
German Banker's Slide Bares Europe's Divide Bundesbank President Axel Weber's repeated attacks on the European Central Bank's handling of the euro-zone debt crisis have jeopardized his chances for taking the ECB helm, opening the race for the coveted post to a host of other contenders. online.wsj.com |
US embassy cables: Argentina recoils at US questioning rule of law Thursday, 31 December 2009, 13:44C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 001311 SIPDIS EO 12958 DECL: 2019/12/31 TAGS PREL, OVIP, ECON, KPAO SUBJECT: (C) ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT TAKES UMBRAGE AT WHA A/S VALENZUELA'S REMARK REGARDING BUSINESS COMMUNITY'S CONCERNSDERIVED FROM: DSCG 05-1 B, D1. (C) Summary: The GOA responded with heavy artillery to a remark WHA A/S Valenzuela made during a December 16 press roundtable. Immediately after the press roundtable, Argentine media started focusing almost exclusively on A/S Valenzuela's remark that the American business community in Argentina had conveyed to him concern about rule of law and management of the economy in Argentina. The press reported that Valenzuela contrasted these concerns "with the enthusiasm and investment intentions" of the American business community in 1996. GOA officials also expressed their dissatisfaction with the remarks. The Ambassador and other Country Team members used a December 17 reception for journalists to stress our desire to work constructively with Argentina, and the Ambassador has reached out to GOA officials to urge a prompt end to their criticisms. Government press is beginning to report a softening tone, but we think that it is too early to tell. End Summary.2. (C) Immediately prior to departure from Buenos Aires on December 16, WHA A/S Valenzuela met at the Embassy with about a dozen Argentine print journalists. He followed 20 minutes of remarks by taking questions for another 20 minutes, explaining his desire to introduce himself to his regional counterparts and undertake a dialogue with them on regional developments.Media Zero In on Perceived Criticism--------------------------------------------3. (C) Despite the broad range of issues addressed by A/S Valenzuela, Argentine media started focusing immediately after the roundtable almost exclusively on A/S Valenzuela's remark that the American business community in Argentina had conveyed to him concern about rule of law and management of the economy in Argentina. The press also reported that Valenzuela contrasted these concerns "with the enthusiasm and investment intentions" of the American business community in 1996. (A/S Valenzuela's first official meeting in Buenos Aires was with the Executive Board of the AmCham.) As an example of the sensationalist nature of much of the reporting, La Nacion's banner front-page headlines on December 17 read, "Clash with the U.S. over Rule of Law in Argentina" and on December 18, "Protest to U.S. over Obama Envoy's Criticism."Kirchner Allies Take Umbrage------------------------------------4. (C) The GOA response came swiftly. That same night, three GOA ministries publicly commented (in a clearly coordinated fashion) on the Valenzuela remarks. Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo said "Argentina is enjoying a phase of complete institutional and legal guarantees. The country has left behind the times when a foreign official could come and say what needed to be done. There is no lack of rule of law. The difference now is that the Government protects the people, and in the 1990s it protected the companies' interests that took millions out."5. (C) Following the Randazzo statement, the Foreign Ministry issued a four-point communiquC) saying that: (1) the generalized nature of the Assistant Secretary's remarks about supposed concerns in the American business community made it impossible for the GOA to address the alleged concerns; (2) the MFA had already written Ambassador Martinez to clarify similar remarks that she had made the previous week in Cordoba but had received no reply; (3) Argentine authorities had received no complaints from American companies operating in Argentina; and (4) the GOA reiterates its disposition to analyze "all aspects that allow us to promote reciprocal relations, especially economic, between the two countries. Open and consolidated channels are available to both governments for this dialogue."6. (C) The GOA's third statement on December 16 came from Justice Minister Julio Alak, who called Valenzuela's statements "unusualand unjustified." Alak claimed that "rule of law is a fundamental asset in the country that has been protected and rescued from the more adverse conditions coming from the institutional and economic crisis in 2001 and 2002."7. (C) After the initial salvos, the GOA officials who met with Valenzuela chimed in. Vice Foreign Minister Victorio Taccetti (who received Valenzuela December 15 at the MFA and hosted him for lunch) said, "Valenzuela is free to think as he wishes, but the truth is that 1996 is the prelude of the most important crisis Argentina faced. It is possible that he felt glad in 1996, but that ended in the 2001 crisis that impacted many companies, including some American ones. Argentina doesn't want to set off sparks ("sacarse chispas") with the United States; it is Valenzuela who opines without basing his statements on reality."8. (C) Cabinet Chief AnC-bal FernC!ndez said, "We are not talking about a statement that comes from American businessmen, but of (Valenzuela's) prejudices, and that is much more sensitive and what worries me most. I was concerned to find out that he was critical of many Latin American democracies, and one of the supporters of the Washington Consensus."9. (C) Argentine Ambassador to the United States HC)ctor Timerman appeared on television and in the press to claim that he had urged A/S Valenzuela to meet with CGT labor leader Hugo Moyano and the opposition Radical Party (UCR), but that "he met only with the political right: De NarvC!ez, Macri and Cobos. He is sending a message on who are, in his views, the people with whom he needs to have dialogue."10. (C) Argentine press reported that FM Jorge Taiana, who was in Copenhagen for the COP-15 meetings, used a brief pull-aside with Secretary Clinton to complain about Valenzuela's remarks. Taiana told the press that Valenzuela's words "were unfortunate and show his ignorance of the Argentine reality. His reference to the administration of Menem as a time of great growth, when it was precisely the time when Argentina was hurling headlong toward its worst crisis in history, like a train with no brakes, was even more unfortunate."11. (C) Former president Nestor Kirchner said "the statements by someone who should come with a different policy for Latin America are deplorable. Valenzuela belongs to the groups that participated in the Washington Consensus; the neo-liberal model that caused so much damage to the whole region." Kirchner ally Deputy AgustC-n Rossi (leader of the FpV bloc in the Chamber) said "Valenzuela's visit was not encouraging. We thought the time when foreign officials came to lecture us was over." Regarding Valenzuela's comparison of the current reality with the one in the 1990s, he said: "it is a fallacy to say we were better with Menem's administration; the cracks of the convertibility plan were evident and led Argentina to bankruptcy." The leader of the FpV bloc in the Senate, Miguel Pichetto, said "Valenzuela keeps adding mistakes to the U.S. relation to Latin America, because a diplomat visiting a country should be much more cautious when commenting on our domestic politics and the economic recovery our government achieved." A couple of days later, at a December 20 political rally, Nestor Kirchner said "disrespectful viceroys" should first criticize what was happening in the United States. He blamed Argentina's loss of rule of law on the U.S. crisis that "left millions of Americans without their jobs, homes or savings."Opposition is Divided-------------------------12. (C) Reaction among the opposition was divided. Some, such as Santa Fe governor Hermes Binner, a highly regarded moderate Socialist and possible presidential candidate, said that Valenzuela's remarks tracked very closely with complaints that, they, too had heard from the business community. Others, such asSocialist Senator Ruben Giustiniani, who usually coincides with Binner, objected to any foreign official relaying any criticism of Argentina, while Radical congressional deputy Ricardo AlfonsC-n took issue with what he interpreted as Valenzuela's praise for Menem policies in the 1990s: "We, the Argentines, know that during those years there was a looting of national assets. For us, it was a disaster." However, the head of the Radical Party (UCR), Senator Ernesto Sanz (who joined Valenzuela's December 16 lunch with Vice President Cobos) said "it seems it was necessary that a foreigner come to say this. We have been denouncing the lack of rule of law from Congress for four or five years. With each law the Kirchnerists passed, (the country) moved one step towards a lack of rule of law." Another prominent opposition leader, Deputy Margarita Stolbizer (GEN), said, "Unfortunately, Valenzuela is right. This government condemned us to isolation because of lack of rule of law, and Valenzuela only relayed how the world sees us." Leftist congressional deputy and film director Pino Solanas (Proyecto Sur Bloc Leader) said, "I strongly repudiate Arturo Valenzuela's statements. He is the envoy of the empire whose government has legitimized the coup in Honduras. Mr. Valenzuela represents the government that keeps thinking the disastrous and tragic 1990s for Argentina are a model to follow."Embassy Works to Smooth Feathers------------------------------------------13. (C) The Ambassador and other Country Team members used a December 17 reception for journalists to stress our desire to work constructively with Argentina, stressing our common interests and extensive cooperation. The Ambassador's conciliatory remarks received broad press play. The Ambassador called VFM Taccetti, who offered her a long explanation of why the GOA in the wake of the 2001-02 crisis had been forced to "pesify" contracts that had been denominated in dollars at a new exchange rate that was disadvantageous to foreign businesses. (Note: "Pesification" has been a common theme of many of the complaints that U.S. investors took to the World Bank's International Court for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.) Those pesified contracts nonetheless continued to be profitable, Taccetti claimed. He said Argentina's current challenge, however, was to maintain employment levels, which explained the GOA position regarding Kraft and other labor disputes. Taccetti asked if Washington could issue a conciliatory statement. The Ambassador also requested a meeting with Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez to urge a prompt end to GOA public complaining about A/S Valenzuela's remarks. Press reported widely A/S Valenzuela's clarification (delivered at his next stop, Montevideo) that he was merely relaying some concerns expressed to him by American businesses operating in Argentina.GOA Tones Down Its Commentary--------------------------------------------14. (C) The GOA's Telam news service sent December 18 a story that led with "Cabinet Chief Anibal Fernandez sought today to lower the tone on the controversy generated by (Valenzuela's) remarks." The wire story quoted Fernandez saying he had "a very good conversation with Valenzuela on important topics, and Valenzuela never mentioned concerns about rule of law." Fernandez claimed that Valenzuela had several years ago made similar claims about Argentine rule of law, suggesting a predisposition to judge Argentina. "But this man is not the United States, no matter how important he is. The United States is the United States." Another wire service reported that VFM Taccetti said "This topic has already passed. Maybe (Valenzuela) knows why he said it. We think it's absurd. We are looking straight ahead... I think the points of agreement between United States and Argentina were aired in the meetings we had. No one else in the region has been more firm on Iran. We are working in Haiti... The agreements are notable. In general, U.S. policies and ours on international matters are in agreement."AmCham Pleased with Press Coverage---------------------------------------------15. (C) AmCham told post's Commercial Counselor that it was taking a positive response to press inquiries, talking up the positive contributions their members make to Argentina's economy and their desire for dialogue with the GOA on the business and investment climate. Subsequently, some AmCham members told us privately that they were pleased a high-ranking U.S. diplomat publicly relayed their concerns. The AmCham President said he intended to take advantage of the opening offered by the MFA's request for specific concerns about the business climate by sending the MFA letter requesting a meeting to review concerns in detail.Comment----------16. (C) Once again, the Kirchner government has shown itself to be extremely thin-skinned and intolerant of perceived criticism. Concerns about the weakness of Argentina's institutions, and the rule of law in particular, are a dime a dozen in the Argentine press, voiced by academics, business leaders, judges, opposition politicians, pundits, and NGOs. Argentines are well aware that Argentina is not attracting as much investment as are Brazil, Chile, and others in the region. The business community's anxiety about arbitrary and capricious rule changes is well known to the Argentine public and the government. Only die-hard kirchneristas will agree with Randazzo's assertion that Argentina enjoys "full institutional and juridical guarantees," or the MFA's contention that it is unaware of any dissatisfaction on the part of any American company. For most Argentines, those are laugh lines or cynically disingenuous statements. That said, we hope that this contretemps will soon peter out, as has happened in similar such episodes in the past.17. (U) This cable was cleared by WHA A/S Valenquela. MARTINEZNéstor KirchnerArgentinaUS foreign policyThe US embassy cablesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |