By Alejandro A. Tagliavini *
Buenos Aires airports will remain closed for general public because they are going to be used to receive the aircrafts of those countries that will participate in the G20 summit, between November 30th and December 1st. In addition, there will be a no-fly zone over the city, its surroundings and the Río de la Plata. And two US aircraft carriers will be on duty, one from the Atlantic, near Punta del Este, and the other from the Pacific, close to Valparaíso.
Also, November 30th will be a holiday and many streets will be closed, so ordinary citizens -the alleged constituents of politicians- will have their daily activities very much complicated and they will have to pay -in this Argentina with 30% of its population already poor and getting worse- this party that will cost, only to the Argentine government, more than 200 million dollars.
Fifty-two aircrafts will arrive, from the 19 countries of the group plus five invited as observers. The leaders of Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Rwanda, Brazil, Senegal, Italy, Holland and Mexico will arrive in airplanes similar to the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737. Those of the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, China, South Korea, USA, France, India, Turkey, Jamaica, Japan and South Africa will arrive with those similar to the Airbus A340, Boeing 767 or Ilyushin Il-96.
The USA will land eleven aircrafts counting the Air Force One for Donald Trump (and daughter) that will reduce his stay to a few hours so as to attend the inauguration of the Mexican president. The second country to bring more aircrafts will be Saudi Arabia: six of great size. The American delegation will be the largest with 800 people, then China with 500 and Russia with 200. By the way, the advanced teams of the USA (1600 people), China (1000) and Russia (800) have been touring the city for more than two months. And the leaders of these three countries will stay in hotels that will close to serve only these groups.
No doubt there will be sparks. For instance, with Trump, due to his trade war with Xi Jinping, and between Vladimir Putin and Theresa May who blame the Kremlin for the assassination by poisoning of the Russian ex-spy Serguei Skripal in London. It is not yet known who will represent the Saudi kingdom, could be the crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman. But who cares, in any case the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi was a State crime since he had an appointment with the authorities, in a state enclosure and the bureaucrats of the Saudi government tried to cover it.
But the left will also enjoy travelling. Between November 19th and 23rd, in Buenos Aires, the “World’s First Forum of Critical Thinking” will be held, organized by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), a meeting known as “anti-summit” although the organizers deny it, with the presence, among others, of Dilma Rousseff, Cristina Kirchner, José Mujica, Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera, former Colombian President Ernesto Samper and Spaniards Juan Carlos Monedero, cofounder of Podemos, and Judge Baltasar Garzón.
Anyway, we already know the end. Another useless summit like the last in Hamburg, but during which they will spend, laugh, walk and take photos. And they will not care to know that people and countries are self-integrated when they are not prevented with borders, customs and all kinds of coercive restrictions politicians impose which they could eliminate without traveling … without meeting with murderers… or do they belong to the same “brotherhood”?
* Member of the Advisory Board of the Center on Global Prosperity, Oakland, California
@alextagliavini
Alejandro A. Tagliavini 
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