‘They Want South America Back the Way They Used to Have It’

Janine Jackson interviewed Mark Weisbrot about Argentina’s new government for the May 25, 2016, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

By Janine Jackson

Janine Jackson: Washington Post editorialists, not known for hiding their feelings, heralded Argentina’s election of Mauricio Macri as “a chance to rejoin the Western world” and “a blow to Latin America’s already flagging socialist camp.”

“In a flash, Argentina has become pro-American,” CBS’s 60 Minutes told viewers, and Leslie Stahl shared that watching Macri and his wife play with their daughter, “you can’t help but think of the Kennedys and Camelot.” US corporate media seem to concur: Macri is a pragmatist, and though they aren’t certain he can lift Argentina from what CBS called “a morass of debt, inflation and international isolation,” it’s clear we’re meant to wish him well.