Corruption in Argentina

[IndyPragmatist]

The mother of all scandals?
A once-revered human-rights group runs into a controversy
Jun 16th 2011 | BUENOS AIRES

http://www.economist.com/node/18836612

ONE of Néstor Kirchner’s most popular ideas as Argentina’s president in 2003-07 was having members of the country’s 1976-83 military dictatorship retried for human-rights abuses. Among his closest allies was the Association of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of women who for years defied the generals and staged weekly protests demanding to learn what had happened to their disappeared children. The group’s reputation in Argentina has soured, owing to the leftist activism of its leader, Hebe de Bonafini, who has praised the authors of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001. But its distinctive white shawls remain a potent symbol of the quest for justice in Latin America.

Now the Mothers have attracted criticism for very different reasons, and at an inopportune time for Cristina Fernández, Mr Kirchner’s widow and successor as president. In 2006 they founded a social-work arm, called Shared Dreams, to build homes for the poor. Mr Kirchner provided an estimated $45m of public funds. For the construction work, Ms Bonafini hired Meldorek, a company owned by Sergio Schoklender, a friend and adviser who was jailed from 1981 to 1995 for murdering his parents.

Rival contractors soon complained that Meldorek was charging twice the market rate for homebuilding. The company’s workers said it failed to pay pension benefits. Mr Schoklender called attention to himself by using a private jet and getting Meldorek to buy several luxury homes, a Ferrari and a series of yachts.

[WhiteTara]

1. Money and power corrupt

every time.