Try as I might, I cannot but chuckle at news coming out of Argentina, of a lawmaker, Señor Lopez, from the Kirchnerite movement in Argentina being arrested in the alleged circumstances of hiding between 5-8 millions of dollars worth of cash and a gun in a convent.
An Argentine former secretary of Public Works with the Cristina Fernandez administration, Jose Lopez, and currently a member of the Mercosur parliament, was arrested on Tuesday in the Buenos Aires province locality of General Rodríguez while he was trying to hide bags full of money and an automatic gun in the garden of a convent.
The reason for the formal arrest was possession of a war weapon, a Sig Saguer rifle, loaded with 25 cartridges.
Lopez was arrested with six bags and a suitcase stashed with dollars, Euros, Yuan and Qatar currency as well as very expensive watches (Rolex, Omega). “We found 160 bundles of cash, 108 of dollars, and some of them still thermo-sealed with the stamps from China’s central bank”, revealed Cristian Ritondo, head of Buenos Aires province security. Ritondo said Lopez tried to bribe the police officers and went into shock when they did not accept, and later suffered a deep depression.
At first he told the officers he was planning to donate the funds to the nuns monastery. In effect one of the nuns interviewed said that Lopez had visited them the previous day and “he was quite crazy”, saying he had stolen the money which was to help the monastery, “but today when he turned up and started dumping the bags, police arrested him. I told the officers he was a good man, he came once a year to visit us and would help us with donations of coffee and tea”
Corruption in Argentina is, at least, like a certain beverage, reassuringly expensive. The comments are quite good, especially the one about the nuns needing a good Rolex to time their prayers.
Lopez tried to bribe the police officers and went into shock when they did not accept
I don’t blame him. That would’ve shocked me, too.
Why is it reassuring?
Also, do the comments include anything along the lines of ‘don’t laugh for me, Argentina’? I’m too lazy to look…
The explanation is to be found here 😀
Alisa,
When bribery is expensive, I would regard it as limited in scope. If cops can’t be bribed with, say, USD 5,000,000 cash (as Natalie points out) then that is a positive sign for a return to the rule of law.
A Mexican friend of mine told me, probably in jest, that if a cop stops your car, the going rate depends on whether the cop is on foot, a bike or in a car, as the better the transport, the higher the cut taken from superiors who permit the cop some form of transport.
My favourite comment is no. 12 purportedly from a supporter of Kirchner ‘Indeed, this is truly a disappointment for those of us who support the politics of inclusion of the Kirchner governments….’
Which I read as “I was dumb enough to believe their promises“.
Ed, while corruption is effectively antonymous, it is hardly the result of the latter. Rather, it is the result of too much law (or “law” as our mutual friend would probably have it). Corruption is people doing what they normally do – namely, looking out for their own interests. Man-made law does not change that, never has and never will.
Therefore, I’ll submit that corruption being expensive is not a sign of return to the rule of law, but rather a sign of one set of legally-protected thugs fighting another. Much like mafia wars, really.
Indeed.
Sorry, that should read while corruption is effectively antonymous to the rule of law…
” a suitcase stashed with dollars, Euros, Yuan and Qatar currency”
Wot, no Argentine Peso’s then?
Quelle surprise.
Sig Sauer? As opposed to Sig Saguer.
Mr Ed said
“When bribery is expensive, I would regard it as limited in scope. If cops can’t be bribed with, say, USD 5,000,000 cash (as Natalie points out) then that is a positive sign for a return to the rule of law.”
Er, uh…nope.
Those same cops can be bribed with US $30. Being bribed with half a million American is to soon have goons tracking you down to cut your head off if you don’t return their stolen money. The first rule of corruption is to understand how it works.
Thailover,
I was talking about Argentina.
I saw nothing in the article which indicated the amount of the attempted bribe, and certainly not a figure like US $5 million. For all we know it was US $30 which was viewed as insufficient.
Perry, that was a strange ad. 🙂
Laird,
I didn’t say what the bribe was, presumably his ‘invitation to treat’ didn’t get further than that, not being an offer. (Albeit I suppose that it wouldn’t have been a ‘common law’ contract). If he could walk away with the gun, a Rolex and 2 Qatari Reales and leave the bulk of the cash, that would have been a good ‘deal’ by the look of things.
By one account the money was:
US$8,982,047
153,610 euros
425 yuan
49800 pesos (I think that = a can of Pepsi)
2 Qatar reales
Mr Ed @ June 17, 2016 at 5:56 pm:
The peso has declined about 80% in the last five years, but is still worth 7.2 cents US, so about $3,500. Which would be a very large can of Pepsi.
Two Qatari riyals, however, would be about 55 cents.
This incident reminds me of an odd thing that happened to me many years ago. I had lunched with a friend in Chicago’s Indian neighborhood. As we walked to his car through an alley, I noticed pieces of paper blowing past that looked like money. I snagged one, and it was money. We corralled all the loose paper, and ended up with about $100 in Korean won, Hong Kong dollars, renminbi, and Taiwan dollars. Where it might have come from remained a mystery.
I actually prefer corrupt and greedy (squalid) leftists to the sincere Puritan types.
They are, generally, a bit less vicious.
And they can be amusing – as Mr Ed points out.
Of course the Pope’s new adviser insists that the crises of Argentina is due to capitalist “neo liberalism” (yes he used that stupid modern Marxist term).
I did have some hope that the Roman Catholic Church was recovering from its mental breakdown of the 1960s.
The election of Pope Francis proved rhar I was mistaken.
I have no sympathy with him – the protocols and the methodology of offering and negotiating bribes are set out here.
Useful information if you work abroad in countries of (Ahem!) less Westernised forms of government …
Me too.