Marco Enríquez-Ominami, in a file photo Claudio Reyes (AFP)
Argentine President Alberto Fernández considers Gabriel Boric a friend. The feeling is mutual. In April last year, the Chilean visited Buenos Aires on his first trip abroad as President, was enthusiastic about the idea of a new Latin American left front and was given a Charly García record, which Fernández kept in his house. Since then, however, relations between the two countries have been a thorn in their side. A series of minor diplomatic incidents that strain bilateral ties so severely have tarnished a relationship that was expected to be good. The last was the work of Fernández. The Argentine has signed a letter from the Puebla Group, made up of former presidents and progressive leaders, harshly criticizing the Chilean judiciary. “I respect the institutions, I expect the same from my colleagues,” Boric replied.
The Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs made no reference to the letter, but reactions from the Chilean side were open. Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola said she had spoken with her counterpart from the judiciary, Luis Cordero, and with Argentina’s Ambassador to Santiago, Rafael Bielsa. “It seems to us [junto a Cordero] that the statements made in this letter are absolutely false. The government not only respects but also protects the autonomy of the judiciary and the public ministry,” he said.
The text, titled Justice Delayed is Justice Denied, indicts an investigation into illegal political funding by mining company SQM. The signatories expressly support one of the eight defendants, the leader of the Progressive Party of Chile (PRO), Marco Enríquez-Ominami, who faces up to four years in prison for tax offenses.
Marco Enríquez-Ominami is one of the founders of the Puebla Group and a personal friend of President Fernández. “Since 2015, he has been accused by prosecutors directly linked to former right-wing President Sebastián Piñera,” begins the text on the SQM case, in which one of the accused is former Piñera Economy Minister Pablo Longueira. “Only dedicated prosecutors and with great media and financial support have delayed the process (…) The delay in the process seriously violates the fundamental rights of the progressive leader [por Enríquez-Ominami] for the reputation damage caused. Another case of lawfare of the kind carried out in Latin America to go after progressive leaders, stigmatize them, point them out and then declare them innocent when moral harm has been done,” the text continues.
Lawfare is the use of justice for political ends. Regional leaders like Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Kirchner see themselves as their victims. In fact, the Argentine government is in an open war against the judiciary in general and the Supreme Court in particular, which it accuses of having prosecuted Kirchner in court to ban her as a presidential candidate in 2023 in the Chilean canon. Therefore, the rejection of the Puebla group’s letter was general. “It ignores relevant procedural issues of the Chilean institutional system,” Justice Minister Luis Cordero said. “I would read it as political support for ME-O (Enríquez-Ominami), but from an institutional point of view its content is inappropriate,” he added.
The letter, says Paz Zárate, a Chilean lawyer and international law expert, “is an interference in foreign policy.” “The Chilean government’s protest is fully justified. The problem is that the government [de Gabriel Boric] turns state affairs into something personal. The last thing I saw was that the State Department was considering a protest note. I hope it remains unconsidered. Being polite doesn’t discourage you,” he adds.
For Argentine analyst Jorge Castro, president of the Strategic Planning Institute, the problem was that Fernández is the only active member of the Puebla group. “He’s not just someone who has opinions on various issues, in this case the delay in Ominami’s trial, he’s Argentina’s representative against Chile. What’s unusual is that he doesn’t seem to be aware of this fundamental issue,” says Castro. “Chile and President Boric have a very strong sense of institutional politics, they have strong institutions, including the judiciary, and the whole political system is involved,” he adds.
filtration
However, the letter incident is the latest in a long line. The most notorious stumbling block was the leak of an audio recording of a private meeting of the Chilean Foreign Ministry where Minister Urrejola overheard Ambassador Bielsa protesting. The anger Urrejola expressed to his Argentine counterpart Santiago Cafiero came after Bielsa criticized the Boric government’s rejection of the Dominga mine port project.
“Enough. He does what he wants when he feels like it, and the explanation is that he’s crazy?” says the Chilean foreign minister about Ambassador Bielsa in the audio leaked to the press in the middle of the Celac summit in Buenos Aires was leaked 24 last January. The scandal prompted a series of gestures by both countries to quickly bury the episode and convey the message that bilateral relations were “excellent” and that the foreign minister’s defense “under no circumstances” tarnished the historic bond.
After the leak, Urrejola received harsh criticism from the Foreign Ministry itself. The main public consequence was the departure of the portfolio’s head of communications, Lorena Díaz. One of the most common accusations made by critics of the Boric government is the number of mistakes they make due to lack of experience.
“The Chilean government apologized that there were no consequences because Alberto Fernández said there weren’t,” says Zárate, “but that’s the wrong view. It is not worthy that Chile has to cite President Fernández saying it is irrelevant if the Argentine ambassador to Chile, who is also a former foreign minister, is seriously insulted in tone.” While the swell had not yet calmed down , the letter from the Puebla group arrived. Diplomatic relations between Argentina and Chile do not appear to be at peace.
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