The federal government has responded to a report by the US State Department that denounces drug-trafficking in Argentina as a “growing problem.” Washington has no authority to «grade» other countries, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman affirmed.
In a radio interview he granted from Caracas where he is attending the commemorative ceremonies in honour of late president Hugo Chávez on the first anniversary of his death, Timerman accused the United States of “no authority to become that who decides how a country behaves.»
«It can not issue grading bulletins over different issues. The US has its own problems and it should try to resolve them,” the minister assured and added the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration “does not recognize the right of the US to judge other governments.”
“The US is the first drug consumer in the world and the country that produces black money the most because of that consumption.”
The head of Argentina’s diplomatic affairs went on to question the smuggling of arms into Mexico quoting ex Mexican president Felipe Calderón who had said that “90 percent of the guns that drug traffickers use in Mexico is produced in US factories.”
“Arms, consumption and money laundering, there we have the main problem. Argentina would be a victim of it,” Timerman stated and defended the government’s agenda to combat drug-trafficking.
In a recent report, the US State Department warned about money laundering, drug-trafficking, corruption and smuggling in Argentina, considering the South American nation a “transit” country with an “increasing production” of cocaine. Washington criticized the alleged failure to thrive legal strategies against traffickers and said that “many Argentineans think crime tied to drug-trafficking has increased.”
Source: Buenos Aires Herald