Where memory boils | 15 years of No to the FTAA …

After 15 years of those days, I was able to dare some of the images of the Fourth Summit of the Americas, of which I keep the record. In the middle there was an affliction: Kirchner is gone. The documentary film premieres Friday, November 4, 2005 at the Hermitage Hotel in Mar del Plata.

The diplomatic rhetoric took place before any beginning. As Argentine Chancellor, I had pressing concerns. Until then, conversations on ceremonial matters – sheets and towels – were the order of the day. It was the hour of politics.

The Aboriginal press reported that if there was no agreement to include in the final declaration a date to resume negotiations for a free trade area, President George W. Bush would not come. not in Argentina.

We were discussing a deal with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In the room he occupied, Nestor Kirchner’s clear instruction not to grant what was detrimental to the region, coexisted with the possibility that Bush would not come.. This absence would be the cornerstone on which the cathedrals would be erected to ridicule Argentinian diplomacy.

We read a draft by Rice, while consulting our regional partners. “That’s not what we need,” he replied. This was not what the United States needed, we translated, before going back to the rasp.

Like monastic scribes on our stools, the manuscripts passed from hand to hand. While on the upper floors we tortured tongues, Kirchner spoke in the reception hall.

Create “decent work”. On Friday November 4, 2005, Kirchner was not just talking about occupation. The uniformity sought by the “Washington consensus” has left empirical evidence for its error. “Our continent, in general, and our country in particular, are tragic proof of the failure of the ‘spill theory’“. He added: “… in our country, with a lot of shared efforts, but without any assistance from the International Monetary Fund, after having reduced in net terms by more than 14.9 billion dollars our debt with multilateral credit agencies and got a successful debt restructuring, overcome the default, we have made very significant progress in (the) fight for equity ”.

The phone rang in the room: the Secretary of State. When I answered, I heard a uniform noise. I read him the paragraph we were in and asked his opinion: “This is horrible.” I also heard a maritime rumor. It wasn’t water, it was Air Force One’s turbines.

I deduced that they were on board and that they were flying towards Mar del Plata. Chávez would do his thing during heads of state plenary sessions, where there are no sheets or towels and no slogans are chanted.

I also knew the die was cast. We were able to organize the IV Summit, despite the doubts of an Atlantic press. Bush would land at 8:07 p.m. in the drizzle. Néstor Kirchner and Hugo Chávez, accompanied by a compact Mercosur, would go down in history.

Plenary sessions began on the morning of Saturday 5. The storm started soon after: chaired by President Néstor Kirchner, the session urged leaders to address the need to promote development through job creation. Jobs in Canada and Paraguay are not alike. Canadian Prime Minister Martin and Bush quickly saw that trying to level their country’s working conditions was “extortion”. Oddly enough, Fox – president of Mexico – sided with countries where people work in more dignified conditions than his. Kirchner told them: “they weren’t invited to come patter”. There was a silence. The translators hesitated. The Spanish speakers were bristling.

Afternoon, with the meeting in a coma, some of us went to an adjoining room to talk about how we were doing. I remember Lula, Vázquez, Celso Amorin, Kirchner.

As we returned to sink into pandemonium, Samuel Lewis (Panamanian vice president) intercepted Kirchner, who was speaking to me. “President and friend: another effort. We have set a date, look, just the date for continuing negotiations for the FTAA, and that ends with a party. Kirchner stopped: “Panama, right? If General Torrijos heard him, he would turn around in disgust in his grave. The Panamanian fled like rainwater.

We took two more steps and I felt a hand on my back: “Now you are presiding.” I would have taken it upon myself to storm paradise. I looked around the room, I went to the presidency and I remembered that there is a more formidable union than that of privateers, which is that of translators. We had multilingualism exactly until 6:00 p.m. It was like solving Fermat’s theorem, except with an expiration time.

From the images, the memory of Chavez it is decisive. He asked to speak. In ten minutes, I wanted to make way for the next speaker. “Rafael,” he said, “but namesake, if you don’t let me speak, I’ll drown. He has come the best.

“The FTAA”, he declared volcanic, “is an accession treaty and one more tool of imperialism for exploitation”. I quote from memory, but from where it burns.

Then, one by one, he addressed the leaders of the Caricom (Caribbean Community) countries. “You,” addressing a face that showed his ancestry as a slave grandfather, “you, who start your car every day with the oil Venezuela sends you, are you with Bush or with the liberated peoples of the imperialist yoke? I saw how each of his interlocutors looked down at this overwhelming conviction.

At 6:00 p.m., the deliberations ended happily. In the language of the OAS, “… other members (position of Mercosur and Venezuela) argue that the necessary conditions are not yet in place to achieve a balanced and fair free trade agreement …” . The conditions have not been given, nor have they been yet.

Any memory exercise written while running the pen presents a risk of inaccuracy. But today, when I revisit this gallery of self-determination with my eyes, I cannot find anything more accurate.