Harrowing scenes as Argentinan president mocks Chinese accent in a Tweet

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is in hot water after making fun of Chinese accents on Twitter while on official business in the country. In a tweet on Wednesday she replaced “r”s with “l”s in the words arroz (rice) and petróleo (petroleum). “Are they all with La Campola. Or Did they only come for lice and petloleum?” Fernandez wrote in Spanish on her Twitter account in reference to 1,000 businessmen who attended a conference where she spoke. It was a play on a political joke from home but a minute later she apologised.

Sorry. You know what? It’s just that the ridiculousness and absurdity is so high, that it can only be understood through humour.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner via Twitter

The gaffe was badly timed with Argentina looking to China for loans to bolster a currency that’s slumped 23% against the dollar last year. Kirchner, 61, is Argentina’s first elected woman president, a lawyer and former lawmaker who succeeded her husband, the late president Nestor Kirchner. She is already under the spotlight at home after the suspicious death of a prosecutor and on a mission to China to expand trade and political ties.