File photo of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner. (Associated Press)
Buenos Aires:
Embattled Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, while on a state visit to China seeking badly needed investment, caused a furore on Wednesday by joking about her hosts' accents on Twitter.
Fernandez tried to mimic a Chinese accent by switching "r's" with "l's" in a tweet in Spanish that translates as: "Did they only come for lice and petloleum."
A few minutes later, she added: "Sorry, the levels of ridiculousness and absurdity are so high they can only be digested with humor."
The tweets came as she met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As of late Wednesday, there was no official response from China about the comments by Fernandez, a prolific tweeter who has 3.53 million followers.
But that didn't stop the Twitterverse in the South American country and beyond from exploding with criticism of what many considered a racist tweet.
"Cristina Fernandez's lack of tack and respect is incredible," wrote @FaundezLafarga. "She goes to China looking for (economic) agreements and she makes fun of their accents."
@GuyChazan wrote: "Faux pas in China. Really, this sort of joke went out of fashion in the 70s."
The latest controversy comes as Fernandez struggles to distance herself from the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead in his bathroom on January 18, hours before he was to elaborate on allegations that Fernandez helped shield Iranians connected to the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85.
Fernandez has vehemently denied the accusations, saying Argentina had nothing to gain from such a deal. She has suggested that rogue elements in the intelligence services ordered Nisman's hit, but has not elaborated.
Earlier this week, just as her visit to China was getting underway, investigators looking into Nisman's death said they had found an arrest warrant for Fernandez that Nisman had written up. While he never presented it, the revelations brought Fernandez back to the center of the case.
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