LATIN AMERICA / STEPHEN KINZER
NATIONAL PRIDE COME FIRST
Author: Stephen Kinzer
Date: Sunday, August 23, 1981
Page: ?????
Section: RUN OF PAPER
Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel of Argentina has few friends in
South American governments, it seems.
Perez Esquivel won the 1980 Peace Prize for his support of Argentina's
"disappeared," the thousands of people who have apparently been abducted and
killed by the government in recent years. Under an obscure Argentine law, any
citizen who wins a Nobel Prize is automatically entitled to an additional
financial award from the government. Perez Esquivel has been waging a court
battle to get the money, which he says he wants to use for civil rights
causes. The government is understandably reluctant, since his work is largely
aimed at uncovering official wrongdoing.
But in a bizarre turnaround, the Argentine government is now defending
Perez Esquivel on a matter concerning national pride. Earlier this month,
Paraguay's military regime refused landing clearance to an Argentine plane on
the grounds that Perez Esquivel was a passenger. Argentina immediately sent a
formal protest to Paraguay, saying that the action violated "international
law."
BERTRA;08/20,17:18 CORCOR;08/24,14 B07890065
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