CORRUPTION IN ARGENTINA

THE MACRI CLAN

Corruption in ARGENTINA is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the country. It is estimated that corruption cost the ARGENTINE economy over US$8.2 billion over the last 30 years.

Argentina ranks 107 out of 175 in Transparency International´s Corruption Perceptions Index, far behind its neighboring countries, URUGUAY, CHILE and BRAZIL.

Recently elected President MAURICIO MACRI said in his inauguration speech that he “will be implacable with corruption”. He has made the fight against corruption a top priority for his administration.

Only 5 month in office, the new administration under the helm of MAURICIO MACRI the self-proclaimed anti-corruption advocate, has been named in the PANAMA LEAK. He is the only LATIN AMERICAN head of state mentioned in the PANAMA PAPERS.

5 WAYS THE MACRI CLAN SHOW THEIR LOVE FOR OFFSHORE COMPANIES

The PANAMA PAPERS revelations is intensifying the scrutiny on the MACRI family's assets and involvement with offshore companies.

The involvement of ARGENTINE President MAURICIO MACRI in an offshore company in BAHAMAS, revealed by the release of the PANAMA PAPERS, is currently making headlines all over the world. But MACRI is far from being a first timer in offshore operations.

1. MAURICIO MACRI was the vice president of FLEG TRADING Inc.

 

The PANAMA PAPERS leak revealed MAURICIO MACRI was the vice president of a company called FLEG TRADING Inc. located in the BAHAMAS. The president of the company was his father, FRANCO MACRI, one of ARGENTINA’S most prominent businessman.     

The company was established in 1998 and was active until 2008, when MACRI was the BUENOS AIRES city Mayor. However, while MACRI was in office he did not declare he was a board member of FLEG TRADING Inc. 

2. MAURICIO MACRI was vice president of KAGEMUSHA SA, located in PANAMA.      

   

But this was not the first time for the MACRI family in matters of operating with offshore companies. KAGEMUSHA SA, named after a JAPANESE movie, was established in PANAMA earlier in 1981.

In that company, President MACRI also appears as vice president with his father FRANCO as the head of the firm. One of MAURICIO MACRI’S brothers, GIANFRANCO, appears as secretary.    

3. MAURICIO MACRI was president of BOCA JUNIORS and the club’s offshore bank accounts.

ARGENTINA’S most important soccer club, BOCA JUNIORS, also appears in the PANAMA PAPERS. According to the documents, it is one of the 20 biggest sports clubs in the world with offshore financial operations.     

   

When asked about the club’s offshore bank accounts, BOCA JUNIORS’ president DANIEL ANGELICI said “those accounts were not opened under my presidency, they were opened 20 years ago.” The thing is BOCA JUNIORS’ president 20 years ago was no other than MAURICIO MACRI, who won the club’s presidency in 1995.   

However, ANGELICI, who happens to be a member of MACRI’S coalition, also admitted to owning a company located in PANAMA.     

   

4. MAURICIO MACRI’S brother and his eight companies in PANAMA.         

GIANFRANCO, one of MAURICIO MACRI’S brothers, owns eight companies in PANAMA. Despite not being part of FLEG TRADING Inc., he is a board member of KAGEMUSHA SA since 1981.     

  

According to economist EZEQUIEL ORLANDO, who has done research on the MACRIS’ links to offshore companies, five out of the other seven companies in which GIANFRANCO MACRI is a board member were established in December 12, 2007, only two days after MAURICIO MACRI became the mayor of BUENOS AIRES.  

5. MAURICIO MACRI and his father prosecuted for contraband

In 1993 SEVEL, a car manufacturer in ARGENTINA owned by the MACRI family, was selling auto parts to its URUGUAY branch and then re-importing them. This reportedly allowed SEVEL to collect reimbursements for car exports that were not true exports.      

The whole operation represented a seven million dollar profit for SEVEL while helping it evade taxes for $14 million dollars only in 1993. After being taken to court in 1997, MAURICIO MACRI and his father FRANCO were prosecuted for contraband in 2001.      

CORRUPTED JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN ARGENTINA

The charges, however, were dismissed by ARGENTINA’S Supreme Court Justices, who at the time held close ties with former neoliberal President CARLOS MENEM, whom was defined by MAURICIO MACRI in a television interview as “a man who rebuilt the country.”       

Two of the judges that dismissed the charges were later removed from the Supreme Court for blocking the judiciary’s work in the case that involved the MACRI family.         

TAX HAVENS FOR THE MACRI CLAN

The word clan defines a group of people united by a common interest. This concept is appropriate to describe the family and friends of President MAURICIO MACRI, who share a common interest in offshore companies, preferably located on CARIBBEAN islands suitable as tax havens. MACRI’S brother, GIANFRANCO MACRI, according to valid documents, runs 8 active offshore companies. MAURICIO'S cousin, JORGE MACRI (mayor of VICENTE LOPEZ, a suburb of BUENOS AIRES) also emerges as the beneficiary of an offshore company.

Furthermore prosecutor FEDERICO DELGADO revealed that new data has been made evident, which indicates that MACRI is linked to another offshore company incorporated in PANAMA, under the name of: MACRI GROUP PANAMA.

Published documents show the company was registered in the PANAMANIAN Public Registry of Commerce in May 2010 through MOSSACK FONSECA. Company board members included MIGUEL ANGEL ALVAREZ, president and director; ABELLI LUIGI CARLO CAPPELLI, director, vice president and secretary, and FERNANDO PLANS VILLAMARIN, as director and treasurer.

MACRI AND THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP

Months later the company changed its name to METRO CONSULTING PTY, opened an account in SWITZERLAND, and allegedly started the process to dissolve in late 2015.

Allegedly the company was formed in connections with MACRIS controversial METRO BUS system, while he was mayor of BUENOS AIRES.  Critics of the traffic flow system for busses claim MACRI used construction companies with ties to his family businesses. Environmentalist’s criticized MACRI for cutting down more than 200 trees that decorated the broadest Avenue in the world, “9 de Julio” which is the landmark of the city of BUENOS AIRES and ARGENTINA.  

Within the inner circle of the clan, it is known that CAPELLI fosters close ties to MARCI’S father, FRANCO MACRI. He was employed by the official postal service CORREO ARGENTINO between 2001 and 2015, and held management positions in companies related to the administration of the BELGRANO CARGAS between 2006 and 2013.

The MACRI clan had been part of the “homeland contractor” under the MENEM administration and administered the ARGENTINE postal services CORREO ARGENTINO, which was privatized under MENEM. During, and with the help of the military dictatorship, the MACRI family had managed to transfer private debt of their companies to the state. 

BIAS MEDIA - INFLUENTIAL MEDIA 

In ISLAND the head of state had to resign, in BRITAIN CAMERON is under pressure, only in ARGENTINA the president seems to get away lighthearted, why? Because he has the powerful CLARIN media conglomerate behind him. It is interesting to see how powerful the CLARIN Group is, when the PANAMA papers were released. All over the world MACRI covered the front pages and was mentioned as the only LATIN AMERICAN head of state involved and offshore dealings. 

Not one of the leading and influential dailies in ARGENTINA had the issue on its front pages, instead they focused on the arrest of an opposition figure allegedly involved in money laundering.

Mirror image CAMERON and MACRI, both ultra conservatives, both coming from rich families both vowed to fight corruption, both entangled with hedge funds and offshore companies......

MIDDLE EAST: 100 YEAR AFTERMATH OF BRITISH - FRENCH “COLONIAL – IGNORANCE”

CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
SYKES–PICOT AGREEMENT

In May 2016 it will be 100 years since the signing of a document which went down in history under the title “the SYKES–PICOT Agreement” (by the names of two diplomats—a FRENCHMAN FRANÇOIS GEORGES-PICOT and an ENGLISHMAN MARK SYKES). It defined the borderlines between the zones into which the ASIAN territories of the OTTOMAN EMPIRE were divided after the World War I. 

Today hardly anybody shows interest in this topic. It is regarded mostly as a closed case file, or a historical fact. But if you take a close look at the current developments in the MIDDLE EAST, you will notice the echo of that deal. Threads of history do not break but stretch through the decades.

Here is the historical background: none of the independent ARAB states currently depicted on the world map existed before the World War I. Instead, there were either FRENCH protectorates (e.g., MOROCCO and TUNISIA, with ALGERIA being an integral part of FRANCE), or BRITISH protectorates — countries in the southern part of ARABIA and provinces of the OTTOMAN EMPIRE. The later-formed ARAB countries participated in the World War I as colonies. ARABS were drafted to the so-called labor corps. They participated in combat operations (e.g. 80 thousand EGYPTIANS died at the WWI fronts).

Map of the mandate of Syria and Lebanon from 1920

Leading EUROPEAN states, and, first of all, BRITAIN and FRANCE, engaged in a fierce fight for these strategically important and rich in natural resources regions, located on the juncture of three continents. After long negotiations, a secret agreement between the governments of GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, RUSSIA and ITALY was signed on May 16, 1916. The agreement defined the spheres of interests of its parties in the MIDDLE EAST. GREAT BRITAIN was allocated control of the areas roughly comprising the territory of the modern JORDAN, IRAQ and small areas near HAIFA and ACRE. FRANCE inherited the southeastern part of TURKEY, NORTHERN IRAQ, SYRIA and LEBANON.

The tsarist RUSSIA, although it entered a number of military agreements with the Entente on the division of the OTTOMAN EMPIRE, decided against claiming any ARAB lands.

After the October Revolution, RUSSIA ceased its participation in the negotiations.

MIDDLE EAST UNDER THE RULE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE

Thus, according to the SYKES–PICOT Agreement, after 400 years of the TURKISH domination, the ARABS of LEBANON, SYRIA, TRANSJORDAN and PALESTINE found themselves under the rule of BRITAIN and FRANCE.

But that did not put an end to the dispute between the two powers. They continued reshaping the map of the region against the backdrop of powerful anti-colonial protests of the local population. As English Prime Minister GEORGE LLOYD admitted, circumstances of that time required something more sufficient than secret agreements to preserve the positions of the countries involved. Then the mandate system was established under the Covenant of the League of Nations.

PAST AND PRESENT  

Just pay attention to the explanation of this phenomenon: the peoples who inhabited these territories were considered “not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world.” It sounds so familiar.

One hundred years later, the Western block continues harping about the inability of ARAB peoples to govern their lands and sets out on a mission to preach to them about genuine democracy. Is it not an outright (as it was the case at the beginning of the 20th century and even today, in 2016) intervention in the domestic affairs of other sovereign states?

These are attempts to impose recipes on them from outside, promote concepts of a regime change under one pretext or another. Before, it was done under the slogan of “humanitarian interventions,” now these entities are trying to do it under the slogan of struggle against violent extremism. Where in fact, only the peoples of the countries of the region, as of any country in the world, have the right to decide their own fate. This is an indisputable principle of the international law.

Let us travel back in time to the beginning of the 20th century. Disputes between BRITAIN and FRANCE competing for this region would not cease even after the PARIS Peace Conference. Sometimes we perceive archives as just a pile of papers, but they can describe events, people and countries in an expressive and vivid way. A curious phrase once uttered by a FRENCH prime minister somehow stood out and is worthwhile to recall. When asked what part of SYRIA and for how long FRANCE is planning to occupy, he answered, “The entire SYRIA and forever.”

Background Information: FRANC AND SYRIA

Click below to read entire report: 

FRENCH COLONIZERS HAVE NOT ACCEPTED THE LOSS OF THEIR COLONY

After a long haggling during the SANREMO Conference, held in ITALY in April of 1920, the post-World War I Allied Supreme Council determined to allocate the mandates for the administration of the territories of the current IRAQ and PALESTINE to BRITAIN , and the mandates for the territories of the current SYRIA, LEBANON and current TURKISH HATAY Province to FRANCE. These resolutions were approved by the League of Nations on September 29, 1923.

Background Information: TURKEY AND HATAY

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TURKEY IS POPULATING THIS DE FACTO STATELET NEXT TO HATAY WITH TURKIC SETTLEMENTS, ESPECIALLY CHINESE UYGHUR TURKS.

BRITISH AND FRENCH “COLONIAL IGNORANCE” – THE CAUSE OF CURRENT SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST ?

The borderlines dividing the former provinces of the OTTOMAN EMPIRE were drawn to meet the interests of colonizers, while centuries-old traditional borders separating the territories of different groups of population were disregarded. It led to an onset of a whole range of ethnic and religious conflicts. The catastrophes the MIDDLE EAST has to deal now with were, so to say, pending catastrophes.

BALKANISATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Just a short historical note. At that time SYRIA was split into six dwarf states regarded as sovereign countries: the State of DAMASCUS, the State of ALEPPO, the State of ALAWITES, the State of JABAL DRUZE, the State of GREATER LEBANON and the SANJAK of ALEXANDRETTA. Could it be then that the plans to break SYRIA down into a number of smaller states were taken off the shelf in one of these archives? The logic behind that is easy to discern. 

It is easier to manipulate a split country. It is easier to compel it to take unfavorable and even dangerous for its people decisions. Maybe a renowned Orientalist scholar BERNARD LEWIS was guided by these ideas when he proposed his famous plan envisaging the breakup of LEBANON into several microstates, IRAN into 4-5 parts, PAKISTAN into 3-4 parts, SYRIA into 4-5 parts and SUDAN into two parts. His plan for SUDAN has actually materialized.

Background Information: BALKANIZATION OF SYRIA

Click below to read entire report: October 2015 we wrote:

BEWARE OF A SYKES-PICOT 0.2 AND REMEMBER THE 15 YEARS CIVIL WAR IN LEBANON

Just one hundred years has passed since the signing of the SYKES–PICOT agreement—a rather short span of time to compare to the span of human history. Perhaps it would take to look back in history to understand the root causes of some mind-boggling attitudes and approaches exercised by many EUROPEAN countries with respect to the current events in the MIDDLE EAST.

Today it would be reasonable to point out that since the MUSLIMS comprise 20% of the population of our planet, its welfare will largely depend on the trends prevailing in the ISLAMIC world.

BECHIR BEN YAHMED, Editor-in-chief of Jeune Afrique stated his opinion in the issue of the magazine published on 12/02/2016 that three major factors will determine the fate of the ARABIC and ISLAMIC world as a whole in the next two years: oil prices, termination of the Civil War in SYRIA and the future of DAESH (the so-called ‘Islamic State’), which continues to control significant areas of SYRIA and IRAQ. If the international community manages to uproot this terrorist organization, Sunni Islam will fizzle following the emasculation of its two masterminds—SAUDI ARABIA and DAESH, Mr. YAKHMED noted. He thinks that it is too early to predict what policy the current rulers of the Kingdom of SAUDI ARABIA will pursue. Whether they will act in a more sober way or remain opportunistic.

Background Information: SAUDI ARABIA AND WAHHABISM

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THE THEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL PACT BETWEEN THE SAUD CLAN AND THE WAHHABISTS

Many political observers believe that the current situation is akin to a civilizational war between the Christian/Secular West and the Islamic Caliphate. Some argue that NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE and RUSSIA are natural allies in this struggle and need each other more than ever before. “Together they can withstand the hydra of pan-Islamism with its countless heads (DAESH, AL-QAEDA, JABHAT AL-NUSRA, SALAFIS, MUSLIM BROTHERS, and others), and stabilize the MIDDLE EAST, the cradle of Islamic fanaticism, and can stabilize EUROPE.” By deliberately overthrowing GADDAFI’S and MUBARAK’S regimes and having wedged war against ASSAD, the US destabilized the situation in NORTH AFRICA, the MIDDLE EAST and EUROPE. But today the US and RUSSIA are uniting  in order to strengthen the position of President of EGYPT AL SISI, to enable him to crush DAESH terrorists in SINAI and LIBYA and to achieve a political settlement of the SYRIAN crisis. And if the West is really striving for this alliance, it must recognize RUSSIA’S “near abroad” (i.e., UKRAINE, BELARUS, CRIMEA, CAUCASUS and CENTRAL ASIA) as a traditional zone of its influence.

An assessment provided in The Times is noteworthy as it dwells upon the ideas voiced by many political analysts. The article published on 17/02/2016 says, “B. OBAMA made many mistakes during the last Arab revolutions and gave V. PUTIN an opportunity to become the winner in the SYRIAN conflict that turned for us into a disaster, as now the West can play only the role of a spectator.” In most likelihood the US will be doing its best to avoid a third world war or a direct East - West confrontation, which could be interpreted as defeat.

This is what the current situation in the MIDDLE EAST looks like a hundred years after the signing of the SYKES–PICOT Agreement.

Adapted by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring from the original Article written by Veniamin Popov, via NEO

RUSSIA AND SYRIA

RUSSIAN NUCLEAR-CAPABLE ISKANDER MISSILES DEPLOYED IN SYRIA

via DEBKAfile 

RUSSIA has deployed its most advanced tactical missile system, the Iskander-M, in SYRIA in the last few days, DEBKAfile reports exclusively from its military and intelligence sources. The RUSSIAN Iskander is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and has never been made available to any foreign army for operational use.

No nuclear-capable surface missiles were deployed in any ARAB country bordering on ISRAEL since 2007 when CHINESE DF-21 missiles were installed in SAUDI ARABIA.

The RUSSIAN missiles (NATO codenamed SS-26) 

have a range of 500 kilometers (see map).

The Iskander’s transfer to the KALININGRAD enclave in the BALTIC SEA in 2015, putting it in range of Central and WESTERN EUROPE, was a mark of heightened tensions with the West over RUSSIA’S intervention in UKRAINE.

MISSILE DEPLOYMENT – A GAME CHANGER IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Its deployment in SYRIA, amid a bloody five-year civil war, is a game changer in terms of the balance of strength in the MIDDLE EAST. Its range - from the RUSSIAN HMEIMIM base in western SYRIA - covers all of ISRAEL up to the southern town of BEERSHEBA, points in TURKEY up to the outskirts of ANKARA and the eastern and central MEDITERRANEAN including CYPRUS.

The RUSSIAN decision to scale down its forces in SYRIA was only part of the picture: Warplanes and bombers are being pulled out, but as fast as they leave, they are being replaced by the most advanced missile systems in the RUSSIAN arsenal.

On March 15, MOSCOW announced that the formidable S-400 ground-to-air missiles would stay in SYRIA after the withdrawal. Ten days later, on March 25, the Iskander-M systems were in place. The Iskander-M is rated the top short-range ballistic missile in the world.

The combination, say DEBKAfile’s military sources, makes the HMEIMIM base the hub of the most sophisticated missiles in the MIDDLE EAST.

Its mobile launching vehicle carries two missiles. It only takes a few minutes to prepare them for launch; each may be fired separately. In flight, its operating team can retarget the weapon, adjusting it if necessary to hit  moving targets such as missile launchers, tank columns or supply convoys.

Image: DEBKAfile's 

Another special feature of the Iskander-M is the control of its warhead by an encoded radio signal that even UAVs or AWACS cannot intercept. The missile can therefore lock on the target without being shot down. The missile’s computer receives an image of the target, locks on it and zooms toward the target at supersonic speed.

The Iskander-M is adaptable for use against small or large targets and can easily evade air defense batteries. Its targets can be set by satellites, surveillance planes, intelligence mechanisms or even field soldiers directing artillery fire from images scanned to their computers. Furthermore, its independent navigation system is not affected by poor weather conditions, including fog or darkness, like other ballistic missiles. It is moreover almost impossible to pre-empt the launch of the Iskander-M due to the mobility of its launching system.