More yanquis for Buenos Aires?

I guess it could be true.

Two more stories came in over the transom today regarding the phenomenon and its accompanying reportage: this one from Reuters ...and this one from Bill Bonner who has developed a lot of expertise regarding Argentina (he owns a ranch in Salta and his son, Will Bonner, is the head blogger what's in charge at Discovering Buenos Aires.)

The graphic to the left links to Taos Turner's examination of the recent Clarín article and video on the same meme. My post about a possible "second wave" of expats to Argentina mentions two international blog posts that seemed to have lit the fuse as to the Argentine media's renewed fascination with the subject. But like Taos wrote, "Every six months or so local newspapers like Clarín and La Nación write stories about foreigners living in Argentina."

The Reuters and the Bill Bonner articles came in about the same time as I was speaking today with Fred of Fourpoint Report. Fred was in a television studio today recording a program with María Laura Santillán of "Argentina Para Armar" on TN.

Fred was part of a panel discussion with an Argentine expert on immigration and four other yanquis (prominently including Martin Frankel of Expat Connection.) I'll let you know about airing times when I find out.

I've been suspicious, however, about this latest trend toward exploring the foreigners (not all yanquis) that are supposedly flocking to Buenos Aires and Argentina in general in order to escape the recent economic crisis.

On March 4, two big blogposts hit the ether: from gawker.com and from blackbookmag.com ...those posts, to my mind, generated the current stir.

The current interest in the press is probably just more of the same-old, same-old ...except this time with even less good reporting and, probably, just a tie-in to the widely reported economic crises in the US (something that impresses the average Argentine as much as yanquis moving to Argentina.)

But I can't seem to shake the notion that this time it's different.

This recent interest shown in the Buenos Aires media strikes me as a sea change in the attitudes of people in Buenos Aires (and, to a slightly lesser degree, Argentines in general) toward the foreigners that almost crowd certain corners of Capital Federal.

First, the fact that the US could be suffering economically surprises the average citizen here. Secondly, the very idea that yanquis might be fleeing the US because of the current straits is almost unimaginable. Third, for US citizens to choose Argentina as an economic refuge just plain boggles the mind of any South American considering that the Colossus of the North has been the ambition of the ambitious for a very long time.

The story of Americans fleeing, if true at all, is not picking up too much traction beyond the usual story of foriegners in Buenos Aires that have become commonplace since the un-pegging of the peso to the dollar in 2001. The potential of it morphing into something new, however, looms on the horizon. A new variant is available to any enterprising journalist seeking both to push circulation and catch the wave: "there are now two kinds of foreigners."

Most Argentines believe that all foreigners here are rich. That may seem ridiculous to the foreigners themselves ...but perfectly in line with the empirical evidence experienced by local residents. People here have met many foreigners and they have all been wealthy enough to warrant that label at least somewhat.

Since the devaluation of the Argentine Peso, however, many foreigners of lesser means have taken up residence here. Those new arrivals were bundled into the prevailing attitude regarding the economic status regarding foreigners in general. Their assumed high economic status was never in question.

The idea now that not all foreigners here are rich ...is taking some time to sink in. I think that it will, however.

The traditional attitude in this most cosmopolitan of South American cities is based on good, overwhelming, personal observation of facts collected during the 100 years or so in which tourism to Argentina never existed ...not based on something uninformed nor ignorant.

When the idea finally does sink in, however, a certain immunity enjoyed by rich foreigners and poor ones alike will disappear ...and it will be felt by both groups. We should all expect to have to describe ourselves, on occasion, as to which category we personally belong: the "usual" rich...

...or the refugees from the kind of crisis with which Argentina is well acquainted ...but something virtually unknown to ourselves.

paso a paso

Ever since the redesign, we've slowly activated the links at the header of this blog. They are clickable and, we hope, contain info that you'll enjoy and use.
.....The last to be activated will be the DemosAbroad link which, we hope, will amaze you in its coverage of next year's US House and Senate races. If you are a yanqui, we hope you'll consider joining the Democratic Party Abroad.

Happy 4th of July

It's strange to take a graphic from the former colonial power to highlight this year's yanqui Independence Day... but I'm not much in the mood to wave something star-spangled with events such as they are.

However! What really makes the patriotic sap start to rise in the Yanq is the memory of those days of yore when we actually fought the fascists. The above is a detail from a poster that was discovered by a used-books store in Northumberland England, Barter's.

It was folded in a consignment of dusty tomes from someone's attic. It's from WWII about the time of the Blitz when the original scud missiles, the Nazi V1 and V2, were dropping silently and randomly and destructively over England.

It had been so long since I'd felt that sensation of our governments trying to take away our fears instead of cravenly inciting them and capitalizing on them... that my jaw actually dropped upon seeing this poster.

Have a good day, yanquicitos. Try not to let the bastards get to you.

Macri comes in big

Mauricio Macri and his Lista 502 came in way big tonight with more than 45% of the vote well ahead of his two closest competitors Daniel Filmus with about 24% despite his backing from K and our current mayor Jorge Tellerman who garnered about 20% despite his incumbency.

Election law says that if no one gets more than 50% the election will go to a run-off (El Ballottage) between the two top vote-getters. But Macri's win was so big that for awhile tonight it looked like Filmus and his Dialogo por BsAs slate might throw in the towel and let PRO have it. It appears certain now that Filmus will force Macri into another electoral round.

Assuming that the conservative supporters of Macri, owner of the Boca Juniors, are not prone to defect to Filmus in the run-off... and that the supporters of Tellerman are not all sufficiently liberal to stay away from PRO... it's looking like tough sledding for Filmus in the next round.

We'll keep an eye on things for you here at Yanqui Mike Election Central. A Macri win in the upcoming ballottage would almost certainly change the priorities of the city's government away from city services such as hospitals and schools and funnel support more to areas of concern to his wealthier backers. Stay tuned.

CORRECTION: this post originally erred in identifying Mayor Tellerman as the K backed candidate. We apologize for the slip. Thanks Frank!

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Thanks, Steve.

The best is no longer among us. Steve Gilliard of the News Blog passed away early this morning at the age of 41.

I've been reading Steve every day since maybe his first few days. In an email exchange a couple of years ago I begged him to tell me over a beer someday why he wasn't the most popular news/politics blog in the US. He agreed; someday we'd have that beer. Honestly, I've been looking forward to the moment ever since ...and I'm not going to stop.

His motto was "We Fight Back." And he did every time. After more than 20 years of radical, intolerant conservative dominance of US national discourse and the consequent lies, Gilliard put his pen to the new medium of blogging and swore-off the old Liberal tendencies to allow Right-Wing hate, corruption, and destruction to go unanswered because such idiocies didn't deserve a response.

He decided to hit back at least as hard... and at least blow for blow... every time the people that are destroying the old county tried to cram another lie, myth or distortion down our throats.

I fell into formation with him from that very moment. No more assuming that anyone with sense or reason would automatically recognize the obviousness of it all... that had been proved wrong over and over again.

And no going-on-the-defensive, either. That had been proved a trap. We would give as good as we got and better. No shot would go unanswered. We were smarter, better, loved our country and constitution more, and the false populism of the Reagan-Democrats phenomenon was ripe for us to explode. I loved him.

I believe that he influenced everyone. I could hear it, smell it, taste it, feel it, see it whenever anyone fought back. He never got the amount of credit that I believe he deserved... but the great ones never do in their time. That made me feel a little better. I'm not sure but I always had the feeling that that might have comforted him as well.

I hope that his love, Jen, will attempt a foundation or think-tank in his memory... he would often rail at that lack of any of those types of organizations on our side of the tracks. He needs... no, WE need something very alive to commemorate him.

Hold the -30-.

With kisses south of the Equator,
Mike

Here's a little taste for newbies and old fans.

More...

...and here

...and here

...and here

...and here. Thanks, RP

...and here

...and in his own words, here

thanks again, my friend.

The Lexington Incident Part 4

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

George Washington Slacum apparently was a real ass.

By virtually every account, the man was overly ambitious, insubordinate, spiteful and self-aggrandizing. Not that all that much is known about him. He was the son of the mayor of Alexandria, DC (now Virginia) and had an ambitious brother who made his way from being a ship's purser to US Special Diplomatic Agent to Mexico.

G.W. Slacum was appointed US Consul to Buenos Aires in 1824 and this is the best description on the web of his personality:

The events of the controversy were handled by George W. Slacum, the American Consul. Slacum was a man of enormous ambitions and slight discretion whose character is revealed in his relationships with his fellow citizens.


Political liaison was Mr. Forbes's job.


Commercial enterprises, the welfare of American merchant seamen, and the state of trade in general were Mr. Slacum's normal and proper area of responsibility.


In 1825, the American merchant schooner La Meroupe was stranded on the coast of Patagonia, and it was discovered that a part of its valuable cargo of wax was salvable. Slacum sent his trusted clerk and confidant, John Duffy, to take charge of the salvage and protect the owners' rights.

Apparently, Slacum's clerk may have cut himself in on a piece of the deal while salvaging the stranded cargo in Patagonia (or MAYBE... cut Slacum OUT of the deal!)

Rather than handle the matter "diplomatically", Slacum threw the guy into the street and called the local Buenos Aires police on him; a strange and extreme action between two members of the diplomatic corps and one that caused Slacum's boss, John Murray Forbes, to write to him expressing concern... and maybe suspicion... at Slacum's treatment of a man that appeared to be a friend as well as a co-worker:

"...it make on part of my present purpose to consider...whether its recovery...was or was not the most probable result of the steps you took...the placing of Mr. Duffy's person at the disposition of the Police...was a precipitate assumption of authority not warranted by the nature and functions of your consular office..."


"Duffy was the companion of your labors and your leisures...In a moment of doubt, you break to the bitterest enmity, and Mr. Duffy is cast to the fangs of the Police as a criminal. I thank God Sir, that my heart is not a moral kaleidoscope where the feelings...can be changed with that quickness of lightning...(3)"

Slacum got defensive, as anybody would.

However, he then upped the ante considerably.

He seemed to take a page right out of today's neo-con/fox-news playbook and changed the subject to possible corruption by his boss and accused Forbes of orchestrating the whole salvage shakedown with Forbes' buddy, the German consul to Buenos Aires.

This was the final insult for the chargé, who refused to accept any but official communications from the consul and urged that Slacum "...state your greifs (sic) and even to present yourself a reasonable latitude of personality that your rancour...may be presented to the judgement of our masters, the President and Secretary of State...(4)"

Here the unhappy affair stood. In January, 1827, writing to Secretary of State Henry Clay from Annapolis, Slacum denounced the "continued oppression" of his superior, lamenting that he had been "...the object of personal jealousy of Mr. Forbes and the victim of official and private slander...(5)"

To be fair, Forbes himself was provoked to making some undiplomatic statements. But by then old Forbes was sick, close to death, and undoubtedly maddened by the accusations of his subordinate.

Slacum's own personal physician wrote the US Secretary of State:

"...Slacum...is capable of making use of dishonorable means against an opponent and considers every man his enemy who does not think it proper to hold opinions similar to his own...you must know that he is an exceedingly vain person, loves his own person exceedingly well...(6)

That was the situation Forbes faced when he died... just months before the US destruction of the Argentine settlement in the Malvinas.

Forbes' death left Buenos Aires without a chargé d'affaires and left Consul Slacum, at least temporarily, the highest ranking US diplomat in Argentina.

Although Slacum's status hadn't really changed at all, he considered himself automatically promoted to Forbes' old job.

His letter to Secretary of State Van Buren is a curious mixture of bold self-assurance and humility: "...from the good understanding subsisting between the governments of the United States and Buenos Ayres, as well as from my intimate...personal acquaintance, I shall find no difficulty in proctecting the honor and interests of my country...until the Government shall be pleased to send some other representative more competent than myself...(7)

Washington DC probably considered him harmless. But with the seizure of a US merchant ship only a few months later, Slacum would show his ass to the world... and the US would be forced to cover it.

"Commander Silas Duncan and
the Falkland Islands Affair"
by Lt. Comm. Alexander G. Monroe, USN Reserve

NerdProgre: La Nacion desmiente a Stiglitz, defiende los años 90

"Pero vamos a los bifes... este indice es una herramienta aceptada academicamente y universalmente por toda la teoría económica, ...........¿no? Bien, la respuesta es ¡NO!"

I am become farmer*...

A tremendous business deal negotiated by my wife to turn a substantial portion of the old homestead into cropland is about to be signed...

...but it's another sad chapter in the Argentine beef industry story.

Modern farming is nothing like traditional ranching; it's a poisonous affair not even counting the transgenic seed that will go into the ground (actually, the transgenic thing allows the plant to withstand even more poison than a "normal" plant... hence, less weeds and pests, more soya, corn, whatever.)

80% of our land is not even prime cropland but such is the worldwide demand for grain and oilseed that even we are in the crosshairs of Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill... and, baby, do they ever gots the hairs.

I was recounting the whole sad story to Sexy Spanish Club's husband, Tom Frost, at our party. This pressure is, obviously, irresistible to ranchers in a GOOD financial situation... what that means is it's a no-brainer, manna-from-heaven thang to your average Argentine rancher who, believe me, is not in a good position to resist any kind of cash flow.

We could have, would have resisted the temptation (I'm making excuses here... but they are heartfelt.) but we are faced with a ever-losing proposition raising one of your favorite things about Argentina.

Agriculture and the economy as a whole is under a heavy hand from government policies... most of which I agree with. However, all other sectors of agri-business at least get a "parting-gift" from the government in the way of some kind of subsidy for the added burden.

The beef sector gets more and more restricted without the sops that get thrown to everyone else. Even if there were no Argentine restrictions, world beef producers are subject to "the Hilton quota" which effectively keeps/kept Argentina from taking over the world in terms of prime, fresh cuts of restaurant-quality beef. So that means that even before this, ranchers here were under restrictions that nobody else was under.

I tend to think... and maybe you do too... that there is no other segment of agriculture with which Argentina is so identified as beef. That is not true. Actually we here produce practically all the wheat that is grown in South America (big numbers!) and always have. Practically all the bread that is eaten in Brazil, for example, is from Argentine grain: wheat won't grow well in hot climates.

But wheat is not famous... great steak is.

I fear that the beef that made Argentina famous will go the way of North America... and be produced mostly in feedlots. Feedlot beef producers are benefiting from the restrictions on and subsidies given to grain producers here.

When good grass-fed beef goes... and it's going... it will be very, very difficult to re-instate.

Our ranch is as organic as it gets. After we soak a goodly portion in 2-4-D/glyfosato it will be years before we could stop and reverse the situation. Even then, I probably would never in my lifetime be able to hold my head up as high as I do today when the mention arises of truly natural, organic, grass-fed beef.

In our area, we are among the first to make this decision... but there is an outer ring of ranches many kilometers from us that have been doing this for a while.

Come Spring, I'll be surprised if everyone in our neck of the pampas hasn't made the same decision... and grassland on which dinosaurs actually trod will be soy.

* apologies to the Bhagavad Gita

The Lexington Incident Part 3

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

The Argentina into which the seized US ship Harriet sailed in July of 1831 was still in disarray from its revolution 15 years earlier.

An attempt at a constitutional government with a President had failed and the former Provinicias Unidas del la Plata was now known as the Argentine Confederation with the Governor of Buenos Aires appointed to conduct foreign affairs.

The US had recognized its independence in 1820 and had gotten off to a terrific start with the diplomatic personnel sent here. Caesar Augustus Rodney, former US Congressman, US Senator, US Attorney General, US Army Capitan during the "War of 1812" and possibly the foremost US expert on South America was appointed his country's first Minister Plenipotentiary to the fledgling Argentina.

He presented himself to the Argentine government in 1823, endeared himself to Argentines everywhere, and promptly died, June 10, 1824, and was buried in Barrio Retiro on calle Juncal between Esmeralda and Suipacha.

Leading Rodney's funeral cortege was the man who would soon replace him: the US chargé d'affaires, John Murray Forbes.

The scion of one of the great "yankee trader" families and former Harvard classmate of John Quincy Adams, Forbes practiced law for a short time in Boston and moved to Europe in the late 1790s. From 1801 to 1819, he served as consul for the US, first in Copenhagen and then in Hamburg, paying particular attention to commercial issues. When he returned to the US, he was asked by Adams, then Secretary of State, to represent the U.S. in Argentina in regards to shipping and other business matters.

Forbes career was marked by both a great admiration for Argentina and a great concern over the United Kingdom's efforts to turn it into a de facto colony. He spent years constantly communicating his alarm to his own government and to the officials in Buenos Aires but to no avail.

While the US was the only competition for the UK during Forbes' years in Buenos Aires, it was very small competition. The US was either unwilling or unable to take the necessary steps to compete with Britain's bigger ships, bigger banks, and bigger business connections, and bigger diplomatic corps in Argentina.

In the end, the yanqui shipments of Chinese silk and affordable cotton goods were looked upon by Great Britain as an annoyance easily crushed. Increased trade with Argentina could also have annoyed Spain, a major US trading partner at the time.

While Forbes howled in the wilderness, political instability in the young US led his old pal Adams to be defeated after one term. With the presidency of Andrew Jackson came a new US consul to Buenos Aires, George Washington Slacum.

Slacum, by all accounts was a most disagreeable man who was a thorn in the old man's side until Forbes too was buried in Retiro near his predecessor, June 14, 1831.

Slacum then seized Forbes' old post and, with the help of a one-armed war-hero US sea capitan, changed the course of Islas Malvinas / Falklands Islands history.

The Lexington Incident Part 2

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

Yanqui involvement in the Malvinas, curiously, began way back in 1820 with its first Argentine governor, Daniel Jewett. The 48 year old Jewett; born in New London, Connecticut; had acted as a privateer for the US during its "War of 1812" against the British.

Jewett later offered his services to the newly-independent United Provinces of the River Plate (later Argentina), which accepted his proposal and authorized his corsair activities against the Spanish; he was appointed Colonel in the Argentine Navy.

He was given command of the frigate Heroina in 1820 and set out on a voyage marked by misfortune, a mutiny, and scurvy. Some 80 of his crew of 200 were either sick or dead by the time he arrived in October at Puerto Soledad (formerly Port Louis), the one-time Spanish capital of the Malvinas/Falkland Islands. There he found some fifty British and U.S. sealing ships, whose presence had not been authorized by either the Spanish or the authorities at Buenos Aires.

On 6 November 1820 he raised the blue-and-white flag of what would become Argentina.

Seals and sealing ships were important everywhere in the Atlantic at that time along with whaling and other fishing.

Jewett soon left the islands but seal hunting remained an important source of revenue for the Malvinas. So much so that 9 years later, the new Argentine governor, Luis Vernet, was granted a monopoly on seal hunting in the Malvinas as part of his salary.

Vernet was a successful Buenos Aires businessman with extensive dealings in and around the islands. The new government in Argentina hoped that his appointment could keep poaching under control in Argentine waters.

Luis Vernet was apparently a good choice for the job. He immediately found at least one ship, the yanqui merchant Harriet, poaching seals. He seized her, and sent her to Buenos Aires along with her captain to stand trial.

That might have seemed like standard operating procedure to the new governor but it started a chain of events with another fledgling nation north of the equator that reverberates to this day.

The Lexington Incident Part 1

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

Of all the periods in American history, the years 1825 to 1840 are least studied by diplomatic historians. The reason for this lack of attention is usually ascribed to an absence of important diplomatic events. As Thomas A. Bailey wrote, "The chronicle of American foreign affairs from 1825 to 1840 is not thickly studded with striking developments. During no other period of similar length prior to 1872 does the student of diplomacy find so little significance to record." This position, however, is in need of revision. There was, in fact, at least one significant development during this period which merits the attention of diplomatic historians.

Between 1831 and 1833, the United States became involved with Argentina in a dispute over events which occured at the Falkland Islands. The ensuing crisis was considered so important at the time that it was the subject of two state of the union addresses by President Andrew Jackson. Moreover, the incident brought the United States to the brink of war with Argentina and resulted in a prolonged cessation of diplomatic relations between the two nations

And so begins our little tale of how the whole Malvinas imbroglio comes to today, 176 years later... and 25 years after the war between the last Argentine dictatorship and Margaret Thatcher's 1980's Britain.

In the interest of full-disclosure, I firmly believe that the Malvinas belong to Argentina and before them Spain. Not only that, this writer can point to more than 3 treaties signed by the United Kingdom acknowleging that the islands belong to Argentina.

What fascinates me, however, is the relatively untold involvement of the United States in this fiasco; something that is not taught to school children in the US, Argentina, nor the UK.

It was not a small matter.

In fact, had it not been for the actions of a one-armed, war-hero, US Navy Captain; an incompetent US Consul in Buenos Aires; and a meddling UK, still smarting from the loss of its New World holdings...the tiny, desolate, wind-swept, gloomy islands might still be under the Argentine flag and there would be no commemorations of an undeclared war described by Jorge Luis Borges "as two bald men fighting over a comb."

The Lexington Incident in the Falklands

Intro.....Part 1.....Part 2.....Part 3.....Part 4

The Malvinas war and the UK's dispute over its sovereignty bores me.

As I tried to show in my little post last month, the United Kingdom signed at least 3 treaties recognizing that the islands belong to Spain then Argentina before taking them by force in 1833, deporting all the Argentines, and transplanting Brits there to replace them. End of Story.

In my fact checking, however, I ran across the bizarre story of the USS Lexington and the United States destruction of the Argentine colony. I had never heard a word of this before.

Not only is the story absolutely fascinating but the illegal yanqui smashing of the Malvinas appears to be the cause of the whole sad chain of events leading to the British theft and West-Bank style repopulation, to the 1982 war, to the events of today.

It's got a cast of characters that could be pulled right out of the current West Wing, international terrorists (um...pirates!) and is filled with last-gasp colonial meddling by a dying empire. A tale of our times, if you'll only suspend a little disbelief.

It's all been written before (like I said, I only learned about it while wiki/googling only 3 weeks ago) but I gotta write it again.

I hope you enjoy it... 'cause it's gonna take up a lot of this blog's time.

I'm tellin' you, it's bad...

A scathing review of Argentine government policies toward beef producers by Jack Chang of the McClatchy newspaper chain

Kirchner vs. the Judiciary

If you only read one blog post today... make it this one from Pablo Flores, a nutshell dissertation of a facet of RA politics since the 1980's

Buenos Aires Herald

...Argentina President Kirchner "decries Cassation Court foot-dragging"

Las Malvinas son Argentinas

...read the Lexington Incident

Over the next 3 months or so we're liable to hear quite a bit about the Malvinas. Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of the chain of events that came to be known as La Guerra de las Malvinas or the Falkland Islands War...even though no declaration of war was ever made.

The desolate little place (so desolate that it never even had any indigenous peoples) has an interesting history that involves the Dutch, French and even Yanquis in addition to Spain, Argentina and the UK.

It was discovered by the Dutch and the French built the first settlement, naming them Îles Malouines after St. Malo. Hence, the Spanish name Malvinas. A couple of years later the British built a fort on the islands without even knowing the French were there.

Spain eventually signed a treaty with France and Britain limiting its holdings in the New World... that included the Malvinas. Spain took over the French colony (they later reimbursed them) then they simply kicked the British out.

The Brits came back for while but ended up abandoning their colony. The British later signed another treaty renouncing all colonial ambitions in South America "and the islands adjacent" in exchange for an agreement on who was the boss of the west coast of North America.

Then the Spanish abandoned the islands, too. Like I said, the place is desolate.

About 15 years later the British invaded Buenos Aires twice in two years and were defeated both times. That made Argentines so cocky they declared independence from the mother country that never lifted a hand to help them with the invasions.

With independence, they got the Malvinas from Spain as a package deal.

The UK then signed a treaty recognizing Argentina's independence.

The newly minted Argentina sent a governor, built a prison, and started to farm and trade. A few years later, the settlers gave birth to some babies...the first people ever born on the islands.

Now come the yanquis. The Argentine governor of the islands had placed some pretty strict rules on the hunting of seals. Not long after, he caught a US merchant ship illegally hunting seals and seized it.

The US consul in Buenos Aires protested that his government didn't even recognize Argentina's ownership of the Malvinas.

The US sent a warship to get the ship back but the yanqui captain overstepped his orders and destroyed the entire Argentine settlement.

The UK then took advantage of the confusion and seized what was left of the islands without firing a shot. They later deported all the Argentines. That was 1833.

Argentina has never relinquished its claim to islands.

We can vote.

Good news and bad news. #1. It can be done. #2. I'm too late for the election this year.

My advice: don't be like Mike... if you have a DNI... get registered to vote this year so you can vote the next time.

Don't be too amazed. Buenos Aires has had a long tradition of allowing non-citizens to vote. I've read old travelogues going back to the 1820's or so that mention it.

The law that let's you vote here in the city is Código Electoral Nacional (Art. 25) and Ley Nº 334 (Art. 10) de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires Province has a similar provision but some provinces do not. Apparently, there were 10,000 foreign voters in the city and 265,000 foreign voters in the province as of 2005!

You won't be able to vote for President or other national offices.

Here in Capital Federal, just head on down to the Tribunal Superior de Justicia near the corner of 9 de Julio and Córdoba (Cerrito 760), show 'em your DNI, get fingerprinted electronically, and you're done.

Melting

Update: This was picked-up by my favorite US politics blog. Get well Steve, we love you.

The back burner is both a wonderful and treacherous place as any cook will tell you.

The US President returns Thursday to South America to lift the lid on his south-of-the-border concoction that has given him fits in recent years.

Long gone are the waiter-in-chief's euphoric descriptions from his first Summit of the Americas in Quebec back in April of 2001,

"Amigo y amigos, it's an honor to be here. We have a great vision before us,

a fully democratic hemisphere bound together by goodwill and free trade. That's a tall order. It is a chance of a lifetime. It is a responsibility we all share."

In September of that year, another "chance of a lifetime" apparently pushed that item off the menu.

Exactly 12 months after the Summit, his administration was wiping egg off it's face for cheering the short-lived ouster of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

He kicked off 2003 with a State of the Union speech that failed to even mention Latin America. His best buddy, Fox, took a beating in the Mexican mid-terms. Soy, corn, beef, sugar and other commodities figured prominently as China became Argentina's biggest export market in June and July and, during the first eight months of 2003, Brazil's exports to China jumped 136 per cent to reach nearly $3 billion. The Neo-liberal souffle began to collapse as one-by-one the left began to take the presidencies of South America.

Bush closed 2004 by going to Chile to try to change prevailing tastes toward US arrogance and neglect of the region. He ended up trying to whip some Chilean security guards in the presidential palace.

Bolivia's Democracy Center released a statement in 2005, "With the arrival of soldiers so close to Bolivia's border, people here are understandably worried that the US is cooking up something even more drastic" as the US deployed troops to Paraguay. Almost simultaneously Bush garnished the Summit of the Americas in Argentina as human piñata.

Less than 90 days later, the Bush franchise lost a couple of stars when elections brought to the table Chilean Socialist President Bachelet and the self-described "US's worst nightmare", President Morales of Bolivia.

Maybe Bush can save this big pot of Latin America by simply stirring things up!

The centerpiece of this week's tour of South America will be another attempt to peel-away yet another Mercosur common market nation.

This time, tiny Uruguay which has been feeling the heat from Argentina over the European construction of a pulp mill too dirty to be allowed in Europe. The mill's location on a shared river across from Buenos Aires has been causing indigestion for more than a year.

Bush's fat will be held to the fire, however, by Argentina's guest chef, Hugo Chavez, who has been invited to hold a public demonstration on the Uruguayan border.

That big pot of Latin America has been heating up the kitchen for a long time now. The world watches to see if this is too much heat for Bush.

Great place! Somebody should hold a beer festival there!

No! Seriously! What a great location! This year's Baires Beer Festival was held (for the second year in a row, I think,) in an open air space between some old warehouses across from the Jumbo and down a few blocks from the Polo Grounds. The old warehouses were open to the central space and contained more spaces...a big one for the entertainment headliners: Los Cafres and their opening act, Ibrahim Ferrer, Jr. direct from La Habana!

Tonight was the last night of the festival... a festival that I have somehow failed to attend for more than 3 years. I tried to find at least ONE blogger en castellano o ingles that had a post on any of the preceding 3 nights... but to no avail. No importa. Your Yanq is an adventurer at heart and off he went with his beloved for a night of good beer, song and dancing.

The weather was threatening but never made good on the menacing rain. It was all looking good. The goings got on at 18:00 but we arrived at 19:00 just in time for the strains of son to drift over the old, high brickwork of the festival grounds. This had the makings of a good time! $60 pesos poorer we were in the door with the strains of música cubana wafting over a tremendous selection of some of the best "pan líquido" that the original bread-basket of the world has to offer!

¡Compañeros extranjeros!
Do you know that YOU can VOTE in municipal elections here in Buenos Aires?

Something HAS to be done about the law concerning lugares bailables in our fair city.
Let's help vote the bastards out!

Tonight, my first visit to the festival, was absolutely pathetic.

I don't know what the first hour of the "Beer Festival" had to offer... but I imagine that it was the same as the second hour: No Beer.

That's right, no beer allowed to be sold...por ley.

That's was OK, I said to myself and everyone else...the music's good, I can wait a while.

But Noooooo. I wised up a half an hour later to the realization that there would be NO beer until 22:30..."maybe 23:00", me dijo un patovico. Three hours? Maybe 3 and 1/2 hours?

That was it. Mi porteña y yo were back to the boletería politely requesting our pesos back. We got 'em and then it was off for a pleasant "parting gift" in nearby Las Cañitas to outdoor- table- hop the pleasant evening with our unneeded raincoats... with the live music wonderfully audible the half-block away.

This situation is horrible! Tonight's encounter with the post-cromagnon law is only the latest. We spent part of an afternoon this year with the owner of the cutest little corner joint in Monserrat who still has a delicious little baby grand in his tiny place.

He can't play his piano...by law. AND his place is too small to permit a space for smoking. Pardon my lunfardo but he's fucked... and he knows it. It won't be long before he's gone and this incredible city will be a little poorer ...but not in the way that yanquis consider poorer.

(I wait with baited breath a reply from the alluring MsTangoinherEyes on the milonga scene and if she knows how those lovely places avoid the no drinks (not even gaseosas!) during live performances.)

I have a friend of about 25 that is involved in the rockandroll scene here. Tonight's debacle brought back everything he has told me about how he and his friends are slowly atrophying from a lack of venues in which to play and be heard.

This has to stop.

What do you think?

Wanna register to vote? Come with me. We can all go together...let's bring a reporter from the Clarín along!

The end of Argentine Beef as we know it?

This is truly sad news, fans of Carne Argentina.

I'm speaking to those fans of that lean, flavorful, organic-by-default, low LDL, high HDL, 1/3 the calories, no hormones, no antibiotics, crazy-good red stuff that puts everything to shame back home.

Please believe me. This is really happening:

I've spoken before of the crisis that exists for those here that persist in producing the traditional free-range grass-fed beef for which La República is so rightly famous... now my seeming rant is, lastimadamente, being noted even in the foreign press.

With the Kirchner administration's announcement that it will subsidize US-style feedlot beef, virtually every link in the food chain will be receiving assistance from the federal government except traditional beef producers.

Don't take my word for it...you can easily verify this yourself.

This is simply insult to injury when you consider that beef producers now operate under restrictions like NO other part of Argentine agriculture (slaughter-weight, export limits, price control campaigns, etc.)

Now with "free" corn for the US-style feedlot producers...the next big beef story may well be the droves of estancieros that will be putting their land to other uses. ANY other uses.

In fact, Mrs. Yanqui Mike and I are penning the last few details for a conversion of 100 to 300 hectares to corn or soy production. That will blow all of the organic bragging rights that we have for all of our cattle because of the close proximity to the agro-toxins that come with it.

The lovely Ms. TangoinherEyes once asked me, in response to a Gancia-flavored description of mine, why I don't explain more of the differences between Argentine beef and what we were all raised-on in Norte América.

I told her that I didn't think people would be very interested.

My Sitemeter, however, tells me otherwise. My traffic goes up in response to cow / beef / pampas posts.

Feedlot beef is disgusting, tastes bad, horrible for cows, and is bad for your health!

Leave me a comment if you want some more on this subject.