ARGENTINA HAS accused the United States of bringing undeclared weapons, drugs and communications equipment into the country, sparking off a diplomatic row that has further unsettled the already rocky relationship between Washington and Buenos Aires.
The incident was sparked by the search of a US C-17 military cargo aircraft last Thursday after it landed in Buenos Aires with a team planning to take part in a scheduled training course with local police.
Héctor Timerman, Argentina’s foreign minister who personally supervised the search, told CNN Español on Monday that a third of the cargo had not been declared and contained “suspicious material which could serve for telephone interference . . . weapons, psychotropic drugs and other types of drugs that were not declared”.
Claiming the US had refused to give explanations for the cargo, Mr Timerman said Argentine law had to be obeyed by all: “There is no one who, just because they are a more powerful country, has a privilege over others. Just as we comply with US law, we want the United States to comply with Argentine law.”
Washington responded that the material was “routine”, and said it is “puzzled and disturbed” by the incident, calling for the immediate release of all the cargo on board the aircraft, which was intended to be used in a hostage release course with Argentina’s federal police.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley described the search as “unusual and unannounced”, and among the items seized were “batteries, medicine, a rifle, and communications equipment”. He said all items were included on the aircraft’s manifest, though one serial number may have been incorrectly entered. “But this is the kind of thing that could easily have been resolved on the ground by customs officials,” he said during Monday’s press briefing in Washington.
Security co-operation between US and Argentine forces, especially in combating drug trafficking, has until now been one of the few areas of the bilateral relationship little affected by broader tensions in recent years.
Argentine officials barely disguised their fury last month when the White House announced that on his first trip to the region, US president Barack Obama would visit neighbouring Brazil and Chile – but would not stop in Buenos Aires.
Washington is still smarting from what it saw as a breach of diplomatic protocol when the husband and predecessor of Argentine president Cristina Kirchner allowed Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez organise anti-US rallies in Argentina in 2005 and 2007 to protest visits of then-US president George W Bush to Argentina and Uruguay.
Relations were further strained by the release of secret US diplomatic cables at the end of last year by the WikiLeaks website, which reported rumours of corruption surrounding the Kirchner administration and questioned the president’s mental health.
Argentina’s new security minister Nilda Garré reportedly told the US embassy in Buenos Aires she would be reviewing all the security co-operation agreements between the two countries after taking up her post in December.
This followed the leaking of a US cable that described a predecessor who oversaw the security relationship with Washington as the “most pro-US, accessible and predisposed to collaborate” member of the government.