Latin America

Kirchner’s speech

Perhaps those who are fluent in Spanish can give us some idea of what she said and how she said it, but Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s one-hour televised address dealing with the death of AMIA bombing prosecutor Alberto Nisman offers the remarkable sight of La Presidenta dressed entirely in white and seated in a wheelchair.

(Perhaps unfairly, I can’t help but contrast that with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who never once sought attention or pity for the fact that his legs were incapacitated by polio.)

Apparently the gist of it (once again) is: “I’m the real victim here.” She did, however, promise to disband Argentina’s intelligence agency and set up a new body.

Again Noga Tarnopolsky offers her invaluable observations via Twitter starting here:

Among other things, Kirchner said the AMIA Jewish community center, an organization of Argentine citizens of Jewish extraction, is originally Israeli.