Spanish – The sanctions applied by Argentina against Nicolas Maduro’s regime under the Reciprocal Assistance Treaty (TIAR) lasted less than a week. After Alberto Fernandez took oath as president, Argentina welcomed the recently sanctioned Chavista Jorge Rodriguez in its territory, and it became evident the country is disregarding the measures that countries of the region are taking against Chavism.
Lamentable que en la toma de posesión del presidente Alberto Fernández esté presente Jorge Rodríguez, vocero de la dictadura de Maduro, sancionado por Argentina y el resto de los países americanos con el TIAR. #MaduroViolaDDHH #MaduroNOesBienvenidoEnArgentina #10Dic pic.twitter.com/M3rMLsZQgZ
— Gabriel Bastidas (@Gbastidas) December 10, 2019
On 3rd December, after three months of delay, the member countries of TIAR released a list of financial sanctions and travel restrictions against the regime of Nicolas Maduro. However, on Tuesday 10th December, representatives of the dictatorship appeared at the swearing-in of Fernandez in Argentina, a complete violation of the recent sanctions applied by the country a week ago, but under the government of Mauricio Macri.
Alberto Fernandez allegedly spoke on the phone with Maduro and decided to invite the Chavista minister of information, Jorge Rodriguez, to the presidential swearing-in. The noteworthy thing is that Rodriguez was banned from entering Argentina until a few hours ago.
According to off-the-record information, a private plane of Turkish origin was responsible for transporting the delegation sent by Maduro that consisted of some five Chavista officials.
With this first action by the government of Alberto Fernandez in support of the tyrant Nicolas Maduro, it became evident that President Juan Guaido lost a strong ally in the struggle for democracy in Venezuela.
It is important to remember that Fernandez had already announced that he would leave the Lima Group; he and his vice-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will assume a “non-interference” position in the case of Venezuela. Therefore, they will refrain from condemning the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.
Goodbye sanctions?
Fernandez had announced that after his victory in the presidential elections, he would create a new mediating body led by Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay; a kind of Contact Group that condemns sanctions calls for dialogue in Venezuela and abandons the measures taken within the framework of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR).
Jorge Rodriguez, along with 28 other Chavista officials, was sanctioned when he was included in a list of people linked to the dictatorship. Those listed were forbidden to enter and transit through the 18 signatory nations, including Argentina.
Under Fernandez’s presidency, Argentina’s position will also change in organizations such as the OAS from where more than a dozen countries activated the Treaty. From now on, any of the measures taken to sanction the regime, such as those recently announced by the OAS foreign ministers, will remain ineffective in Argentina.
These nations committed themselves to “investigate, prosecute, capture, and extradite” persons involved in corruption and crimes against humanity in Venezuela as well as to “prepare lists of natural and juridical persons who maintain commercial relations with the tyranny to issue sanctions against them.” The course of these actions in Argentina is unclear with Alberto Fernandez as the president.