Argentine President harshly criticizes US border fence

August 1, 2007 The Argentine President, Nestor Kirchner, criticized the United States' border fence plan. He was reading his speech about the Argentine economic recovery, when he startlingly stopped and called the US border fence along the frontier between Mexico and the United States an "insult."

"In name of the Argentine Nation and addressing this honorable Congress I want to make clear the repudiation of the Argentine people and of who is speaking to you and of those who accompany me toward the despicable fence that is being built in the frontier between the Mexican sister nation and the Republic... or the Nation of the United States," said the President to 40 deputies and senators, who got up from their seats and heavily applauded him.

"It's not just an insult to our sister nation of Mexico, but to all the nations of Latin America and all the nations of the world," he added later. Furthermore, he asked President Bush to consider "sincerely" the issue. "We plead that in the meantime, those building the fence of shame please reconsider."

Both George W. Bush and the US Congress have passed a law for the building of 700-mile fence along the border between USA and Mexico in order to impede illegal immigration.