Donald Trump has showcased in Latin American policy by forging close relationships with two of Latin America’s most dishonest leaders: neoconservatives Mauricio Macri of Argentina and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru. After visiting Trump at the White House in April, Trump called the neo-fascist Macri his “regional ally,” adding that the Argentine is doing a “fantastic job.”
The “job” being done by Macri is instituting draconian austerity measures being directed by international bankers. The severe budget slashing has severely impacted the working class and college students. Macri is also conducting systematic repression of his political opposition, including threats to imprison his progressive predecessor Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and members of her government.
Macri’s father, Francisco Macri, was a leading real estate developer who was involved in Manhattan development deals with Donald Trump in the 1980s. It was on a business trip to Buenos Aires that Trump and his then-wife Ivana first met Mauricio Macri, who was an adviser to his father. Although the business relationship between Francisco Macri and Trump soured, David Rockefeller intervened to patch up differences.
Today, Trump is routinely violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution by using his office to enrich himself further. One of the violations has been to pressure Macri to give the green light to the building of a Trump Tower in Buenos Aires. The project has faced problems with municipal building permits. But all those problems seemed to have disappeared after Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump, officials of the Trump partner YY Development Group of Buenos Aires, and the Macri administration held a series of discussions and phone calls. Groundbreaking for Trump Tower Buenos Aires is scheduled for later this year. There, of course, was no opposition on environmental grounds to the Trump Tower. Macri’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development Sergio Bergman, is the only rabbi serving as a government minister outside of Israel. Ivanka Trump’s and her husband Jared Kushner’s involvement in the Buenos Aires building deal on behalf of the U.S. President could not have hurt, since both are Jewish.
The quid pro quo for Macri was Trump’s decision to sell Argentina $2 billion worth of advanced fighter jets, tanks, medium and long-range missiles, and helicopters. The military acquisition represents the largest modernization of the Argentine armed forces since before the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. The Argentine opposition claims that Macri cut the budget for military personnel and teacher salaries to come up with the funds for the military deal with the Trump administration.
Macri did one other favor for his old friend Trump. While at the White House, Trump asked Macri to cancel the decision of the Argentine government to award to Order of the Liberator General San Martín to former President Jimmy Carter. Carter’s work in promoting human rights during Argentina’s fascist military dictatorship in the 1970s was the reason for honoring Carter with the award. The official approval of the award for Carter was made by the Argentine foreign ministry and it was published in the Official Gazette.
Apparently, when it comes to supporting fascist military dictatorships, Trump and Macri are on the same page.
The other Latin American leader who Trump has relied upon for advice, all of it bad, is Peru’s President Pablo Kuczynski. The former World Bank executive and Wall Street investment banker for Kuhn, Loeb & Co., who donated to the presidential campaigns of George H. W. and George W. Bush, previously met with Trump in the White House. Kuczynski has convinced Trump to impose severe sanctions on Venezuela, which has been gripped by a Central Intelligence Agency-inspired and directed “themed revolution” designed to oust President Nicolas Maduro from power. Kuczynski and now Trump back Maduro’s replacement, Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski, who, like Kuczynski, is of Polish Jewish descent.
The influence of Trump son-in-law Kushner, a member, along with his wife Ivanka, of the Chabad Lubavitcher cult, on Trump’s Latin American policy cannot be underestimated. The Chabad movement, with its “houses” in major cities around the world, including Buenos Aires and Lima, is seen by Western intelligence as a virtual arm of the Israeli Mossad intelligence service.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2017 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
