Lamela, the Bull in a China Shop

The metaphor that alludes to the catastrophic clumsiness of a person's actions, comparing it to the unusual behavior of a raging bull in a China shop, is well known.

Well, that's what Dr. Peter Lamela, the ambassador appointed by Trump to head the US diplomatic mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina, recently did.

In his presentation to the US Senate on July 22, the body where such a designation must be approved, the aforementioned man indulged in absurd rhetoric, which has little or nothing to do with the proper political manners a diplomat should have, especially one of his high office.

Without a sense of limits, the next US ambassador to Buenos Aires calmly explained that his job will be to "limit China's malign influence," and pledged to support Milei and her political group in the midterm elections. Finally, he assured the senators that he will exert the necessary pressure to ensure a harsh and definitive sanction against former President Cristina Kirchner.

Regarding the very sensitive issue of Argentina's traditional claim to the Falkland Islands, an issue clearly endorsed repeatedly by the UN, Lamela limited himself to recalling his country's "neutral" policy, according to which it does not recognize said sovereignty, either for Argentina or the United Kingdom. The new ambassador cannot be blamed here, but it was he who reminded the senatorial audience that the US is going against one of the issues that generates the greatest consensus in Argentine society.

Lamela, in modern proconsul fashion, flatly disregarded the inalienable right of the Argentine Republic to maintain and develop political relations and economic and commercial ties with any nation, especially with the People's Republic of China, the country's second-largest trading partner after Brazil, with close financial ties.

The proconsul simply believes he can change this multi-billion-dollar relationship. He even threatened provincial governors, who conduct business with the Asian giant, under the presumption that they act with great independence, dismissing the fact that the prerogatives to do so emanate from the federal constitutional order.  Promising to support the ruling party in the electoral process is frankly nothing new; it's a routine task for US embassies to interfere in other people's electoral processes. What's perhaps unusual is that the ambassador himself would say it loudly, to anyone who cares to listen.

It would be curious to find out what some of the voters of Milei's ruling party, "La Libertad Avanza," at least those who consider themselves patriots, would think if they were told in their face that their eventual electoral successes were due to the US ambassador's efforts.

Committing to ensuring "the punishment she deserves" against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) is undoubtedly one of Proconsul Lamela's most hilarious ideas. He thus confesses that they control the Argentine justice system and decide the best way to implement the so-called lawfare.

Another curiosity arises here: how the special services of Lamela's country must have reacted when they learned of so much sincerity. After all, they have generous budgets for covert operations, such as the implementation of lawfare, which no high-ranking federal official can blithely expose.

It's probably illegal, of course, in the Florida bubble of the Cuban-American mafia, where Lamela holds a prominent position, such legality doesn't usually apply.
Well, yes, it must be acknowledged that the episode shows a certain coherence within the "exiled" mafia logic. The proconsul is of Cuban origin, arrived in the US as a child, and pursued a distinguished career in the world of commercialized medicine, where skills in deceiving patients are more valuable than actually curing them.

This isn't slander; MD Now Urgent Care, the name of the company specializing in medical emergencies founded by Lamela, has faced several scandals involving mistreatment of patients and their families, fraud, and even an alleged violation of the principle of privacy of client/patient data, as occurred in 2024, an event finally disguised as a cyberattack on its database.

But none of that matters; in addition to the prevailing lack of ethics in the "Mr. Rubio universe," his current boss, Lamela also has the advantage of donating no less than $500,000 to the Trump campaign, with whom he shares a neighborhood in Palm Beach, near the Mar-a-Lago residence. During Trump's first administration, the now plenipotentiary Lamela held positions, albeit less relevant or at least of no interest to Argentines.

The proconsul doesn't seem to have it easy in his interventionist endeavors, even though the Argentine government has already effusively pledged, Milei-style, to immediately grant its approval to the Trumpist envoy.

In the rest of the country, the cascading rejection was swift, both in Argentine society and politics and on social media, to the point that several Artificial Intelligence applications helpfully categorized Lamela's statements as "controversial."

Several provincial governors vehemently rejected Lamela's claims. From Gustavo Melella, from the very southern province of Tierra del Fuego, so close to the South Pole and so far from Washington, to Sergio Ziliotto of La Pampa, Ricardo Quintela of La Rioja, and of course Axel Kicillof, governor of the province of Buenos Aires, which bears the same name as the capital.

The same thing happened in the Argentine National Congress; whether in the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies, opposition representatives presented various complaints, demanding that the ineffable Lamela be declared persona non grata before he arrives in the country, or that the government simply deny this distasteful figure its approval.

As expected, in her proverbial capacity of speaking truths in bursts, the aforementioned CFK also responded, evoking the Monroe Doctrine and how Lamela is trying to revive it, adding that the affront to national sovereignty is reminiscent of the time when Braden, the US ambassador on duty, waged war on Juan Domingo Perón, emphasizing that Lamela's involvement in the already "remote-controlled" Argentine justice system would further degrade it and, with it, democracy in the country.

But Lamela surely ignores that if there’s a people who hate gringos, it’s the Argentine people. If you don't believe it, read the results of a study conducted 2005-2008 by GlobeScan of the University of Maryland, published by the BBC in 2008. It showed that, after Iran, the second place with the worst image of the US is precisely Argentina.

The Lemela case once again demonstrates to the Argentine public what the Cuban-American mafia is made of; their modus operandi is typical of that endangered species with which the Cuban Revolution has had to deal, acting as front men for the American oligarchy. 

Now, unfortunately, it's the turn of the free people of San Martín, of Martín Fierro, and of course, of Ernesto Che Guevara.

Perhaps the misdeeds of the improvised ambassador Peter Lamela are an opportunity; in retrospect, for example, remember what Juan Bautista Alberti, the famous writer of 19th-century Argentina, said: "If the gringo who buys from us is bad, the criollo who sells to us is worse." The ball is in the Argentine people's court.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff