CELAC Summit: the government paid the tickets of 8 Caribbean diplomats who will arrive in Buenos Aires to support the candidacy of Alberto Fernández

Alberto Fernández during the opening of the ordinary sessions of Congress

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs paid eight first-class tickets to diplomats from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, San Vicente and San Cristobal to participate in the Summit of Foreign Ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) to be held in Buenos Aires at the beginning of January.

Alberto Fernández aspires to lead CELAC, a wish that will come true thanks to Daniel Ortega’s diplomatic gesture: the Nicaraguan dictator has already announced that he will not hinder the geopolitical pretensions of the Argentine president.

The CELAC summit of foreign ministers will be face-to-face, despite the sudden advance of the Omicron variable of COVID-19. The Casa Rosada intends to display the summit as a diplomatic success for Argentina, and believes that a virtual forum would remove political impact from the meeting of the foreign ministers summoned to designate the future head of CELAC.

The eight tickets cost about $ 70,000 and were processed by the Argentine embassy in Mexico. This is clear from the reserved cables to which Infobae had access.

In a first cable, the San Martín Palace ordered to buy the tickets -in first- for Hugh Todd, Minister of Foreign Relations of Guyana; Elizabeth Harper, permanent secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Guyana; Roberts Orin, Chancellor of Saint Kitts and Nevis (Saint Kitts and Nevis in the official cable); Keisal Peters, Chancellor of Saint Vincent, and Latoya Pope, Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saint Vincent.

This first cable says the following:

“In addition to the CAREFS. A) and B), the Chief of Mission is instructed to transfer from his paying account in US Dollars the sum of USD 52,250.60 to the bank account owned by the AMERICAN AIRLINES firm according to the banking data provided in a timely manner in the reference wire. .

This sum corresponds to the payment of the following ticket reservations:

NAME COUNTRY RESERVATION TAX. IN USD ————— ——– —————- ——— ———-

HUGH TODD GUYANA GCFQID 17.410.24

ELIZABETH HARPER GUYANA BOONYC 14.201,74

ROBERTS ORIN SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS FWXDEM 9,205.04

KEISAL PETERS SAINT VINCENT MCQXFJ 6.373,47

EDYNMC 1.380,67

LATOYA POPE SAINT VINCENT GXMTUA 2.687,27

BJNNTH 992,17

TOTAL SUM TO BE TRANSFERRED: USD 52,250.60.

Once the transfer in question has been made and when the AMERICAN AIRLINES company receives the corresponding invoice, DTCON must be contacted in order to instruct the relevant accounting records in the GAFCAN System.

SECIN ”, establishes the diplomatic cable accessed by Infobae.

In a second reserved cable, the Foreign Ministry orders the purchase of tickets -in first-for Amary Browne, Minister of Foreign Relations of Trinidad Tobago; Bruce Lai, director of the Trinidad Tobago Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Carl Raymond, an official of the Trinidad Tobago Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This second cable says the following:

“In addition to CAREF. A), the Chief of Mission is instructed to transfer the sum of USD 16,446.08 from his paying account in US Dollars to the bank account owned by the AMERICAN AIRLINES firm according to the bank details provided in a timely manner in the reference wire.

This sum corresponds to the payment of the following ticket reservations:

NAME COUNTRY RESERVATION TAX. IN USD ————— ——– —————- ——— ———-

AMARY BROWNE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO RPQEZF 6,705.37

BRUCE LAI TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO SHXXPY 5.100,37

CARL RAYMOND TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CRMGVZ 4,650.34

TOTAL SUM TO BE TRANSFERRED: USD 16,456.08.

Once the transfer in question has been made and when the AMERICAN AIRLINES company receives the corresponding invoice, DTCON must be contacted in order to instruct the relevant accounting records in the GAFCAN System.

SECIN ”.

CELAC is a second-order body in regional diplomacy. The United States and Canada do not participate, and Brazil usually does not attend their deliberations. The Itamaraty Palace has already advanced to the San Martín Palace that it does not plan to attend the Summit of Foreign Ministers that can put Alberto Fernandez in charge of the forum that pays a lot of attention to the agenda of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia.

The head of state considers that Argentina should play a leading role in Latin America and tried to set the agenda of the OAS, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF). Balcarce 50 failed in these diplomatic incursions, and then focused on CELAC.

Alberto Fernández ordered a diplomatic raid across all the Caribbean countries. And that decision paid off for him: he succeeded in getting Raph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for twenty years, to lower his candidacy for CELAC, which was sponsored by Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela.

The folding of Gonsalves – a Cuban bishop called “Mini Castro” in Havana – paved the way for obtaining Ortega’s support. The Sandinista dictator rejected the candidacy of Alberto Fernández for having withdrawn the Argentine ambassador from Managua in repudiation of the fraudulent elections of November 7.

But that diplomatic crisis ended, and now the Government awaits how Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Denis Moncada executes the gesture in favor of Argentina that Ortega has already promised to Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.

Alberto Fernández and Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero during the G20 summit in Rome

“You want us to bring them by bicycle. All foreign ministers travel first, “answered an influential member of the Foreign Ministry when asked about the spending of almost $ 70,000 made to pay the tickets to Buenos Aires for 8 diplomats from the Caribbean who support the presidential nomination.

The San Martín Palace official added two concepts to complete the government’s position:

– “It makes no sense to say that we bring them to vote. We already have the votes in writing. We bring them to integrate the region. For that we want CELAC ”.

-When (Mauricio) Macri made the G20, he paid the wealthy foreign ministers for their hotels and stays, and there they said nothing. Our idea is to integrate and the Caribbean countries have no money. That is why we pay for your plane tickets. It is not proselytizing. They had already told us that they supported Alberto (Fernández) as president of CELAC. And we get the tickets later. There is nothing dark or dirty ”.

On the night of January 6, Alberto Fernández will offer a dinner of honor to all the diplomatic representatives who will participate in the CELAC foreign minister’s summit. And one day later, if the dictator Ortega does not change his mind, the head of state will be appointed head of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

A diplomatic success that he has been pursuing since he arrived at the Casa Rosada.

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