Ambassador
Ambassador's Speech
REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR WAYNE AT JOURNALISTS' RECEPTION
December 14, 2007
Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us here today.
It has been a year now since we met here for a similar event. Soon after arriving in the country, I was eager to meet you and get to know more about your work and about Argentina. I believe I have made considerable progress on both fronts during the year. I have been able to get to know many of you personally, to know your work, and to understand your challenges. And frankly, I think that the media has been one of the key sources I have relied upon to learn more about this fascinating country.
I have great respect for the work of journalists and for the fundamental role of journalism in a democracy. I place a high value on the important task you carry out.
Each time I travel to the provinces I meet with local journalists to learn first-hand what’s happening in each region. Soon I will be traveling to Neuquen where I will have the opportunity to meet the media in that booming province.
These meetings, like the ones I have enjoyed with the media in Buenos Aires, are useful since they give me key information which helps me do my work as a diplomat. I hope my interlocutors find these meetings equally useful in understanding my country and its policies, which contributes to more and better understanding between our nations.
As you might recall my saying at our first meeting, the two years I took off from my diplomatic career to work as a journalist for the "Christian Science Monitor" were two of the most rewarding years of my life. Although I went back to diplomacy, I remember well the dynamism and constant change faced not only by the “practice” of journalism but also the “business" of journalism. This demands from you – as skilful journalists – great flexibility and constant learning.
The Embassy, through its programs, has been working hard to help Argentine journalists stay abreast of these changes. For example, we have sponsored workshops, such as the one we organized with FOPEA this year on computer-assisted journalism, attended by 16 reporters from Buenos Aires and the provinces; we have funded English courses at ICANA, taken by 59 journalists. And last year we sent another 14 journalists to the U.S. to produce television documentaries and attend courses and seminars.
This has not only contributed to strengthening ties between our two countries but also has helped provide more and better information. It is a two-way street since the more we understand each other as peoples the more we will help strengthen bilateral relations.
Our relationship with Argentina is positive, but we hope to further deepen our cooperation. We understand the key role the media plays in shaping the perception of the bilateral relationship, so we are eager to work more closely with you to guarantee that both you, and your readers, listeners and viewers receive the most accurate and updated information about U.S. policies and new developments in the U.S. We are open to questions and we want to work with you to help you do your work promptly and efficiently. Sometimes we may not be able to satisfy all your requests with the speed and detail you need, but be sure we will do everything we can to help you.
I hope to keep working together in a fruitful and productive way and that we continue to explore new opportunities to strengthen our relationship.
As I know that you will want to ask about the arrests and indictments filed in Miami this week, let me just make a few comments.
First, as many of you understand, in the United States system of government, federal prosecutors work independently to enforce the laws of the United States. That is what happened in the case of the arrests made and charges filed earlier this week in Miami.
Second, as you can see by the court filings in this case, the investigation has been ongoing for some time. The decisions about the timing of actions undertaken by the relevant U.S. law enforcement agencies were driven solely by the necessities of law enforcement and the movements and actions of the defendants. One Department of Justice point: "The arrests in this case occurred after several of the defendants met in Miami on Tuesday, December 11, to discuss the creation of false documents in furtherance of the plot. Evidentiary issues drove the decision to make the arrests at this time, nothing else."
There is absolutely no link to recent events, and certainly not to anything that happened before, during, or after this week’s presidential inauguration in Argentina.
I would like to underscore that the words identifying the alleged recipient of the $800,000 were uttered by defendant Franklin Duran during an August 23, 2007, meeting attended by other conspirators. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mulvihill repeated the words uttered by Duran during his bond hearing. But although we understand that the statement has been ascribed to the United States, the identification of the alleged recipient of the funds was uttered by one of the defendants, and was not the statement of the United States.
Third, the U.S. investigation and charges are related to the actions undertaken in the U.S. by certain individuals violating U.S. laws. It was not an investigation into the violation of Argentine laws. However, the Department of Justice is the agency that will have to comment in further detail about this ongoing court case.
Fourth, in the U.S. legal system, defendants are considered innocent until proven guilty. This case will take its normal course through the federal court system and a verdict will be issued on the evidence presented with the same openness to media coverage that accompanies such U.S. judicial proceedings.
Fifth, the investigation, charges and the ongoing court case are not about U.S.-Argentine relations. We view these relations as strong, based on shared values and common interests. U.S.-Argentine relations cover a wide range of areas of mutual benefit. The U.S. desire to maintain and strengthen those relations has been stated publicly many times by senior U.S. officials and manifested in many examples of concrete cooperation. Other senior U.S. officials and I have made such statements over the past week, several of which have been carried prominently by the Argentine media.
We intend to keep working to maintain and strengthen our bilateral relationship, today more than ever.
If you wish, when you leave the room you can have the latest statements by U.S. officials on bilateral relations available at a table on your way out.
To conclude, I wish you a Merry Christmas and encourage you to continue with your conversations.