C[omp]ute

From: andrew cooke <andrew@...>

Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:28:57 -0300

There's a report on the BBC -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12464010 - that describes an
argument between the USA and Argentina over some military hardware sent for a
"training course" arranged between "US military experts" and the Argentine
federal police.

While the report covers the US point of view, and implies that Argentina is
being difficult because it was snubbed earlier, there's very little
explanation of the Argentine take.

However, there is a link to the diplomatic complaint, in Spanish -
http://www.mrecic.gov.ar/portal/ver_adjunto.php?id=3153

Curiously, that makes some points that do not fit so well with the BBC
version.  First, the US implies that one serial number was incorrect; the
Argentinians claim that about a third of the cargo was undeclared.  Second,
and perhaps more significant, the Argentinians say that this is the second
time that this has happened, and that the course was cancelled last year for
the same problem.

Another interesting detail is that the Americans apparently requested that the
contents not be inspected in the open to avoid satellite observation.

The historical context, obviously, is the USA's tendency to use the police and
army in S Americna countries to implement its own policies.

Andrew