Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Probably Ordered Nisman’s Murder

More leaked transcripts of @CFKArgentina talking about “finishing” deposed spy chief and #Nisman collaborator Stiuso and talking of pressuring judges and prosecutors to do it, using the sort of language that would make a mafia chieftain blanche. In the aftermath of Nisman’s death, I thought that the most likely hypothesis was that she had flown into a rage on hearing the accusations he made against her and that members of her immediate circle, ever anxious to compete for her attention and approval had taken it on themselves to organise the hit. In the light of her recently leaked conversations with Parrilli I now think that she likely didn`t confine herself to cursing Nisman during those fateful summer days in 2015 but rather in the midst of her killing rage she gave a clear instruction to (then Army chief) Milani to kill him and Milani has experience of killing going back to his days as a subaltern in the 76-83 dictatorship. Will any of this ever be proved in a court of law. I doubt it. More details will dribble out over time though. Meanwhile, in the Guardian and New York Times you can read how Macri is just like Trump

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Silence

Brutal, brutally long, nearly three hours. Brutal to look at, not only for the scenes of torture but for refusal to go for much in the way of “interesting”, “moving” “beautiful” shots. Hardly any music. No concessions made to the viewer; there are serious matters to be dealt with here, you either concentrate or get up and leave
The film is about issues that almost no one cares about in the secularized West, religious faith: given the silence of God, how can anyone believe? And can you renounce your faith to save your life, or that of another?
Another issue: forgiveness: what does it mean? How many times can you offer it to the same person for doing the same thing?
There’s an element of homoeroticism in the relationship between the young priests and the figure of Jesus Christ.
The question of martyrdom: there are Christians being martyred for their faith in the Middle East today: members of ancient sects presented with the option of martyrdom or death.
Just after the final frame; the film is dedicated to the Christians of Japan and their priests.
The film’s main weakness is language: the Japanese speak their own language among themselves but “Portuguese” (English, in a variety of unlikely accents) to the priests and of course the Portuguese also speak “Portuguese”. I guess though Scorsese would never have got any money to make the film if he’d shot it in Portuguese and Japanese.
Overall: a great artist looking hard at unbearably difficult questions and making no concessions to his soft Western audience. A film that demands repeated viewings, one that might be more deeply understood in some village in Iraq or Syria than in many of the places that it will actually be shown.

“That guy has to be killed”: CFK and the intelligence service

In connection with an investigation unrelated to Nisman/AMIA etc. a judge ordered Oscar Parrilli’s phone to be tapped. He’s a long-term fixer/dogsbody for the Kirchners. When Cristina Fernández de Kirchner  fired Stiuso in December 2014  (Nisman collaborator, long-term strongman in the state intelligence service)  she put Parrilli in charge  of the officially recognized spies. Stiuso’s removal was probably the detonator that led to Nisman’s death two years ago. Anyway,   in the leaked call (made after she left office) she phones Parrilli about an interview given by Stiuso and says a couple of interesting things (apart from the comedy value of repeatedly addressing Parrilli as “idiot”:

1. She tells him to look up the “ the stitch ups… I mean the criminal complaints we made against Stiuso. “
2. “that guy (stiuso) has to be killed”
3. She uses the phrase “armamos carpetazos”: intelligence leaks-ops designed to embarrass people opposed to the government

So even if we take point 2 as just a figure of speech, we now have  something we didn’t before; incontrovertible evidence of CFK taking a direct and pro-active role in intelligence matters at the operational level.

Uber in Buenos Aires

Fearless prediction: when the first  Uber  passenger is robbed at gun/knife point (or worse) by an Uber driver the same people now celebrating its arrival in Buenos Aires will howl about the absence of state regulation of its activities.