Cablegate: Argentine Mod Garre Offers a Cordial Welcome to Ambassador

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DE RUEHBU #1172 3022225
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 292225Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4531
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 0020
RHMFIUU/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/JIATF SOUTH OPSDIR

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001172

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL MARR PGOV PHUM AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINE MOD GARRE OFFERS A CORDIAL WELCOME TO AMBASSADOR

1. (SBU) Argentine Minister of Defense Nilda Garre warmly received
the Ambassador October 23, immediately expressing her pleasure at
being able to welcome a woman in the post of U.S. Ambassador. Garre
spoke with satisfaction of U.S.-Argentine security cooperation and
described her September visit to Washington and her call on
Secretary Gates in very positive terms. Still, she began with a
suggestion that the two countries should "update" ("actualizar") the
bilateral relationship, an apparent reference to her desire to
pursue a revision of longstanding defense cooperation agreements.

2. (SBU) Invited by the Ambassador to describe her goals for the
Ministry, Garre mentioned a number of priorities and said that
overall the armed forces were undergoing "profound changes."
Interestingly, she said that one clear goal defined by former
President Nestor Kirchner and continued by current President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was that she work to mend the rift
between the military and civil society. This rift, she suggested,
had persisted from the days of Argentina's military dictatorship.

3. (U) Garre described the Argentine regional context as a "zone of
peace," but said that within that context she had an obligation to
keep the military establishment orderly and to modernize it. She
listed efforts to improve planning and logistics, instill human
rights principles in training, address gender issues in the
military, enhance the military's international coordination as among
her priorities, and develop joint strategic plans by the armed
forces for the short, medium and long-term. Garre said that within
the confines of a difficult and limited budget, she also hoped to
contribute to revitalizing defense industries and to see them as
contributing to employment in the country. Science and technology
was another area where the military could make important
contributions, she said.

4. (U) Asked by the Ambassador about Argentina's international
peacekeeping contributions, Garre noted that the country had in 2008
marked fifty years as a contributor to international peacekeeping
efforts, and that this commitment was a policy of state accepted by
all political persuasions in the country. She noted efforts to
coordinate humanitarian actions with Peru in Haiti. (Note: She was
referring to the combined Peru-Argentina Engineering Company, which
will have horizontal and vertical construction capability along with
water drilling and distribution.) The Argentine-Chilean
peacekeeping brigade, Cruz del Sur, should be fully established
sometime in 2010, Garre said.

Bio Notes
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5. (U) Garre commiserated with the Ambassador over the distance she
was experiencing from grandchildren, saying that she felt this
during her only extended period of living outside Argentina, for
seven months as Ambassador to Venezuela in 2004-2005. Turning to
the subject of spicy food (not at all indigenous to Argentina),
Garre noted that her ex-husband, Juan Manuel Abal Medina, a leftist
rebel sought by the then military dictatorship, had spent six years
in the Mexican Embassy to Buenos Aires; he had been amazed that
three successive Mexican Ambassadors had begun their days eating
ground green peppers.

6. (SBU) Garre has been notably more accessible and effusive
towards U.S. interlocutors since her return from her September trip
to the United States and Ambassador Martinez's arrival. She
followed up this meeting by accepting the Ambassador's dinner
invitation to the Residence in honor of the U.S.-Argentina Bilateral
Working Group Meeting. Garre, who had never before accepted an
invitation to the Residence, was garrulous, friendly, and lingered
after the meal, asking for a mini-tour of the Residence before she
departed.

MARTINEZ

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