Would U.S. customs welcome an Argentine airplane loaded with undeclared weapons, outdated drugs and sophisticated electronic material?

Let’s just suppose the situation were the other way around, that an Argentine plane were to land, say, at Kennedy International Airport, with a generous supply of sophisticated declared and undeclared weapons, exotic electronic devices and diverse prohibited drugs, some of them marked as outdated. The Argentine militarymen accompanying the super air transport plane then sat on a suspicious looking parcel until U.S. authorities orded it opened. The Argentines explained to U.S. authorities that the war caliber materials were needed to carry out an agreed upon course in New York City on how to deal with kidnappers and other criminal activities. How would U.S. officials have reacted?

That’s what happened a few days ago in Argentina. A super U.S. cargo airplane arrived at this city’s international airport with an enormous cargo of war caliber weapons and other materials, theoretically to be used in a course on how to deal with kidnappings and related criminal activity. Part of the weapons had been previously listed as necessary for the course in accordance to a previouly signed and approved agreement between Argentina and Washington. 

But to everyone’s surprise a great amount of the weapons and other sophisticated materiales were not listed. Argentine authorities reacted by snatching the unlisted materials and alleging that the introduction of those unnamed materials was clearly illegal. In fact, Judge Marcelo Aguinsky must decide if the cloak-and-dagger style introduction of the undeclared materials constitutes a violation of customs regulations, or whether the action should be considered an act of counterband.

As expected, the conservative pro-U.S. newspapers (Clarín and La Nación) belittled the importance of the incident and criticized the government of President Cristina Kirchner for her supposedly cold ties with Washington and made fun of her request that U.S. authorities comply with Argentine law. Clarín described that as contradictory in view of how often laws are not respected in the country.

Latinamerica's progressive governments nevertheless received the incident with great concern. Bolivia's Evo Morales even went so far as to suggest that the UNASUR--an organism bringing together most of the continent's countries--establish a mechanism by which U.S. planes transporting declared weapons to Latinamerican nations would have to submit to verifications of their cargo.

The area's countries are understandably concerned in view of the long history of U.S. interventionism and support for rightwing military dictatorships or authoritarian governments. Two of the questions most frequently raised by critics: on how many other occasions have similar incidents ocurred? Who ended up with the undeclared weapons? L ikewise, in terms of the course the U.S. officers were supposed to dictate in Argentina: Why are prohibited medical drugs, and such sophisticate weapons necessary for a training course on kidnapping?

The incident brings to mind the "Irangate scandal" during the presidency of Ronald Reagan which included tactics such as selling weapons to Iran--involved in a war against Irak--to finance the activities of the "Contras" in Nicaragua, governed at the time by the Sandinistas. Those activites were clandestine due to the U.S. Senate's prohibition on the sale of weapons and financing for the Contra. The undercover operation was revealed when the Nicaraguan army forced a U.S. transport plane to land. A month later a Libanese weekly newspaper revealed details of the sale of weapons to Iran. 

Operations of this sort appear to suggest that cloak-and-dagger operations under the umbrella of the Pentagon or the CIA are not always in line with the policies of the State Department.

Under President Barack Obama Washington has clearly indicated its interest in Latinamerica's process of democratization, although the Pentagon has also been active: agreements have been signed with Colombia for active U.S. military presence at seven military bases in the country, theoretically to supervise activities involving drug traffiking, but also to help smother the guerrilla movement in that country.

One key concern of the Pentagon is to maintain training activities for militarymen and police. What used to be known as the School of the Americas (now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) has frequently come under criticism due to the training of militarymen in counter-insurgency and tactics contrary to human rights. A number of officers trained at the school later became prominent members of military dictatorships in the area, including General Roberto Viola and Leopoldo Galtieri of Argentina's 1976-82 military dictatorship and Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer.