By R. Renee Yaworsky
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—On Monday, Argentina declared that it intends to lodge a formal protest against Washington, D.C.  The protest stems from an incident that occurred last week, wherein Argentine officials say they confiscated undeclared weapons, spy equipment, and drugs from a U.S. military aircraft.  The authorities claim they seized almost 1,000 cubic feet of such cargo.

The aircraft involved is a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane.  The plane was searched by Argentine customs officials last Thursday at the Ezeiza International Airport.  According to Argentine officials, it had landed with experts ready to engage in a routine hostage rescue training exercise—something they consider a ruse to bring the undeclared items.  A U.S. Special Forces team had been invited into the country to give the training course to Argentina’s federal police.

Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner’s administration announced that they would be lodging the protest with Washington, D.C. in order to request that it help investigate what they called the Air Force’s attempt “to violate Argentine laws by bringing in hidden material in an official shipment.”  The South American country has categorized the cargo seized from the plane as “sensitive material,” stating Sunday:  “Among the material seized, which the State Department makes no reference to, are from weapons to different drugs, including various doses of morphine.”

Machine guns, ammunition, and spy equipment were listed as some of the items found on board.  Argentine officials said that these had not been properly declared in a manifest submitted by the U.S. embassy.

After the incident, the assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, telephoned Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman to complain about the way that Argentine officials handled the search of the plane.  Timerman’s response was:  “Argentine law must be complied with by all, without exception.”

U.S. officials have denied any wrongdoing, and one explained:  “We do respect their laws; we do respect their sovereignty.”  The official said every gun was declared but extra gun barrels were seized because they were not marked with matching serial numbers.

Relations between Argentina and the United States have been strained lately, and President Obama recently decided not to visit Argentina during his first trip to Latin America next month.

For more information, please see:

Washington Post-Argentina, US tangle over military material-14 February 2011

AFP-Argentina seizes illicit cargo on US military plane-14 February 2011

Buenos Aires Herald-US gov’t releases docs detailing bilateral agreement in US plane case-14 February 2011