Fuertes repercusiones por un editorial de LA NACION
El texto “No más venganza” suscitó fuertes críticas y rechazos en ámbitos políticos y periodísticos
MARTES 24 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2015
Trabajadores de la nacion, ayer, en la Redacción
Trabajadores de la nacion, ayer, en la Redacción.Foto:Rodrigo Néspolo28140
El editorial publicado ayer en LA NACION con el título “No más venganza”, de amplia repercusión en la opinión pública y en las redes sociales, suscitó numerosas críticas, tanto en ámbitos políticos como en distintos medios periodísticos. Entre estos últimos está buena parte del propio staff de LA NACION, cuya Asamblea de Trabajadores promovió una declaración y una foto que se publican aparte.
En ejercicio de la libertad de expresión que caracteriza a LA NACION, periodistas de este medio manifestaron, por medio de las redes sociales y en la propia Redacción, su disidencia con el contenido del editorial para dejar en claro su posición. Las notas editoriales de LA NACION representan exclusivamente la posición editorial del diario, por lo que no expresan la posición de sus periodistas ni de los integrantes de otras áreas de la empresa.
Además, LA NACION le hace llegar a la senadora Norma Morandini -mencionada en el editorial- su pedido de disculpas en la medida en que ella sienta que ese texto no reflejó su sensibilidad ni opinión en el tema en cuestión. El editorial cita una nota publicada el 16 de noviembre en LA NACION por la senadora Morandini con el título “Los derechos humanos no se defienden con mentiras”. La legisladora consideró ayer que el editorial es “una burla” y sostuvo: “Trato de superar la idea de los dos bandos y ahora me veo envuelta en una utilización”. Aclaró, además: “Cuando hablo de reconciliar no es con los represores, sino con nosotros mismos, que seamos capaces de argumentar, de debatir, de no ofendernos y descalificarnos, de no usar la mentira para descalificar al otro”.
Entre quienes expresaron sus críticas al texto se encuentran el ex jefe de Gabinete Jorge Capitanich, que calificó el editorial como “abominable”. Del mismo modo, el abogado Eduardo Barcesat consideró que se “está reclamando el cese de una supuesta conducta de venganza, cuando se trata de crímenes de lesa humanidad que, bajo cualquier régimen político de cualquier país que haya suscrito los tratados de derechos humanos, forzosamente debían ser juzgados bajo las mismas pautas que operaban en la Argentina”.
La legisladora Victoria Donda emitió un comunicado en el que dice: “LA NACION publicó un editorial donde asegura que la elección de un nuevo gobierno es momento propicio para terminar con las mentiras sobre los años 70. Los dueños del centenario diario, irresponsablemente, hablan de venganzas, comparan lo sucedido en aquellos años en nuestro país con el terrorismo internacional que mantiene en vilo a Europa por estos días, para terminar justificando de manera muy elemental el terrorismo de Estado”.
Y continúa: “Triste favor le hacen a Mauricio Macri contenidos periodísticos de esta naturaleza de parte de un diario que estos últimos años mostró su preocupación por defender la democracia y la república. Veo con alegría que muchos de sus trabajadores ya dieron testimonio repudiando el contenido de dicho editorial. Desde nuestro espacio político trabajaremos firme e incansablemente para que bajo el nuevo gobierno la Justicia siga actuando en contra de la impunidad de los genocidas y sus cómplices, que arrastraron a la Argentina a la peor dictadura cívico-militar de nuestra historia. Para los que añoran aquellos años y reescriben oxidadas editoriales en los diarios, sólo resta reafirmarles: ¡ni olvido ni perdón!”.
Además, el Foro de Periodismo Argentino (Fopea) emitió un comunicado en el que expresa: “En relación a la nota editorial publicada hoy por el diario LA NACION, «No más venganza», Fopea señala que las posiciones editoriales que asumen las empresas periodísticas son responsabilidad de sus respectivas direcciones. Estas posiciones editoriales no necesariamente representan a los periodistas que integran las redacciones. Si bien el medio tiene su derecho a publicar sus editoriales, sobre el contenido del artículo editorial, Fopea comparte las discrepancias de los periodistas del diario que así se manifestaron por redes sociales e incluso en una asamblea.”
En rigor, el editorial no aboga por suspender los juicios sobre violaciones de los derechos humanos que se están llevando a cabo ni reivindica a genocidas. Por el contrario, condena el terrorismo de Estado, al tiempo que también cuestiona a grupos terroristas que actuaron en los años 70.
El editorial expresa la necesidad de resolver “la situación de padecimiento de condenados, procesados e incluso de sospechosos de la comisión de delitos cometidos durante los años de la represión subversiva y que se hallan en cárceles a pesar de su ancianidad” y de que se ponga fin a “actos de persecución” contra magistrados judiciales en actividad o retiro.
Comunicado de los trabajadores
La Asamblea de Trabajadores de Prensa y Gráficos de LA NACION y sus respectivas comisiones internas difundieron ayer el siguiente comunicado
Los trabajadores de S.A. LA NACION le decimos no al editorial que, con el título “No más venganza”, se publicó este lunes 23 de noviembre en la página 32 del diario.
Quienes trabajamos en el diario LA NACION, en las revistas que edita la empresa, en las versiones online de todos los productos periodísticos, entendemos que la vida democrática implica la convivencia de distintas ideas, proyectos e identidades políticas. Convivimos entre estas paredes trabajadores que expresamos esa diversidad y desde nuestras diferencias construimos un sentido común.
Desde esa diversidad rechazamos la lógica que pretende construir ese editorial, que en nada nos representa, al igualar a las víctimas del terrorismo de Estado y el accionar de la Justicia en busca de reparación en los casos de delitos de lesa humanidad con los castigos a presos comunes y con una “cultura de la venganza”.
Los trabajadores del diario LA NACION les decimos sí a la democracia, a la continuidad de los juicios por delitos de lesa humanidad y le decimos no al olvido.
Por memoria, verdad y justicia.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2015
1. ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT-ELECT INHERITS LARGE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS (The Washington Post)
2. EDITORIAL: MAURICIO MACRI IS CONSERVATIVE CHANGE IN ARGENTINA (The Washington Times)
3. IN LATIN AMERICA, A COOLER HEAD PREVAILS AGAIN AT THE POLLS (The Washington Post)
4. REVIEW & OUTLOOK (EDITORIAL): REVIVING ARGENTINA (The Wall Street Journal)
5. MAURICIO MACRI ASKS FOR PATIENCE AFTER WINNING ARGENTINA ELECTION (The Wall Street Journal)
6. ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT-ELECT MACRI PROMISES AN END TO DIVISIVE POLITICS (The Christian Science Monitor)
7. ARGENTINE PRESIDENT-ELECT DETOURED FROM A WELL-TRAVELED PATH (The New York Times)
8. A POPULIST ‘PINK TIDE’ IS EBBING IN SOUTH AMERICA, ARGENTINE VOTE SUGGESTS (The Wall Street Journal Online)
9. ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT-ELECT MACRI PROMISES AN END TO DIVISIVE POLITICS (The Christian Science Monitor)
10. NEW ARGENTINE PRESIDENT VOWS TO LESSEN STATE’S ROLE IN ECONOMY (USA Today)
11. ARGENTINA’S NEXT LEADER TO END AID FOR VENEZUELA (Chicago Tribune)
12. MAURICIO MACRI, ARGENTINA’S NEW PRESIDENT (Financial Times)
13. MAURICIO MACRI VOWS NEW ECONOMIC ORDER IN ARGENTINA (Financial Times)
14. ARGENTINA FEVER BACK AS MACRI WINS ELECTION (Financial Times)
15. PRESIDENT MACRI FACES A TOUGH TASK IN ARGENTINA (Financial Times)
16. MAURICIO MACRI TO URGE MERCOSUR TO BAR VENEZUELA (Financial Times)
17. ARGENTINA ELECTION RESULT SINKS SOYABEANS (Financial Times)
18. ARGENTINE BONDS RALLY, STOCKS FALL AFTER MACRI TAKES PRESIDENCY (Bloomberg News)
19. ARGENTINE FARMERS SET TO UNLEASH $8 BILLION OF STORED CROPS (Bloomberg News)
20. ARGENTINA’S COMEBACK WILL BE OVERSOLD (Bloomberg View)
21. ARGENTINE PRESIDENT-ELECT PLANS OVERHAUL OF ECONOMY MINISTRY Bloomberg News)
22. VENEZUELA OPPOSITION CHEER MACRI’S ARGENTINA PRESIDENTIAL WIN (Reuters News)
23. ARGENTINA PRESIDENT-ELECT MACRI URGES CENTRAL BANK OFFICIALS TO STEP DOWN (Reuters News)
24. ARGENTINA ASSETS GAIN AFTER MACRI TOPPLES PERONISTS (Reuters News)
25. WHAT A MAURICIO MACRI VICTORY HOLDS FOR ARGENTINA’S INVESTMENT CLIMATE (Forbes)
26. SHOCK THERAPY AWAITS ARGENTINA AS MACRI BREAKS THE KIRCHNERS’ GRIP (Fortune)
27. AFTER A CENTURY, THE CENTER-RIGHT RETURNS TO ARGENTINA (Foreign Policy)
28. ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: MAURICIO MACRI’S VICTORY MARKS A RIGHTWARD SHIFT FOR ARGENTINA—AND SOUTH AMERICA (The Economist)
29. 2015 ARGENTINE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SECOND-ROUND RESULT (The Economist)
30. OPPOSITION LEADER MACRI WINS ARGENTINA’S FIRST PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF (Voice of America)
31. ARGENTINA POLITICS: QUICK VIEW – MACRI WINS PRESIDENTIAL RUN-OFF (Economist Intelligence Unit – ViewsWire)
32. ARGENTINA’S MACRI FACES ROUGH ROAD (Dow Jones Institutional News)
33. MAURICIO MACRI ASKS FOR PATIENCE AFTER WINNING ARGENTINA ELECTION (Dow Jones Institutional News)
34. AS ARGENTINA VEERS RIGHT, WILL OTHERS NOW FOLLOW? (Investor’s Business Daily)
35. FIVE KEY INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS FOR THE MACRI ERA (Business News Americas)
36. ARE CHANGES COMING TO ARGENTINA’S MINING SECTOR? (Business News Americas)
37. ARGENTINA STOCKS RALLY AFTER ELECTION, THEN FADE (Investor’s Business Daily)
38. BRAZIL TRADE MINISTER SAYS NEW ARGENTINA LEADER ‘MUSIC TO OUR EARS’ (Reuters News)
39. VENEZUELA OPPOSITION CHEER MACRI’S ARGENTINA PRESIDENTIAL WIN (Reuters News)
40. PRESIDENT-ELECT PROMISES A NEW FUTURE FOR ARGENTINA (NPR: Morning Edition)
41. MACRI NARROWLY WINS ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (UPI)
42. FRONTIER MARKETS: ARGENTINA TURNS RIGHT, HOPEFULLY (NASDAQ)
43. ARGENTINA’S TEARS OF JOY WILL PROBABLY BE SHORT-LIVED (The American Spectator.org)
45. ANALYSIS: MACRI VICTORY IN ARGENTINA MARKS SETBACK FOR IRANIAN AMBITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA (The Tower org)
46. ARGENTINA’S NEW-MAN MACRI MEANS BUSINESS (PanamPost)
47. WHAT TO EXPECT OF ARGENTINA’S NEW PRESIDENT (CATO Institute)
1. ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT-ELECT INHERITS LARGE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS (The Washington Post)
By Peter Prengaman
November 23, 2015
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine President-elect Mauricio Macri on Monday prepared to confront myriad problems in Latin America’s third largest economy, including soaring prices and high government spending that are a legacy of outgoing President Cristina Fernandez.
Macri, fresh off his historic election win late Sunday, began laying out how he would achieve some of the promises that helped him put an end to 12 years of “Kirchnerismo,” a movement aligned with the poor led by Fernandez and her late husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner.
Macri, the outgoing mayor of Buenos Aires who will assume the presidency Dec. 10, said a key task is just spelling out the true nature of problems such as 30 percent inflation and government spending that many private economists warn is not sustainable.
“Argentina today doesn’t have credible information on the economy,” said Macri, criticizing the Fernandez administration for widely discredited statistics on everything from inflation to poverty rates. “We need to know the real state of public accounts.”
Macri said that instead of a single economy minister, he would build a cabinet with six ministers assigned to specific areas of the economy.
Such a structure is in line with Macri’s technocratic approach, which emphasizes decisions based on data analysis and efficiency over style. It also cuts a sharp contrast with Economic Minister Axel Kicillof, a top official in the Fernandez administration who wielded enormous power over key policies, such as the decision not to negotiate with a group of creditors in the U.S. that took Argentina to court in New York and won.
Macri reiterated his promise to lift unpopular restrictions on buying U.S. dollars and thus eliminate a booming black market for foreign currencies that creates distortions in the economy. He said the restrictions were an error that impeded growth, but did not provide details on his next steps to address the system.
Lifting restrictions would likely lead to a sharp devaluation of the Argentine peso, which officially trades at 9.5 to the U.S. dollar but on the black market is around 16 pesos.
With foreign reserves around $26 billion, low for such a large economy, Macri’s administration would need a quick infusion of dollars to keep the government afloat and meet the demand of Argentines looking to trade their pesos.
That could come from many different international economic bodies, but ultimately would require some fast reforms to signal that structural changes to the economy are forthcoming.
Macri will also likely encounter fierce resistance in Congress, where he doesn’t have majorities in either chamber. The makeup of Congress, filled with many Fernandez loyalists including her son, is particularly important for the long-standing debt spat with a group of creditors in the U.S.
By law, Congress has to approve any measures regarding the country’s debt. The Fernandez administration refused to negotiate despite repeated rulings by a U.S. federal court judge against Argentina, a stance that ultimately kept the South American nation from accessing international credit markets.
The close finish in Sunday’s historic runoff — Macri got 51.4 percent of the vote compared to 48.6 percent for Scioli — will embolden ruling party stalwarts to question his moves.
“It was practically a tie,” said Fernandez’s Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez, adding that the ruling party “will be preparing to return to power.”
Macri’s own background and the bruising campaign could feed into Argentina’s political polarization after more than a decade of left-leaning government.
He hails from one of the country’s most prominent families and rose to fame as president of the popular Boca Juniors soccer club.
Ruling party candidate Daniel Scioli frequently attacked Macri, saying he would subject this nation of 41 million people to the market-driven policies of the 1990s, a period of deregulation that many Argentines believe set the stage for the financial meltdown of 2001-2002.
Despite the challenges, Macri’s win signals a clear end to the era of Fernandez and her late husband. During their years in office, the power couple gained both popularity and sharp criticism by spending heavily on programs for the poor, raising tariffs to protect local economies and increasing government involvement in all walks of life — much of which Macri wants to roll back.
Macri has also made clear that he’ll break from some of the previous administration’s alliances, such as its close relationship with Venezuela.
On Monday, he reiterated his promise to push to expel Venezuela from the South American trade bloc known as Mercosur because of the jailing of opposition leaders. That would be a huge change for a continent where many countries, including neighbors Chile, Brazil and Bolivia, have left-leaning democratic governments that have maintained close ties with Venezuela.
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2. EDITORIAL: MAURICIO MACRI IS CONSERVATIVE CHANGE IN ARGENTINA (The Washington Times)
24 November 2015
There’s something hopeful to sing about in the Argentine. The election of Mauricio Macri, 56, the center-right mayor of Buenos Aires, as the new president is an attempt — the latest — to write permanent finis to the Peronista epoch in the nation’s history.
Juan Peron and his shrewish and beautiful wife, Eva (aka Evita), ruled the country for less than a decade, 1946 to 1955, but his presence and then Evita’s, have cast a long shadow across the country since. Senor Macri, in fact, who campaigned for change and a return to market economics, once dedicated a statue to Peron. Endowed with enormous natural resources, the Argentine economy has often danced to the seductive music of the Peronistas.
At the turn of the 19th century Argentina was well on its way to replicating the living standards of Europe and the United States. From 1880 to 1905, expansion resulted in a dramatic growth in gross domestic product, with per capita income rising from 35 percent of the American per capita income to 80 percent. But the Great Depression took a toll, and by 1941 its GDP fell to about half that of the United States.
Peron, a devoted admirer of the European fascist dictatorships of the 1930s, was originally installed as president in a military coup, and appealed to the rapidly growing industrial work force. He pledged respect for workers and built a government-controlled Peronista union organization of 2 million workers. He attacked the legacy of the country’s corrupt oligarchic regimes, with their lip-service dedication to democracy, and courted the Argentine underclass, the “descamisados,” or “shirtless ones.” The glamorous Evita became a national and international icon, the toast of the beautiful people everywhere after she died in 1952.
Peron nationalized railroads, strategic industries and services, improved wages and working conditions, paid off the external debt and achieved nearly full employment. But the economy went into decline in 1950 because of the unsustainable rapid growth of Evita’s elaborate social welfare benefits, and with her death and a falling out with the military, Peron’s day in power ended abruptly. But for seven decades the Peron legacy dominated Argentine politics and even became something of a model for the rest of the continent.
Mr. Macri’s victory on Sunday now sends a signal throughout Latin America. Buenos Aires has long been an important cultural influence in the Spanish-speaking world, and his triumph is the most significant defeat of a candidate of the left in South America for more than a decade. He faces formidable obstacles, not least the memory of the example of President Carlos Menem, who in the 1990s attempted to correct the Peronista drift, privatizing state-owned utilities and cutting the size of the government. His free market program collapsed in 2002.
Mr. Macri proposes a formidable agenda. He wants to lift at once restrictions on imports and on U.S. dollars. He must tame inflation, surging at 30 percent annually, with devaluation of the currency. The president of the Central Bank, AlejandroVanoli, a Peronista, offers no help. He insists he will finish his term of office in 2019. Mr. Macri promised the powerful farm lobby that he would eliminate corn and wheat export taxes and a quota system, and he will have to redeem that promise amid a sagging world commodities market.
He enjoys popularity as a former executive of the Boca Juniors, a soccer term. Indeed, he once aspired to soccer stardom himself, and he was described during the campaign as the spoiled son of a rich Italian immigrant father. He is likely to face a hostile Congress. But if he succeeds it could be a turning point not only for Argentina, but for the continent.
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3. IN LATIN AMERICA, A COOLER HEAD PREVAILS AGAIN AT THE POLLS (The Washington Post)
By Joshua Partlow Irene Caselli
24 November 2015
BUENOS AIRES – The stereotypical Latin American leader of the past generation has been a firebrand populist who could deliver hours-long impromptu speeches on television, painted the United States as the source of all evil and had probably fought as a guerrilla in some steamy jungle.
That type of leader – think Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chà¡vez or Argentina’s Cristina Fernà¡ndez de Kirchner (minus the guerrilla experience) – is the opposite of Mauricio Macri, the understated engineer and Buenos Aires mayor who was elected president of Argentina on Sunday.
Macri’s win comes as further evidence that the often-cited “pink tide” of the Latin American left has started to ebb. Across the region, countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela that had joined forces to oppose the United States and “neoliberal” capitalism have seen their influence diminish as they battle economic challenges. The severe slump driven by low oil and commodity prices in the region’s leader and biggest economy, Brazil, has pushed ratings for President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla, into the single digits amid calls for her impeachment.
Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, a socialist ex-Sandinista guerrilla leader, is pro-business and beloved by Washington. Cuba is forging a rapprochement with the United States. A comedian with no political experience was just elected in Guatemala. Former Uruguayan president José Mujica, an ex-guerrilla famed for his ascetic lifestyle and liberal policies such as legalizing marijuana, was replaced by Tabaré Và¡zquez, a doctor. While support remains strong across the region for generous spending on social programs, the tone of the discourse has softened.
“You’re seeing this wave or tide or whatever you want to call it has run its course. They don’t have the economic sustenance to continue,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank. “This kind of fiery leftist rhetoric was a function of the economic situation, and that has changed dramatically for many of these countries.”
In Macri’s first step as president-elect, a low-key Monday morning news conference at a table flanked by his aides, he said he would seek to suspend Venezuela from the South American trade bloc Mercosur, citing human rights violations and limits on free speech. That represents a sharp break with Fernà¡ndez, the outgoing president, who has had close relations with Venezuela.
“To the brothers of Latin America and the whole world, we want to have a good relationship with all the countries,” Macri said in his victory speech. “The Argentine people have much to offer to the world.”
Macri comes across as a calm, fact-favoring engineer more interested in quietly tinkering with economic levers than addressing the masses in soaring palace-balcony speeches. His aides describe him as a shy, somewhat socially awkward man who took a while to adapt to the crowds on the campaign trail. Macri was no student militant in the Latin American mode; he has said he doesn’t even regularly read newspapers.
His appeal stems in part from his lack of a strong ideology – a sharp contrast to Fernà¡ndez’s fierce nationalism. Macri, a scion of one of the country’s richest families, headed the soccer team Boca Juniors and is serving his second term as mayor of Buenos Aires, where he is known for sprucing up the capital, bringing in art and music performances, and adding bus lanes.
“He’s the anti-Cristina,” said Diego Guelar, a foreign policy adviser to Macri. “He’s a doer. That would be exactly his ideology.”
Roberto Digon, who served alongside Macri at Boca Juniors before the two fell out over sales of players, said that Macri initially had trouble giving a speech or getting his ideas across but that he improved over time, in part because he wanted “to show his father that he was an important and capable person.”
“He must have undertaken some public speaking and presentation courses, because he was very weak politically and ideologically,” Digon said. “Macri was brilliant when it came to business. He was very capable. He learned about politics little by little.”
Guelar, a former Argentine ambassador to the United States and a potential candidate for foreign minister, said Macri’s first foreign policy priority would be building closer ties with Brazil, a neighbor and trading partner that Macri on Monday called “our most important partner of the future.” The incoming president’s team also wants to pursue a free-trade deal with the European Union. Another goal is to clarify some aspects of the relationship with China, including making public the terms of a Chinese-funded space observatory – to ensure that it won’t have any military use – and reviewing a plan for a Chinese-built nuclear reactor.
As far as the United States is concerned, Macri seeks to settle a creditor dispute over debts from the financial crisis and cultivate a warmer overall relationship including encouraging foreign investment. During Fernà¡ndez’s tenure, there were some bizarre episodes, such as in 2011 when Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman used a pair of nail clippers to open a case in the airport allegedly containing secret U.S. military codes.
Guelar said there would likely be the “normal conflicts of a normal agenda that you share with a partner and a friend,” such as trade disputes over whether Argentine oranges or meat would be allowed into the United States.
“What’s going to change is the American Embassy is not going to be the embassy of an enemy,” he said.
Macri’s chief strategist and campaign manager, Marcos Peña, added in an interview that “there are no reasons for us to have bad relations with the United States.”
“There can be a mature relationship of friendship, with a joint agenda to exchange and grow together,” he said. “The world is an opportunity, not a threat.”
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4. REVIEW & OUTLOOK (EDITORIAL): REVIVING ARGENTINA (The Wall Street Journal)
24 November 2015
History is replete with great nations that decline into tragic despotism and poverty, but less common is the story of national revival and renewed prosperity. The latter is the challenge for Argentina’s new President-elect Mauricio Macri, who swept away 12 years of Peronist rule on Sunday in some rare good news for global freedom.
The Buenos Aires Mayor has a heroic task ahead, with an economy in recession and 25% annual inflation. Yet Argentines deserve credit for showing more fight than Brazilians and Venezuelans have in shaking off left-wing populism. Restoring Argentina’s reputation for following the law will be crucial to reviving domestic confidence and attracting foreign capital, so allow us as friendly outsiders to offer some suggestions.
Start with a credible probe into the suspicious death of Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor who was investigating the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85 people. He indicted seven Iranians for the crime and alleged that President Cristina Kirchner’s government was involved in a cover-up of Iran’s role.
In January, the day before he was to present his findings to the Argentine congress, Nisman was found dead in his apartment with a bullet through his head. Mrs. Kirchner’s government has sullied the probe into his death by trashing Nisman’s reputation and initially calling it a suicide. Maybe it was, but Argentines deserve a finding by someone untainted by the Kirchner clique.
Argentina also needs to restore its credibility in global capital markets, and it can start by settling with creditors who hold claims totaling more than $15 billion from the country’s 2001 default. This fight has turned into an international legal brawl, with Mrs. Kirchner denouncing “vultures” for the sin of wanting their contracts honored.
It’s in the interest now of Mr. Macri and the U.S. bondholders at Elliott Management, among others, to find a financial compromise. This could mean the issuance of new bonds, but the key point is that Argentina needs to show it wants to clean up its debt sheet and honor international lending mores. Then it will be able to return to global capital markets for the investment it needs to grow.
Investors also need impartial Argentine courts to protect their property rights, and Mr. Macri can stop the Kirchner habit of politicizing the judiciary. When Mrs. Kirchner wanted to nationalize the Spanish oil company Repsol she alleged that it was not keeping its investment obligations. The company denied the charge, but it had no hope of winning in Argentine courts. Mr. Macri wants investors to return to develop the country’s huge oil reserves, and one place to start would be revisiting the Repsol robbery.
Much of Latin America took a bad left detour 15 or so years ago, and it’s too early to know if Mr. Macri’s victory signals a larger movement back to free markets. But he can make such a shift more likely by showing that a return to the rule of law is essential to restoring broad prosperity.
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5. MAURICIO MACRI ASKS FOR PATIENCE AFTER WINNING ARGENTINA ELECTION (The Wall Street Journal)
By Taos Turner
Nov 23, 2015
Victory by the conservative mayor of Buenos Aires seen as turn away from 12 years of leftist rule.
BUENOS AIRES—The conservative mayor of this capital, Mauricio Macri, asked Argentines to give him time to address the country’s economic problems after winning Argentina’s presidential election.
Mr. Macri, the candidate of the Let’s Change opposition coalition, narrowly beat his opponent, Gov. Daniel Scioli of the ruling Victory Front party, getting 51.4% of the vote to Mr. Scioli’s 48.6% after more than 99% of the votes had been counted.
“I ask for you to have some patience,” Mr. Macri said at a press conference early Monday. “Do not leave me alone.”
He said Argentina’s official economic statistics are unreliable and that his team will need to take office and obtain a better assessment of the country’s macroeconomic situation before it can implement key policy decisions.
“We have to get the country up and running again and fix the things that need fixed,” Mr. Macri said. “The currency controls we have were a mistake, we don’t have access to trustworthy statistics and the central bank is not independent. These are things we’re going to fix and in the coming days we will move ahead on them.”
Mr. Macri said that, unlike previous presidents here, he would not appoint an all-powerful economy minister and that instead he would name an economic cabinet comprising six ministers who would handle issues ranging from finance to infrastructure. He said he would be putting the team together over the next two weeks.
Mr. Macri’s win was seen as a rejection of departing leader Cristina Kirchner’s interventionist economic policies and a turn to the right after 12 years of leftist rule.
His winning platform resonated with an electorate weary of a stagnant economy and high inflation. Mr. Macri, 56 years old, promised to revive the economy after a drop in commodities prices halted growth and rising government spending fueled inflation. The country faces recession next year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
“He will open up the economy and be very welcoming to foreign investors and domestic investors,” said Susan Segal, president of the New York-based Council of the Americas, a policy group that closely follows business issues here. She offered praise for Mr. Macri’s economic advisers. “They understand the world and they understand why it is important for Argentina to be integrated into the global economy.”
Mr. Scioli came out on top in the first round of voting on Oct. 25, but didn’t get enough support to win outright. Just before the first-round vote, pollsters had predicted he could win the final runoff as well. But Mr. Macri received far more support than expected in the first round, triggering a runoff. He then took the momentum from Mr. Scioli.
Mr. Macri has signaled that he aims to improve frayed ties with the U.S.
“We want to have good relations with all countries,” he said. “We expect to build an international agenda based in cooperation.”
He said he would seek to have Venezuela expelled from the Mercosur trading block because of political prisoners jailed in that country, a position that would make him the first Latin American leader to call for tough action against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Other countries in the region—most of them led by leftist governments—have remained silent about alleged rights abuses of Mr. Maduro’s opponents.
Mr. Scioli, 58, governor of Buenos Aires province and Mrs. Kirchner’s choice to succeed her, had said he would maintain the various social programs—from pensions for poor laborers to support for worker cooperatives—created by the Kirchner administration.
But pollsters said Argentines were disillusioned by rising crime and weary of what they see as a combative government that had polarized this country of 40 million.
Carlos Salcedo, 54, who described himself as a common laborer, said corruption—frequently covered in newspapers—as well as high food prices and crime were among his main concerns.
“They just think of themselves,” he said of the ruling Victory Front coalition. “That is why I voted for change.”
Mr. Macri, a wealthy businessman who for 12 years headed the famed Boca Juniors soccer club here, will have to confront a host of economic problems.
Central-bank reserves are at a nine-year low. Argentina can’t access international credit and inflation is the second highest in Latin America. Mrs. Kirchner recently added loyal ruling-party members to a government payroll that economists say is bloated. She has also encouraged the sale of U.S. dollar derivatives by the central bank to contain rising demand for greenbacks, a move Mr. Macri’s advisers say could cost the country billions.
While voting, Mrs. Kirchner defended the administration’s accomplishments since her late husband and predecessor Néstor took over the presidency in 2003.
“There has never been a period in government with such tangible economic progress,” Mrs. Kirchner told reporters at a polling station in her Patagonian hometown of Rio Gallegos. “It would be painful to see these achievements being eroded.”
Mrs. Kirchner’s allies in her Peronist movement have warned that the coming of Mr. Macri would mean deprivation, unemployment and economic disaster, assertions he denied.
They also reminded voters that under non-Peronists—in 1989 and 2001—Argentina was rocked by economic calamity and social turmoil.
Buenos Aires schoolteacher Laura Lemes recalled budget cuts by Mr. Macri in his time as mayor.
“Teachers in the capital went through a lot of suffering,” she said. “We had to stage a very tough fight to secure wage increases. He thinks we are ranch hands.”
Mr. Macri, who has been sharply critical of Mrs. Kirchner’s handling of the economy, has promised extensive changes. He has said he would negotiate with foreign bondholders who have sued Argentina for failing to repay billions of dollars—a plan Mrs. Kirchner has publicly criticized. He also vowed to scrap currency controls that have generated a thriving black market for dollars.
Mr. Macri’s victory would have been a surprise just a month ago. Some pollsters then had predicted Mr. Scioli could win the first-round vote on his way to succeeding Mrs. Kirchner, who steps down Dec. 10.
He still could have won in this round. But in a debate between the two men in mid-November, Mr. Scioli failed to score the victory analysts said he needed to kick-start a faltering campaign.
Polls show that the high disapproval rate that had long dogged Mr. Macri, who was derided by some voters for his patrician background, dissipated in recent weeks.
Mr. Macri also avoided discussing specific policy adjustments, which scare Argentines concerned that broad overhauls of the economy will hurt them. Instead, he had focused on how he would bring efficient government and economic growth.
“We can live in an Argentina without poverty, where we can all aspire to have our own homes with running water and a sewage system,” Mr. Macri said on Thursday.
The messages appealed to people like Leon Tobal, 52.
“I got tired of this government, especially the lack of security,” he said, speaking of Mrs. Kirchner’s government. He said the shop he runs has been robbed three times in a month and that he had seen increased poverty, leading him to vote for Mr. Macri.
Another voter, Nestor Shenkis, 33, said he chose Mr. Macri, too, because of the inflation.
“They gave me a raise in January, but the costs nearly doubled,” he said. “Yesterday I went to buy bread and it rose 20%” over the previous week.
More than 60% of voters believed that Mr. Macri had “moved his platform to the center,” according to a recent poll by Buenos Aires-based Consultora Wonder. That helped attract voters who are traditionally close to Argentina’s Peronist movement.
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6. ARGENTINA’S PRESIDENT-ELECT MACRI PROMISES AN END TO DIVISIVE POLITICS (The Christian Science Monitor)
By Jonathan Gilbert, Correspondent
November 23, 2015
Opposition candidate Mauricio Macri won Sunday’s presidential election. But his fight’s not over as the outgoing president’s party retains a strong grip on the levers of power.
Buenos Aires — Mauricio Macri has upended Argentina’s political establishment by defeating the ruling leftist party, in power for more than 12 years, in Sunday’s election.
Mr. Macri, the scion of an influential family and a former president of a popular soccer clubs, tapped into a groundswell of support among voters fatigued by the abrasive leadership of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
“A totally new form of politics has emerged,” says Carlos Germano, an independent political analyst. He said Macri would bring a style of leadership based on building consensus.
In a news conference on Monday, Macri hinted at this new political culture. “The plan is to govern for everyone,” he said, adding that he would seek cross-party dialogue. “Progress,” he said in his victory speech hours earlier, “will not be the result of one enlightened person,” alluding to President Kirchner and other past leaders seen as centralizing power in the presidency and diminishing the role of other branches of the government
That said, Argentina’s Peronist party movement, which includes Kirchner’s party, has dominated politics here for seven decades. And outsiders like Macri have typically struggled to govern: Twice since Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983, non-Peronist leaders have exited prematurely. Macri, who takes office on Dec. 10, will have to broker deals with a Peronist-dominated Congress, Peronist governors, and influential trade unions also aligned with the movement.
“He’s the fresh breath of air that Argentina needs,” says Macarena Martínez, a dentist who was celebrating the election result late Sunday night. “But it’s going to be tough. I hope the Peronists channel their energy to build a better country.”
Shock-therapy politics
Macri won with 51.4 percent of the vote in Sunday’s runoff election, beating Daniel Scioli, who ran as Kirchner’s successor. Macri has promised market-oriented reforms to revive the economy. These could include a currency devaluation, lower energy subsides, and easing protectionist policies like currency controls. He is also likely to distance Argentina from Latin America’s hard-left governments like that of Venezuela.
But his small margin of victory means he must be cautious about the speed and depth of any economic reforms that cause short-term pain. His mandate for change is less than he would have hoped for, analysts say.
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