Spanish
Washington.- The President of the United States, Donald Trump, starred this Wednesday in a tense meeting with the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, at the White House, during which he projected a video to denounce an alleged "genocide" against the white Afrikaner minority, an accusation that Ramaphosa categorically rejected.
The meeting in the Oval Office was the most contentious since the visit in February of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who then left the White House after a heated argument with Trump in front of the cameras.
The central theme of the meeting was the allegations of alleged racial persecution in South Africa, promoted by the Trump Administration. Although his Government has drastically cut back on resettlement programs, it recently granted refugee status to several Afrikaner families (white South Africans descended from Dutch settlers).
Trump opened the meeting by calling Ramaphosa someone "highly respected in many circles, although controversial for some", while the South African president offered him a handshake and proposed to "restart" bilateral relations.
Clash between presidents
Tension erupted when the press asked about the recent arrival of Afrikaner refugees. Trump insisted on his theory that this minority suffers persecution and demanded explanations from his interlocutor.
"In general, they are white farmers fleeing South Africa, and it is very sad to see. I hope we can have an explanation," he declared to the media.
Ramaphosa firmly responded that there is no "Afrikaner genocide", and urged Trump to listen to the South African people to dismantle that narrative.
"If there really were a genocide against Afrikaner farmers, I assure you that these people would not be here, including my own Minister of Agriculture," he stated, pointing to his delegation, which included members of that community.
Trump insisted that there are "thousands of stories" that confirm the persecution and ordered the projection of a video of almost five minutes that showed African politicians giving speeches in favor of violence against whites and images of mounds and crosses that, according to Trump, represent more than 1,000 murdered farmers.
"I would like to know where that is, because I haven't seen it," commented the South African president after observing, uncomfortably, the images.
Ramaphosa stressed that, while crime is a problem in South Africa, the majority of the victims of violence "are not white, but black", and recalled that although the Constitution protects the "inviolability of land ownership", his Government also has the right to expropriate land for public use.
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"They are executing them, and it turns out they are white, and most of them are farmers. It's a difficult situation. I don't know how to explain it," Trump insisted.
At one point in the discussion, Ramaphosa joked that he does not have "a plane to give him", referring to the gift that Qatar gave to Trump and that the United States formally accepted this Wednesday.
The tension only began to dissipate after the intervention of the iconic Afrikaner golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, who were part of the South African delegation. Both, admired by Trump, avoided endorsing the genocide allegations.
The G20 in South Africa
The arrival, last week, of a first group of 49 Afrikaners to the United States as refugees was the latest episode in a series of diplomatic tensions between both countries.
In March, Trump suspended all foreign aid and cooperation with South Africa, alleging that the country confiscates land from white farmers and maintains a hostile stance towards Israel in the International Court of Justice, where Pretoria has denounced a genocide in Gaza.
South Africa's expropriation law was enacted at the beginning of the year to try to reverse the racial inequalities inherited from 'apartheid' and allows for the expropriation of land without paying compensation in cases of public interest.
Also in March, the then South African ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled from the United States, designated as a 'non grata' person for his criticism of Trump.
As long as Washington considers that there is discrimination against Afrikaners, Trump has reiterated that the United States will not participate in any G20 event, which this year is hosted by South Africa.
After Wednesday's clash with Ramaphosa, he again questioned his attendance at the G20 presidents' summit to be held in Johannesburg on November 22 and 23.
"I think that, without the United States, (the summit) really isn't very important because it's no longer the same meeting," he stated.
