ARGENTINA PRESIDENT: 40% INFLATION JUST AN ILLUSION

CYNICALLY, MACRI AFFIRMS THAT 

INFLATION IN ARGENTINA IS JUST “AN ILLUSION”

Argentina be aware: 

Plutocracy too long tolerated leaves democracy on the auction block, 
subject to the highest bidder

Bill Moyers 

At a time when shortages and the increase in public services rates are the most important concerns of the Argentinian population, President MAURICIO MACRI affirms that inflation is an illusion and that he is optimistic about the country’s future.

In statements he gave to the TV station Telefe, MACRI expressed that “inflation is decreasing and next year it will be less than 20 per cent. Inflation is a lie, it was imposed”.

PUTTING THE BLAME ON PREVIOUS GOVERNMENTS HAS BEEN AN ARGENTINE TRAIT FOR THE PAST 33 YEARS

He repeated once again that he is working “so that people can live better” and insisted that he can’t reverse the economic adjustments after so many years of incorrect policies —in reference to previous government lead by NESTOR KIRCHNER and CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ.

His latest appearance took place after thousands of people carried out “piquetes” and “common cooking pot” in 100 different spots in BUENOS AIRES City, to protest against unemployment and the increase in the living cost. Also, a “cacerolazo” was heard all across the country against the raise in the electric power, gas and water rates. The unrest was of course never broadcast by the dominant government loyal media. According to “establishment” media of ARGENTINA the country is doing superb………………….

THE THREAT OF CIVIL UNREST LOOMING OVER ARGENTINA

Official figures contradict the President’s speech, because in the first months of the year, inflation rates went up by 27% reaching an annual accumulationof 43 to 45%, according to studies carried out by a consultancy firm. It was MACRI who accused the previous government of falsifying inflation statistics and thus seems to have taking a liking in it, but of course the local media would never point the finger at him. For they won the election for him through intense social engineering.  

Symbol for Argentine Government change
2001: President De la Rua flees by helicopter from
Casa Rosada

The cost of life has forced the population to change their consumption habits, which dropped again in June, this time by 6,4%, especially regarding the consumption of food, a drop that was already notorious in the first trimester, with a drop of 3,6%. A study carried out by Scentia shows that the areas that suffered the worst contraction were cleaning products, cosmetics and toiletries, non-perishable food, alcoholic beverages, water and sodas. On the other hand, the fuel consumption decreased by 3,07%, which puts gas stations at risk, as warned by the Confederation of Hydrocarbon Commerce Entities of ARGENTINA.

In this context in which the cost of living is increasing, a study showed that for a four-member family not to fall under the category of “poor” in BUENOS AIRES city, they needed, in June, a monthly income of, at least, 12,709 pesos (that is, 850 dollars). And a minimum of 6,307 pesos (420 dollars) not to be considered “indigents”, as the General Direction of Statistics and Census of the City government revealed in its study on the Indigence and Poverty Line for the houses of BUENOS AIRES cities. The study measures the economic needs of five types of households, but it uses a model family: a 35 year-old couple, both economically active, property owners, with 2 children, aged 9 and 6. Many families in BUENOS AIRES don’t own a house but rent, which means they would need between 6,000 and 8,000 pesos more (400 to 533 dollars) not to fall below the poverty line.

ARGENTINA, AT THE EDGE OF AN ABYSS

ARGENTINA HAS NOT LEARNT FROM HISTORY

In December 2015 vassal “managers” seized power in ARGENTINA where millionaire MAURICIO MACRI ruled by decree, by-passing constitutional legality. MACRI fired scores of thousands of public service workers, closed social agencies and appointed judges and prosecutors without Congressional vote. He arbitrarily arrested social movement leaders - violating democratic procedures.

MACRI’S Economic and Finance Ministers gained millions of dollars by ‘buying into’ multinational oil companies just prior to handing over private options on public enterprises. (Now ARGENTINA is importing gas from “SHELL” at higher rates then when it used to buy from BOLIVIA!)

CURRENT ADMINISTRATIONS ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE IS DISASTROUS

The all-encompassing swindles and fraud carried out by the ‘new managers’ were covered up by the US media, who praised MACRI’S professional team.

Moreover, MACRI’S economic performance was a disaster. Exorbitant user fees on utilities and transport for consumers and business enterprises, increased three to ten-fold, forcing bankruptcy rates to soar and households to suffer light and gas closures.

Wall Street vulture funds received seven billion dollar payment from MACRI’S managers, for defaulted loans purchased for pennies over a dollar, twenty-fold greater than the original lenders.

Data based on standard economic indicators, highlights the worst economic performance in a decade and a half.

Price inflation exceeds 40%; public debt increased by twenty percent in six months.

Living standards and employment sharply declined. Growth and investment data was negative. Mismanagement, official corruption and arbitrary governance, did not induce confidence among local small and medium size businesses.

CALCULATED MOVE BY THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS: BANKERS TURNED INTO CABINET MINISTERS

The “respectable media”, led by the NEW YORK TIMES, the FINANCIAL TIMES, the WALL STREET JOURNAL, WASHINGTON POST, as well as ARGENTINE newspapers such as CLARIN and LA NACION falsified every aspect of MACRI’S regime. The current regime, together with the CLARIN conglomerate are currently conducting large scale “Social Engineering” in ARGENTINA.

Failed economic policies implemented by bankers turned cabinet ministers were dubbed long-term successes; crude ideologically driven policies promoting foreign investor profiteering were re-invented as business incentives.

Political thugs dismantled and replaced civil service agencies were labelled ‘a new management team’ by the vulgar propaganda scribes of the financial press.

MAURICIO MACRI AND THE CLARIN MEDIA GROUP

Since 2003 the media giant CLARIN GROUP and LA NACION have been supporting MACRI and thus are the main and powerful “invisible opposition”which oppose the current government. Misinformation, lack of objectivity etc.both in CLARIN GROUPS TV News Channels as well as print media are daily occurrence in ARGENTINA. Mainstream Media are facing “credibility issues”around the globe and are engaged in an Information war, but in ARGENTINA the Info war has reached staggering proportions and thus cannot be seen as an impartial entity.

Definition of “Social Engineering” in ARGENTINA

 Social engineering is a discipline in social science that refers to efforts to influence particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments, media such as the CLARIN conglomerate or private groups in order to produce desired characteristics in a target population.

Social engineering can also be understood philosophically as a deterministic phenomenon where the intentions and goals of the architects of the new social construct are realized.

Social engineers use the scientific method to analyze and understand social systems in order to design the appropriate methods to achieve the desired results in the human subjects.

Social engineering can be carried out by any organization, without regard to scale, or sponsorship in the public or private sector. Some of the most comprehensive, and most pervasive campaigns of social engineering are those initiated by powerful central governments with the systems of authority to widely affect the individuals and cultures within their purview.

Extremely intensive social engineering campaigns occurred in countries with authoritarian governments. In ARGENTINA’S case the pro government media, which accounts for almost 90%, has done so by simply feeding the public carefully selected information that in most cases does not concur to reality.  

Discussion of the possibilities for manipulation became especially active following the close win of the presidential elections by Macri. With the advent of mass television, social networks and continuing discussion of techniques of social engineering, particularly in advertising, and bias-based journalism, such approaches remain quite pertinent in the western model of consumer capitalism. Journalism, when the intent is not to report objectively, but to report with an intent to sway popular attitudes and social behaviors or to "shape public opinion", comes under the scope of social engineering, which is clearly the case in ARGENTINA under the rule of Macri. 

This also applies when information that would bring into question the viewpoints and social goals of a journalistic establishment is withheld in favor of other information.

ARGENTINA AND ITS NOTORIOUS ILLNESS - CORRUPTION

THE DOWNFALL OF ARGENTINA - 

CORRUPTION

By Carlos Aznárez

Every newspaper in ARGENTINA is reporting on facts that seem to have no connection with each other but, actually, are part of the same scheme. On the one hand, a President, in this case MAURICIO MACRI, affirms he will repatriate 18 million pesos from the BAHAMAS (one million 304 thousand dollars), to invest it in local bonds that his own administration will issue. This initiative was announced as the President’s “great gesture” — the same President who was denounced in the PANAMA Papers—, since he is showing everyone he has confidence in the country’s’ new era, and it will also be accompanied by a tax amnesty bill that must first be approved in the National Congress.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD THE HEAD OF STATE WOULD BE INDICTED – NOT SO IN ARGENTINA

This situation, which in any other part of the world that adheres to the basic foundations of legality and where there are at least a little ethics in the government’s actions, would be considered a crime (worsened due to the fact that the people involved are civil servants).

But under MACRI’S rule this has become an honest gesture while receiving the applauses of the hegemonic media, the same media that constantly attacks VENEZUELA and doesn’t hesitate to praise the Presidential decision. Businessmen welcomed the measure for considering it “healthy” and, at the same time, because it opens the possibility of laundering dirty money, which comes mostly from kickbacks or other “benefits” provided by businesses that usually gestate at the high levels of power.

But, of course, MACRI is not the only one. Some officials of his cabinet are following in his steps. CARLOS MELCONIÁN, President of the National Bank, who has made clear that he is partial to these practices as well (1). He confessed, without fear or shame: “As many ARGENTINES, I have money stashed abroad. Of course, I will bring some of it back”, and he will repatriate the rest as soon as investors “regain confidence” in the local economy. (In six month of ruling the new administration was unable to curb in inflation which stands at a staggering 48 %!)

NO FAITH IN THE COUNTRY AND ITS POLITICAL SYSTEM

“Then, I will bring the money”, he shamelessly concluded. It seems to be a joke but in fact, it’s true: if the President of the main Bank in ARGENTINA has no certainty on the effects of his own administration, what can he ask of the 40 million ARGENTINE people, who are suffering layoffs, increments in services fees, hunger and, as in the 90s, are seeking a way out of the hopelessness of the situation.

This is what “MACRISMO” represents: the right-wing, the neoliberal model and the foreign policy of the US on the continent. The great problem is that, on the other side of the ring, things are not better. Or, in worlds of a Peronist leader: “You suck”. Every illegal activity that comes to light operates in service of a sector that wants to hide other illegal activities, and so on. Now, we could state once again: “they are all thieves”.

As happened in BRAZIL with some of the higher officials of the Workers’ Party, it’s evident that here too the former cabinet has also had some undesirable characters who didn’t hesitate to steal, become corrupted and promote that attitude with impunity. If the treasurer of the Workers’ Party, JOACO VACCARI (imprisoned) pocketed 70 million dollars of bribes and DILMA’S publicist, JOAO SANTANA (also imprisoned) payed himself extra wages of various million dollars as a price for the corruption scheme of Petrobras, then here some people have not fallen behind in terms of high-level corruption.

THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IS THE MOST CORRUPTED INDUSTRY  IN THE WORLD

The recent example of former Secretary of Public Works, JOSÉ LÓPEZ, throwing bags full of money up the walls of a Convent after having unearthed them from another hiding place when he was notified that he was being persecuted. Nine million dollars seem to be an exaggerated amount of money for a saver, but this is actually only a small portion of the actual number of pesos, dollars, euros, etc. that he and other officials have been receiving in the past years as investments for public work.

SHARE OF THE CAKE – PLUNDER OF THE COUNTRY CONTINUES…..

In fact, it was well-known that on both the national and local level, some officials have asked for bribes of up to 60% to carry out projects. Another Secretary, from Transportation, in the past government called RICARDO JAIME had been caught in a similar transaction and is now imprisoned with several judicial cases against him. A long list of MACRISTAS officials are charged with similar “achievements”, but are not imprisoned because it is time for them to rule and the roles have changed now.

 “Disgust” is the proper world but it doesn’t seem to be enough to express the anger generated by this situation, in which both the progressive and neoliberal agents are unified in the plan to plunder the country, generating more hopelessness in new generations, who feel embarrassed when looking at these politicians of the bourgeois democracies as they build a system of impunity to continue earning dirty money.

What happened with JOSÉ LÓPEZ is not a coincidence but part of a scheme in which corruption is naturalized in a sector that allegedly raised the “national and popular” flags, but who in fact (not all of them) wanted to fill their pockets with the brutality of the capitalist thinking. As they collected more and more money in their bags or off-shore bank accounts, the more powerful they felt when “doing politics”. LOPEZ is JULIO DE VIDO’S man. Both of them were part of the permanent staff of the KIRCHNER era. The lack of utterance makes us wonder. And the main explanation to this is not related to loyalty or efficiency but to operative groups in administrations that were not always fully legal. What happened this time can’t be allocated to media campaigns nor conspiracies, but to those who raised flags that didn’t belong to them, soiled with the blood of real men and women of the country, and now tainted with dirty money.

CAN’T HIDE DIRTY MONEY? – SIMPLY IMPLEMENT A TAX AMNESTY

MACRI and his friends can’t hide their illegal activities and that’s why they are trying to approve the tax amnesty —with help of forces from the opposition who vote together in the National Parliament and the BUENOS AIRES legislature— just like LÓPEZ, JAIME and others are now being chased by their same colleagues, with different political colors but actually in a similar situation, and all with the same aim of maintaining the system. This is what we should repudiate and fight, in this complex scenario, which looks a lot like BRAZIL—. These are, with little differences, the facilities with which the regional right operates comfortably in each country. 

Regardless of this situation, the common people (no matter their ideology), the working class, do not earn enough to feed their own families, those who study and then have no place to work in, those who fight against layoffs and the increase in services’ rates, those who take up the fight of militants from the past, who believe that politics have nothing to do with stealing for them. Women and men that have not given up on their dreams, who hope ARGENTINA will someday be freed and will end the era of white-collar criminals

BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, URUGUAY – NEOLIBERAL RECONQUERING OF LATIN AMERICA

BRAZIL AND THE NEOLIBERAL MEDIA – PROPAGANDA WAR

DILMA ROUSSEFF met with international media without BRAZILIAN giants like GLOBO, the country's largest media outlet, which has been accused of coup-mongering.

As BRAZIL spirals further into its worst political crisis seen in decades, President DILMA ROUSSEFF has tried to break the one-sided media narrative on the situation that’s been dominated by international press swooning over anti-government protests along with elite-backed local media accused of whipping up support for a coup.

Background Information:

MAURICIO MACRI AND THE CLARIN MEDIA GROUP

For more Information click on text below:

Since 2003 the media giant CLARIN GROUP and LA NACION have been supporting MACRI and thus are the main and powerful “invisible opposition” which oppose the current government.Misinformation, lack of objectivity etc. both in CLARIN GROUPS TV News Channels as well as print media are daily occurrence in ARGENTINA. Mainstream Media are facing “credibility issues” around the globe and are engaged in an Information war, but in ARGENTINA the Info war has reached staggering proportions and thus cannot be seen as an impartial entity.

ROUSSEFF held a private media briefing with journalists from the NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN, LA JORNADA, LE MONDE, EL PAIS, and DIE ZEIT. Meanwhile, she sent her chief of staff JAQUES WAGNER to meet with other international media in RIO DE JANEIRO. BRAZILIAN media were blocked from attending.

WAGNER said BRAZILIAN media coverage is “out of step” with the crisis with “obvious” efforts to campaign tirelessly for a particular end, LA REPUBLICA reported.

ROUSSEFF spoke about the fragility of BRAZIL’S relatively young democracy since the military dictatorship ended in 1985, saying that although the days of strong-arm coups are a thing of the past in LATIN AMERICA, BRAZIL is living an attempt at a “coup against democracy” through an impeachment process without legal footing.

FACING ‘COUP AGAINST DEMOCRACY,’ BRAZIL TURNS TO GLOBAL MEDIA

“We in BRAZIL have had military coups. In a democratic system, coups change their method,” ROUSSEFF said, according to an interview published in EL PAIS. “And impeachment without legal basis is a coup. It breaks the democratic order. That’s why it’s dangerous.”

Background Information: 

THE POWER OF LATIN AMERICAN MEDIA CONGLOMERATES

click on links below to read entire reports: 

CLARIN - SOWING THE SEEDS OF DOUBT AMONG ARGENTINE'S

THE OPPOSITION IS CLARIN -THE NEOLIBERAL CONGLOMERATE

And local media has played a role. In BRAZIL’S intensely concentrated media landscape, outlets like GLOBO, owned by and aligned with the country’s dictatorship-linked economic elite, have been criticized for “coup-mongering” and supporting the idea of military intervention.

Analyst SYLVIA MORETZSOHN, media professor at the Fluminense Federal University, argues that GLOBO has acted more like a political party than a media outlet by using its power to sway public opinion against the president. MORETZSOHN told BRASIL DE FATO that GLOBO has used the “noble cause” of combatting corruption worked to “create the conditions for a coup.”

With ROUSSEFF’S Workers’ Party, or PT, pushing progressive policies for over a decade since the election of her predecessor LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA in 2002, the country’s wealthy elite and right-wing political factions have grown frustrated by their inability to boot the PT from power at the ballot box.

Background Information: 

SAME STRATEGY IN ARGENTINA

Click on link below to read entire report: 

HOW CLARIN MEDIA GROUP,THE EQUIVALENT TO BRAZIL'S GLOBO MEDIA CONGLOMERATE, HELPED WIN MAURICIO MACRI ARGENTINE'S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

ROUSSEFF’S opponents have latched on to widespread corruption scandals and increasing probes into fraud as a justification to try to take down the government by trying to impeach the president or forcing her to resign.

The irony is that opposition politicians, including Vice President MICHEL TEMER, who would take over if ROUSSEFF stepped down and house speaker EDUARDO CUNHA, who is spearheading the impeachment attempt, are more deeply embroiled in corruption than ROUSSEFF or her PT.

“I recommend that you ask who benefits from this,” ROUSSEFF told EL PAIS. “Many of whom haven’t even appeared on the scene, but they are behind, at the bottom.”

Related topics on the silent coup in Latin America:

AN ORCHESTRATED SCANDAL

click on links below to read entire reports: 

COUP – MONGERING CLARIN MEDIA GROUP – COLLABORATOR OF THE FASCIST 1976 -83 MILITARY JUNTA

The coup-mongering CLARÍN media monopoly, whose owner was a collaborator of the fascist 1976-83 military junta, trumpeted in its Feb. 1 edition, based on some evidence found at his apartment that NISMAN had actually intended to issue an arrest warrant for FERNÁNDEZ.

VULTURE FUNDS ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES AND AURELIUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT ALSO TARGET BRAZIL

The same ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES and AURELIUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT vulture funds that have preyed on ARGENTINA for years to overturn its sovereign debt restructuring and force it to its knees, are also targeting BRICS member BRAZIL for destabilization, using a corruption scandal at the giant state oil firm PETROBRAS to either force President DILMA ROUSSEFF into line, or oust her from office. ROUSSEFF was the head of PETROBRAS'S board of directors from 2003 to 2010, during the time an alleged bribery and corruption scandal at the company took place. The LONDON ECONOMIST has suggested she could be impeached.

ARGENTINA’S UNCERTAIN PROSPECTS - A COUNTRY RUN PER DECREE

ARGENTINA UNDER MACRI WILL SUCCUMB TO THE USA, THUS BEING THE NEW PUPPET OF THE US NEOCONSERVATIVES 

The real reason why the INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS and the corporate media denounce ARGENTINA

ARGENTINE'S CLASS STRUGGLE

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address:

"http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Facing-Coup-Against-Democracy-Brazil-Turns-to-Global-Media--20160325-0013.html". 

THE NEW YORK TIMES CRITICAL VIEW ON ARGENTINE'S NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT MACRI

What Obama Should Know About Macri’s Argentina

By GASTÓN CHILLIER and ERNESTO SEMÁNMARCH 23, 2016

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During his trip to Argentina this week, President Obama is unlikely to visit Milagro Sala. A prominent social activist in the northwestern province of Jujuy, Ms. Sala was arrested in January at the behest of Gov. Gerardo Morales, a political ally of the country’s new president, Mauricio Macri.

There has been international outrage over her detention; Pope Francis, the United Nations and Amnesty International have expressed concern. Not the White House: When announcing Mr. Obama’s visit, it thanked Mr. Macri for “his contributions to the defense of human rights in the region.”

Mr. Obama’s historic trip to Cuba has all the pageantry of a farewell to the Cold War in Latin America. His visit to Havana will serve as a symbolic climax in the normalization of American relations with Cuba’s Communist government. But his excursion to Argentina has a very different resonance.

Shortly before Mr. Obama’s arrival in Buenos Aires, his administration announced the declassification of United States government documents relating to Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship. Yet the visit is not about the current state of human rights, but about free trade and hemispheric security.

An acknowledgment of the malign role the United States played in the early years of the dictatorship is welcome, if overdue. But to ignore the red flags on human rights raised by the recent actions of Argentina’s new ruling party is a worrying reminder of that legacy. For Mr. Macri, Mr. Obama’s visit is already an endorsement.

Photo

Protesters last month demanded the release of the prominent social activist Milagro Sala, who was arrested in January. CreditNatacha Pisarenko/Associated Press

The arrest of Ms. Sala illustrates the Argentine government’s new hard-line approach. Her organization played an important role in providing for socially excluded groupsoffering them housing, jobs and education. Ms. Sala was detained for leading a protest of cooperative workers, the unemployed and indigenous people in one of the country’s poorest provinces. Later, she was accused of embezzling public funds. That judicial investigation must run its course, but due process demands that she should not be imprisoned in the meantime.

This arbitrary detention comes amid a rash of measures taken by the Macri administration that have weakened the rule of law on the pretext of security, economic freedom and the war on drugs. In January, within weeks of taking office, Mr. Macri declared an emergency that allowed military forces to shoot down unidentified planes suspected of drug trafficking.

In effect, the president had decreed a de facto death penalty without trial. This policy has been criticized as an example of the “narcotización” of public safety. It is counter to the core principles of Argentina’s post-dictatorship reforms that prohibit military intervention in domestic security.

Soon after Mr. Macri’s inauguration, the highest court in the capital, Buenos Aires, ruled that police officers could demand identification from citizens there without probable cause, a ruling that gives a green light to harassment based on prejudice. In an equally troubling move, the federal government recently unveiled a new protocol for policing protests that gives the authorities more power to put down and criminalize demonstrations; this in a country where people value the right of free assembly and often take to the streets to fight for their rights.

Argentina’s economic and political meltdown in 2001 conclusively demonstrated that the free market approach of the 1990s had not made life better for ordinary people. Yet, Mr. Macri and his team are reviving failed policies of the past. With commodity prices in decline, they want to attract foreign investment by cutting their way to competitiveness: reducing public spending and shrinking government.

At the same time, the administration has lifted controls on currency exchange, boosting inflation. Some analysts predict that it will exceed the official target for 2016 of 20 to 25 percent.

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Despite campaign vows to strengthen democratic institutions, President Macri is governing in the other direction. In December, he tried to appoint two new Supreme Court justices by fiat, bypassing Senate approval. Facing an outcry, the president backpedaled and sentthe nominations to the Senate.

In another highhanded move, Mr. Macri used executive orders to alter a cornerstone of media law that, while poorly enforced by the previous administration, had amplified freedom of expression by bolstering anti-monopoly regulations. Such a presidential intervention would be appalling in any circumstances, but in the context of Argentina’s political polarization and other repressive measures is cause for alarm.

The risk of militarizing public order, the weakening of institutional restraints on executive power, the criminalization of protest and a fixation on promoting free-market orthodoxies — none of this has good echoes in Latin America. The United States supported many of the region’s dictators in the 1970s and ’80s so that they would serve as local guarantors of free trade and security against Communism.

Only after the inauguration in 1977 of President Jimmy Carter did the United States try to curb the continent’s repressive forces. Important as this was, it could not compensate for the decades when the United States, while claiming to defend democracy, had aided Latin America’s dictators.

Mr. Obama surely wants to put that past behind him. But during his administration, the United States has encouraged the destabilization of democracy in Honduras and Haiti, presumably in hopes that more favorable commercial partners or allies in the war on drugs would take over.

The United States’ decision to declassify more documents relating to Argentina’s dictatorship is an important step that could enable further judicial investigations of crimes against humanity. But Mr. Obama should not now endorse state violence and ideological bigotry as acceptable side effects of the United States’ larger goals of promoting free markets and security cooperation.

ARGENTINA - ON THE ROAD TO THE BAD OLD DAYS

A presidential visit to Argentina that neglects to notice how Mr. Macri’s government is undermining human rights and democratic institutions — and instead pours empty praise on his policies — will rightly be read as a return to the bad old days.

Gastón Chillier is the executive director of the Center for Legal and Social Studies in Buenos Aires. Ernesto Semán is a history professor at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

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