Hopes Dashed, Relatives of Argentine Submarine Crew Turn to Grief and Anger<br />Last year, Argentina spent about 1 percent of its gross domestic product on the military, lagging behind neighbors like Chile, which spent 1.9 percent,<br />and Brazil, which spent 1.3 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.<br />Even as a multinational search effort combed the seas last weekend, braving stormy weather and 22-foot waves, analysts at the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization in Vienna began considering whether the steady stream of information from monitors<br />that track sound and earth movements across the world may have picked up clues about the missing vessel.<br />After piecing the two assessments together, and finding<br />that they both pointed to an explosion in the area where the submarine was known to have been, Argentine military officials decided to break the news to relatives.<br />If the sailors perished, it would be the deadliest submarine catastrophe since the sinking of the Kursk — a Russian vessel brought down by a misfired weapon in 2000 —<br />and the Argentine military’s largest loss of life since the Falklands War of 1982.<br />The organization shared its findings with the Argentine ambassador in Vienna on Thursday, after concluding<br />that it was “similar to other water explosions observed previously.”<br />That finding was broadly in line with an assessment the United States shared with Argentina on Tuesday night.<br />“Instead of spending on other matters, why don’t you spend on something truly important, like the life of all our relatives,” an unidentified woman<br />asked Mr. Macri on Monday when he traveled to the resort city of Mar del Plata, according to a video of the meeting that was posted online.
