Diplomat lambasted 'Mafia culture'
THE Argentines were regarded by a senior Irish diplomat as "morbidly estranged from reality" and a people governed by a Mafia class. In a withering dissection of " Latin psyche ", the embassy in Buenos Aires sent a 17-page advisory to Dublin : a character assassination teed up with an assertion that the locals are psychologically dangerous. The cable, titled " Understanding Argentina " and dated November 24, 1982, was sent to the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs , Iveagh House , Dublin . It was contained in a file marked " travel costs ". It was intended to be an overview of Argentine affairs following a year of turmoil and the country 's defeat over the Falklands . Thirty years later, it reads like an offensive catalogue of stereotypes. The cable states : "As a nation – if they are a nation , and that is part of the pathology – they are morbidly estranged from reality. "To attempt an exhaustive c...