The change in Argentina’s foreign policy under President Mauricio Macri could be described as a 180-degree turn from previous administrations.
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During the presidencies of Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernandez (2007-2015), the country sought to boost Latin American integration. However, the government of Macri's right-wing coalition had been heading in a different direction, even before their rise to power.
For example, Foreign Affairs Minister Susana Malcorra said in December 2015 that the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, a project initially pushed by former U.S. President George W. Bush, which was defeated in the Summit of the Americas in 2005, “should not be seen as a bad word,” and the fact that the first diplomatic official appointed by the new government was the new Argentine ambassador to the U.S. shows that from its very first day in power, the Macri administration had a very clear view of what their goal was in international affairs.
These gestures were complemented by concrete actions in regional institutions such as Mercosur, and also by the role played by Argentina in the Organization of American States.
Venezuela, Public Enemy Number One for Macri
During the 2015 presidential campaign, Macri said he would ask Venezuela to be suspended from Mercosur due to alleged anti-democratic actions carried out by President Nicolas Maduro’s government. This was seen by several analysts as an attempt by Macri to appear as the man who would represent the interests of the United States policy for South America after more than a decade of progressive governments that Washington treated with disdain.
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On Dec. 21, 2015, Macri tried to interfere in Venezuela’s domestic affairs at the Mercosur Summit by accusing the Venezuelan government of violating human rights. This was proof that Macri was not bluffing while he was campaigning and illustrated that confronting with the Bolivarian Revolution would be one of the key points of his foreign policy. This continues to this day as the Argentine mission to the OAS asked for a special meeting to address “the situation in Venezuela.”
Stepping Down from Latin American Integration Institutions
Besides confronting Venezuela, the government also tried to cool down the pace of the regional integration process. Argentine members of the Mercosur Parliament, which were democratically elected in 2015, have accused Macri of cutting funding for their participation.
“This is a deliberate action because he is not interested in Mercosur, he is looking at the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he is looking to strike free trade agreements with the European Union,” Mercosur Parliament member Fernanda Gil Lozano told teleSUR.
Although the 2016 budget includes funding for the members of the Mercosur Parliament, Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña told the Argentine Senate the government is not willing to comply with the law.
“Since the enforcement agency is not established, we believe we should not pay the salaries of the members of the Mercosur Parliament”, says Peña.
Supporting the Coup Against Dilma Rousseff in Brazil
While the impeachment process against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff was underway, the Argentine government refused to express any support for Brazil's democracy. Quite the opposite, after the coup had been executed, Argentina’s Foreign Affairs Minister Susana Malcorra met with Jose Serra in May, her counterpart in the Brazilian interim government led by Michel Temer.
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According to international analyst Jorge Kreyness, this could put Macri in an embarrassing position.
“They have rushed to throw their support behind Temer, and corruption scandals, much larger than the accusations against Dilma, have started to became public just days after Malcorra met with Jose Serra. There are still several countries which have either refused to recognize Temer or even retired their diplomatic missions from Brazil, such as El Salvador,” Kreyness argued.
All changes in Argentina’s foreign policy have come to coincide with the views of the U.S. State Department for Latin America, which begs question: is Argentina becoming a U.S. proxy in South America?
