Latin America ahead of USA Re Justice for Torturers
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/27978-latin-america-s-lesson-for-the-us-prosecute-the-torturers
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Friday News Clips ..
1. OECD DOUBTS ARGENTINA’S COMMITTMENT TO FIGHT BRIBERY (The Wall Street Journal Blog)
2. BREVAN HOWARD TO START ARGENTINA FUND AS DEFAULT LEFT UNRESOLVED (Bloomberg News)
3. EXXON MOBIL MAKES SECOND ARGENTINE SHALE FIND IN VACA MUERTA (Bloomberg News)
4. YPF FALLS MOST AMONG OIL PEERS ON FUEL PRICE CUT TALKS (Bloomberg News)
5. HEDGE FUND BREVAN HOWARD LAUNCHES ARGENTINA FUND – SEC FILING (Reuters News)
6. EXXONMOBIL MAKES NEW SHALE OIL, GAS FIND IN ARGENTINA’S VACA MUERTA (Fox News)
7. ARGENTINA POLITICS: REPORTS HIGHLIGHT THE PROBLEM OF CORRUPTION (Economist Intelligence Unit – ViewsWire)
8. LOCAL OIL PRICE A HURDLE AS ARGENTINE TRIES TO CUT GASOLINE PRICES (Reuters News)
9. EXXONMOBIL MAKES SECOND DISCOVERY AT ARGENTINA’S VACA MUERTA (Platts Commodity News)
10. THE PUBLIC MENORAH—A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM IN BUENOS AIRES—TURNS 30 (The Chabad Org.)
1. OECD DOUBTS ARGENTINA’S COMMITTMENT TO FIGHT BRIBERY (The Wall Street Journal Blog)
By Samuel Rubenfeld
December 18, 2014
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Thursday it is “gravely concerned” about Argentina’s commitment to fighting bribery.
Argentina has no law to punish companies for foreign bribery or to prosecute its citizens who commit it overseas, the OECD said in its latest peer review report. Complex economic crime investigations face widespread delays, the judicial system is compromised and few companies have anti-foreign bribery measures beyond limited codes of ethics, the OECD said.
“Urgent action is needed to address these grave concerns,” the OECD said in a statement. “As a result, Argentina will be evaluated again by the end of 2016 to assess progress.”
The OECD gave Argentina a list of recommendations to fix its problems, including implementing a new criminal procedure code, reducing judicial vacancies, seriously investigating foreign bribery cases, and encouraging companies to adopt effective measures to prevent and detect foreign bribery.
2. BREVAN HOWARD TO START ARGENTINA FUND AS DEFAULT LEFT UNRESOLVED (Bloomberg News)
By Saijel Kishan
Dec 18, 2014
Brevan Howard Asset Management, the $37 billion investment firm run by Alan Howard, is planning to start a hedge fund to focus on Argentina, as investor speculation mounts that the country can overcome default.
The firm has raised $25 million for its Brevan Howard Argentina Fund, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A spokesman for the firm declined to comment on the fund.
Brevan Howard was part of a group of investors holding restructured Argentinian bonds in 2012 when Paul Singer’s Elliott Management persuaded a U.S. court to block payments to the debt. Singer, who bought the original defaulted bonds and sued for full repayment, said in November that he will pursue sanctions on the South American nation for evading the court order.
Speculation increased this year that Argentina will resolve the dispute once a bond clause it says precludes a settlement expires this month and a new president is elected. Argentina, which defaulted in 2001 and this year, has failed to reach agreement with Singer and other so-called holdout investors, and instead is planning to sell bonds that will be governed by local laws.
During the jockeying other investors have raised money anticipating resolution. Redwood Capital Management started a $160 million fund focused on Argentina in October, a month after Gramercy Funds Management opened a $175 million fund. Owl Creek Asset Management and Bienville Capital Management also recently started pools that specialize in South America’s second-biggest economy.
Brevan Howard was started by Howard in 2002 with four members of a proprietary fixed-income trading desk at Credit Suisse Group AG. The hedge fund firm is based in St. Helier on the island of Jersey.
3. EXXON MOBIL MAKES SECOND ARGENTINE SHALE FIND IN VACA MUERTA (Bloomberg News)
By Daniel Cancel and Pablo Gonzalez
Dec 18, 2014
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the largest U.S. energy company, said it successfully drilled its second shale oil and gas well this year in Argentina.
The Invernada X-3 well, located in the Vaca Muerta non-conventional deposit in Neuquen province, is producing 448 barrels of oil and 1 million cubic feet of gas a day, Exxon said today in an e-mailed statement. Irving, Texas-based Exxon owns 85 percent of the venture with provincial energy producer Gas y Petroleo del Neuquen SA controlling the remainder.
Exxon, which has interests in about 900,000 acres in Vaca Muerta, is among foreign energy companies including Chevron Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc developing shale fields in the Belgium-sized deposit that holds at least 23 billion barrels of oil, according to a 2012 survey by Ryder Scott. At 30,000 square kilometers, Vaca Muerta is almost twice the size of the Eagle Ford shale formation in Texas.
“This second find adds value to our exploration program in Vaca Muerta,” Stephen Greenlee, president of Exxon’s exploration company, said in the statement. “Our second well is flowing at levels that make it one of the best in the formation and complements those obtained at our first well.”
The Invernada well is located 20 kilometers from Bajo del Choique, the first well discovered in May, and was drilled at a depth of 15,374 feet.
Exxon Senior Vice President Mark Albers met with Miguel Galuccio, the Chief Executive Officer of state-run YPF SA, in October where the two discussed opportunities for working together in Argentine shale projects.
Exxon, with a market capitalization of $381 billion, rose 0.9 percent to $89.85 a share at 2:50 p.m. in New York. The company’s shares have fallen 11 percent in 2014.
YPF, the country’s largest energy producer and company, is producing 35,000 barrels a day at the Loma Campana venture along with Chevron in Vaca Muerta making it the second largest non-conventional field in the world outside the U.S.
Argentina, which posted a record $6 billion energy deficit last year, is depending on the development of its non-conventional resources to curb imports to improve its trade balance and preserve international reserves.
4. YPF FALLS MOST AMONG OIL PEERS ON FUEL PRICE CUT TALKS (Bloomberg News)
By Pablo Gonzalez
Dec 18, 2014
YPF SA (YPF) fell the most among global energy company peers on speculation that a reduction in Argentine gasoline prices will curb profit and planned investments.
The country’s state-run oil producer, which controls 58 percent of gasoline distribution, slumped 2.6 percent in Buenos Aires, the biggest decline among 15 competitors tracked by Bloomberg. The peer group rose an average of 1.4 percent.
Under a proposal being discussed with federal and provincial authorities, YPF would reduce prices by as much as 7 percent at its service stations in return for tax breaks and other incentives, four people with knowledge of the talks said yesterday asking not to be named as talks are private.
“This news won’t help the stock at all,” Walter Chiarvesio, who covers YPF at Banco Santander SA (SAN)’s Argentine unit, said by telephone from Buenos Aires. “If it’s forced to cut gasoline prices in pesos, profit will fall and investment will be reduced, unless the federal government and the provinces help to mitigate the reduction.”
The company, based in Buenos Aires, declined to comment in an e-mail. The stock also fell as crude slumped to the lowest in more than five years on concern a supply glut will worsen.
Pump prices in Argentina have surged this year as President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s government seeks to boost oil investments. YPF has raised prices in pesos by 42 percent. Gas station sales rose 62 percent in the third quarter.
5. HEDGE FUND BREVAN HOWARD LAUNCHES ARGENTINA FUND – SEC FILING (Reuters News)
By Nishant Kumar and Carolyn Cohn
December 18, 2014
LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Brevan Howard, one of Europe’s biggest hedge fund managers, has launched a fund to invest in Argentinean assets, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed.
The hedge fund firm, which managed more than $34 billion at the end of October, has started to market the fund to external investors. A Brevan Howard spokesman declined to comment on how much the fund aims to raise or who will manage the fund.
Argentinian debt is trading at 86 cents on the dollar, according to Thomson Reuters data, after the country defaulted on its debt in July following a legal battle with a small group of U.S. junk debt specialists.
Argentina has been battling with hedge funds who are seeking full payment of debts after its $100 billion default in 2002. Other creditors had previously settled for less.
Argentina says it cannot pay the holdouts until the Dec. 31 expiration of a clause that prevents it from paying them on better terms than it pays holders of restructured debt.
6. EXXONMOBIL MAKES NEW SHALE OIL, GAS FIND IN ARGENTINA’S VACA MUERTA (Fox News)
December 18, 2014
U.S. energy super-major ExxonMobil said Thursday it has made a new shale oil and gas discovery in the massive Vaca Muerta formation in southwestern Argentina.
Exxon said in a statement that it made the find with the La Invernada X-3 well, which was drilled to a depth of 4,686 meters (15,364 feet).
The well, operated by ExxonMobil Exploration Argentina and drilled at the La Invernada block in the southwestern Argentine province of Neuquen, produced a flow rate of 448 barrels of oil and 1 million cubic feet of gas per day in an initial test.
“Analysis of additional information and studies is being conducted to completely evaluate the discovery,” the company said, adding that “more wells must be drilled before decisions can be made” on commercial viability.
After 60 days of output, the well has produced a total of 31,400 barrels of oil equivalent.
This latest find was made at a spot 20 kilometers (12 miles) from an earlier Exxon discovery, announced in May, at the Bajo del Choique block.
“This second discovery adds value to our exploration program in Vaca Muerta,” ExxonMobil Exploration Company President Stephen Greenlee said.
7. ARGENTINA POLITICS: REPORTS HIGHLIGHT THE PROBLEM OF CORRUPTION (Economist Intelligence Unit – ViewsWire)
18 December 2014
On December 18th the OECD published a damning report describing Argentina as seriously non-compliant with key articles of the Anti-Bribery Convention. The report comes shortly after the publication of the latest Corruption Perception Index from Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental corruption watchdog, showed a deterioration in Argentina’s global ranking. The latter will have been influenced by a series of corruption scandals involving the president’s inner circle. More fundamentally, the poor performance of the relevant institutions in charge of fighting corruption has contributed to a perception of impunity that feeds into corrupt practices. Although most of the candidates gearing up for the October 2015 presidential election have promised to fight corruption, its deep institutional roots do not encourage optimism.
The OECD’s anti-bribery working group has criticised Argentina for its failure to pass legislation to punish companies for foreign bribery; for widespread delays in investigations into economic crime; and for executive contact with-and disciplinary processes against-judges and prosecutors, which threatens judicial independence. The group has called on the government to promptly implement a new criminal procedure code, reduce the large number of judicial vacancies, and seriously investigate and prosecute all foreign bribery cases as appropriate.
Meanwhile, in TI’s Corruption Perception Index, Argentina ranks 107th out of 175 countries, with a score of just 34 (out of 100). This represents a drop of one place in the ranking since 2013, and places Argentina below a host of Latin American peers, including Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Mexico. TI has highlighted gaps between anti-corruption laws and actual enforcement that result in a lack of accountability and an environment of impunity, and has called for Argentina to implement comprehensive access-to-information laws, increase sanctions for political and campaign-financing violations, give anti-corruption institutions a more robust mandate, and make them more independent and proactive.
A series of scandals
Corruption perceptions have been raised by a series of scandals in recent years surrounding high-ranked government officials-including the vice-president, Amado Boudou, who is currently facing charges of abuse of power-along with businessmen thought to have close links with the family of the president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Corruption has been a long-standing problem in Argentina’s history. Many corruption scandals came to light in the 1990s during the administration of Carlos Menem (1989-99). Subsequently, in the early years of the administration of the former president, Néstor Kirchner, (2003-07), further scandals came to light, including a bribery case involving a swedish construction firm, Skanska, and the Federal Planning Ministry during the construction of a gas pipeline in the country.
Many of the scandals that have emerged recently have their roots in the early years of Mr Kirchner’s government (the former president, who died in 2010, was married to Ms Fernández, and was closely involved in the running of her administration). In recent years, a number of journalists have investigated the businesses of associates of the Kirchners. Most high-profile has been the case of Lázaro Báez, a businessman whose construction firm received a substantial share of public contracts awarded during Mr Kirchner’s presidency, and who was accused in 2013 by a well-known journalist, Jorge Lanata, of being a frontman for Mr Kirchner in a series of money-laundering operations for which Mr Baéz is now being formally investigated (he denies all allegations, which he claims are politically motivated and intended to discredit the government).
The vice-president and the problem of impunity
Another case that has dominated the headlines in the past year is that of Mr Boudou, who has become the first vice-president in Argentina’s history to be formally charged with a crime while in office. On December 11th a federal court ruled that Mr Boudou will face a public trial for alleged irregularities in the purchase of a car in the 1990s. He is also being investigated for abuse of power while serving as economy minister during Ms Fernández’s first term of office, in a case centring on his links to Ciccone Calcográfica-previously the official printer of Argentina’s bank notes-and that company’s public contracts and tax dealings. Opposition politicians have called for Mr Boudou’s impeachment, but he has retained the tacit support of the president, probably because his impeachment would further weaken an already feeble government, which now has less than a year remaining in office. As a sign of this support, Mr Boudou was with the president in early December during a demonstration for the 31st anniversary of the return to democracy in Argentina, at which Ms Fernández, in a speech, accused judges of harassing members of the executive.
In her speech, Ms Fernández also defended the attorney-general, Alejandra Gils Carbó-considered by the opposition to be a close ally of the president-against criticisms of discretionality in appointments made under her watch. Critics of the new criminal procedure code argue that it gives more power to the attorney-general, and fear that, once Ms Fernández leaves office in December 2015, Ms Gils Carbó will reject investigations against members of the administrations of the president and Mr Kirchner. In fact, it is possible that Ms Fernández could face questions over her business affairs after leaving office. In November a judge, Claudio Bonadío, ordered a judicial raid of the offices of Hotesur, a hotel owned by the Kirchner family, citing alleged irregularities in the hotel’s affidavits.
The agency in charge of controlling companies’ affidavits is the Inspección General de Justicia (IGJ). However, reflecting the lack of political independence in agencies charged with combating corrupt practices, the IGJ is headed by a member of La Cámpora, an extreme left-wing faction of the Peronist party, which has become a key base of support for Ms Fernández in her second term. The problem of political bias in institutions remains the key obstacle to eliminating perceptions of impunity in the public sector, which persists despite the many corruption scandals that have come to light in Argentina over the years.
8. LOCAL OIL PRICE A HURDLE AS ARGENTINE TRIES TO CUT GASOLINE PRICES (Reuters News)
By Eliana Raszewski
18 December 2014
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Argentina’s government wants to cut gasoline pump prices to ease the burden on consumers in light of the plunge in international oil benchmarks, sources familiar with ongoing government talks with state-controlled energy firm YPF say, but will need to avoid scaring away investment in domestic oil production.
To reduce pump prices Argentina may have to lower the government-fixed price for crude oil produced locally, a move that could discourage oil companies from investing in production in Argentina at a time the country faces an energy import bill of $7 billion a year.
Argentina is counting on developing its vast Vaca Muerta shale resource, which covers an area the size of Belgium, to secure eventual energy independence. Doing so will cost up to $200 billion over 10 years, YPF says.
“A cut in the price of gasoline is being evaluated,” said one market source familiar with the economy ministry’s negotiations with YPF.
To minimize any cut in the local price of crude, the government could offer tax breaks to cushion the impact of lower pump prices on producers, the source said.
Another source, in the economy ministry, confirmed the government was “studying the international situation, the state of the (energy) industry and, among other things, the price of gasoline”.
Motorists in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, pay 12-13 pesos ($1.40-$1.52) per litre at the pump. Prices have jumped by as much as 60 percent this year, analysts say, helping to drive one of the world’s fastest inflation rates.
In December 2013, the South American country’s leftist government set the price of locally produced crude at $84 per barrel to keep prices low. Before that, the local price was even lower, at $72, industry analysts said, compared with an average for Brent on international markets of around $110 a barrel from 2011 to 2013.
But oil producers that were taking a hit in Argentina are now better placed. On Thursday, global crude prices were around $60 as traders bet the market would resume a six-month rout on worries about a supply gut.
“Argentina offers prices that are disconnected from the international market and, as long as the government keeps the price of its oil where it is, interest will remain in Vaca Muerta,” said an executive of a foreign oil company present in Argentina.
Energy giants Chevron Corp, Petronas, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L and Total have dipped their toes into developments in Argentina, but restrictive trade and currency controls unsettle them.
9. EXXONMOBIL MAKES SECOND DISCOVERY AT ARGENTINA’S VACA MUERTA (Platts Commodity News)
By Charles Newbery
18 December 2014
Buenos Aires (Platts)–18Dec2014/249 pm EST/1949 GMT ExxonMobil has made its second discovery of unconventional oil and natural gas at Argentina’s giant Vaca Muerta shale play, the company said Thursday, adding that the well was among those showing “the best” yields in the play thus far.
The find is in the La Invernada block in the southwestern province of Neuquen, where it drilled the La Invernada X-3 well to a depth of 4,686 meters (15,374 feet) and horizontally for 3,280 feet.
The first test from the well showed oil flowing at an average rate of 448 b/d and gas at 1 million cu f/d (28,317 cu m/d) on a 12/64-inch choke, ExxonMobil said in an emailed statement.
The company said it is studying the test data and carrying out additional studies to determine whether to put the well into commercial production.
Before that, it said, its local unit ExxonMobil Exploration Argentina “must drill additional wells.”
It added that the initial tests show that La Invernada X-3 is among the “wells with the best yield in Vaca Muerta,” producing a total of 31,400 barrels of oil equivalent over 60 days.
ExxonMobil is the operator and 85% owner of La Invernada, with the remaining stake held by its partner, Neuquen’s state oil company Gas y Petroleo del Neuquen (GyP).
They are also partners on Bajo del Choique, an adjacent block where ExxonMobil made its first discovery at Vaca Muerta in May, at a well drilled about 12 miles from this second find on La Invernada.
“This second discovery adds value to our exploration program in Vaca Muerta,” Stephen Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company, said in the statement. “Our second well is flowing at levels that positions it as one of the best in the formation and it complements the successful initial results in our first well.”
For his part, Neuquen Governor Jorge Sapag called the find “promising,” adding in the statement that he is hopeful that both discoveries “will open a new road for new and greater oil and gas production.”
Most of the companies working in the Vaca Muerte are still in the test phase. Only Argentina’s state-run YPF, in a partnership with Chevron, is in the production phase, with output averaging 35,000 boe/d.
ExxonMobil is focusing on the upstream in Argentina after selling its downstream business — a refinery and service stations — in the country last year. It has secured about 900,000 net acres in the shale oil and gas plays of Neuquen both on its own and through partnership deals with YPF, G&P, Brazil’s Petrobras and Canada’s Petrogas Americas.
In October, Sapag said ExxonMobil and GyP plan to drill 10 exploratory wells at Vaca Muerta in 2015 before doing a first pilot production project as a transition to mass-scale development.
10. THE PUBLIC MENORAH—A SYMBOL OF FREEDOM IN BUENOS AIRES—TURNS 30 (The Chabad Org.)
By Dovid Margolin
December 18, 2014
After the fall of Argentina’s military junta, a rabbi raises Argentina’s first menorah, bringing hope to millions.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—It was late 1984, and Argentina’s brutal military junta had fallen barely a year earlier. Yet as Chanukah approached, Rabbi Tzvi Grunblatt was determined to erect his country’s first public menorah.
Over the course of its seven-year stretch of power, the junta had spearheaded a campaign of terror against its opponents known as the “Dirty War.” At its height, thousands of dissidents and others had disappeared, kidnapped off the streets during the day or arrested as part of midnight raids in their homes. Today, the precise fate of thousands of victims remains unknown.
While the junta fell following its lopsided loss during the Falklands War, it had successfully instilled a culture of fear in Argentina. And now that Grunblatt wanted to construct a large Chanukah display in the center of Buenos Aires, many in the Jewish community were anxious and concerned about possible repercussions.
“People were very afraid during that time,” remembers Grunblatt, an Argentine who returned with his American-born wife, Shterna, in 1978 to direct Chabad Lubavitch of Argentina. “They said there was no way it would not bring anti-Semitism. There was one influential Jewish-community board member who said if it stands for 24 hours, he would put on tefillin.”
Leaning back in his chair, Grunblatt closes his eyes and thinks for a moment, recalling how the scenario played out. He opens his eyes and smiles. “He didn’t keep his promise.”
“There was one man who supported me, the late Mr. David Goldberg,who was the president of DAIA”—an acronym for Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas, Argentine Jewry’s umbrella organization—“at the time. He told me not to listen to anyone, and that we should do it.”
That year, the menorah went up. It was not knocked over; it stood there without incident, and, in fact, drew accolades from throughout the newly re-established democracy.
The lighting ceremony itself wound up drawing thousands of participants, with greetings read from President of the Republic Raúl Alfnosin. Press coverage beamed images of the historic event to hundreds of thousands of more people around the country, and an editorial in La Nación—one of the country’s largest daily newspapers—hailed the menorah-lighting as a sign that the era of fear Argentina had just experienced was finally coming to an end.
“People were shocked,” says Grunblatt. “The menorah was like a revolution here. They had never seen such an open display of Yiddishkeit before. The next year, in 1985, the community embraced it with open arms, and that’s how it’s been ever since.”
‘Chanukah on the Map’
While among American Jews Chanukah has long been one of the most observed holidays, Grunblatt explains that until recently, the holiday was hardly known by large segments of Argentina’s Jews largely due to its child-centric nature. And being that the country lies in the Southern Hemisphere, it falls over the summer, when families are out and about, and kids at camps or away from home.
“In Argentina, Chanukah usually begins right after the school year ends,” he says. “Because of that, most children didn’t really learn about it much in school or celebrate it there because they were on summer vacation. Chanukah wasn’t very widely known in Argentina, and no institution had any big programs for the holiday.”
Grunblatt credits the campaign started by the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—to spread awareness and the message of Chanukah with bringing holiday observance back to Argentina. “Today, all of the [Jewish] institutions have a menorah, and they all do Chanukah events. Because of Chabad, Chanukah here is on the map.”
Armando Reler, who served as executive director of Maccabi in Argentina for more than 20 years, agrees with Grunblatt’s assessment. “Chanukah for a lot of the Jewish community in Buenos Aires was playing football at Maccabi,” he explains. “Once in a while, someone might pull out a menorah and light it, but not much more than that. Later, when Chabad began lighting a menorah at the largest football stadium here, it was the Jews who were the most surprised!
“People were also afraid to show their Jewishness in public. Because of what Chabad has been doing, people realized that it’s possible to not only be Jewish, but to be Jewish publicly.”
In addition to the central menorah put up each year, others now dot the massive city all over, placed there by the more than two-dozen Chabad centers that have opened in the last three decades.
Honoring the 30th Anniversary
The event was scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 17, but as the 8 p.m. starting time approached, rain started falling in buckets on Buenos Aires.
“We all thought it would have to be postponed to the next night because of the rain,” says Rabbi Mendy Gurevitch, director of the Wolfsohn-Tabacinic Jewish Day School and Community in the city’s Belgrano neighborhood. “It poured hard for 15 to 20 minutes, and then it suddenly stopped. People came from everywhere; it was a beautiful event.”
Under dark yet clearing skies, the menorah-lighting once again took place at La Plaza Republica Oriental del Uruguay on Buenos Aires’ central Libretador Avenue. As usual, the event was joined by dignitaries: The chief of cabinet ministers of Buenos Aires Horacio Rodríguez Larreta was on hand, and Israel’s ambassador to Argentina, Dorit Shavit, kindled the menorah.
“The menorah-lighting has become a central part of Chanukah for the Buenos Aires Jewish community at large, and 2,000 people attend regularly,” explains Rabbi Levi Silberstein, one of the event’s organizers. “This year, there was a big campaign to honor the 30th anniversary, and the crowd was double the size.”
A special logo to mark the anniversary was designed and a social-media campaign, which will last throughout Chanukah, was launched. As a 20-piece philharmonic orchestra played, a film with highlights of the last 30 years was shown, reflecting the great changes the Argentine Jewish community has seen in the last three decades.
Why does Grunblatt feel it so important to mark this milestone?
“Sometimes, an organization can make a successful event once and then let it become a part of the past,” he explains. “To do something on this scale every year—not for any political or financial reason, but simply to mark a Jewish holiday—is something that should be celebrated. This menorah event has had a great impact not only on Jewish life in this country, but on all of Argentina.”
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