2023-11-21 15:42:07
The elected president of Argentina, Javier Milei, has already begun to give the names of some of the people who will accompany him in his government cabinet, made up of eight ministries and who will begin to work alongside him, starting December 10.
The leader of the political movement Libertad Avanza, announced that the Ministry of Justice will be headed by criminal lawyer Mariano Cúneo Libarona and that his former candidate for governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, Carolina Píparo, will be the head of the National Social Security Administration (Anses).
“We are integrating specialists from various spaces, but with the conviction of changing Argentina towards the ideas of freedom. The most talented are going to be inside, it doesn’t matter where they come from, what matters is solving the problems of Argentines,” Milei said in statements to Radio Miter.
Who is Mariano Cúneo Libarona?
Cúneo Libarona is recognized in the country for having defended quite controversial figures for the country on the stands. His first case was in 1990, when he represented Guillermo Cóppola, former manager of Diego Maradona, after 400 grams of cocaine were found in his house.
Then came the case of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA). He defended two police officers accused of theft, after they allegedly stole a video recording from the judge’s office in which images of what happened could be seen, that Monday, June 18, 1994. When a car bomb explodes on the outskirts of the AMIA facilities. Taking this case made Cúneo Libarona spend three months in jail, until finally he and his attorneys were acquitted and regained their freedom.
He is also remembered for having represented the powerful businessman Eduardo Eurkenián, founder and president of Corporación América, where Milei worked for 15 years, and from whom the president-elect currently receives all the support.
“I honestly wish, Javier, that you have the opportunity to demonstrate to Argentine society that order, discipline, coherence is the only path that leads to the success of nations,” Eurnekian said on June 29, when he asked for the toast. by Milei, who was smiling next to him, in one of the campaign headquarters.
Who is Carolina Píparo?
Píparo is a national representative and during the October general elections she finished third in the vote for the Governor of the province of Buenos Aires, for which Axel Kicillof was re-elected.
She is a social worker and entered the world of politics when she began her career as a public official in the Secretariat of Victim Assistance and Gender Policies of La Plata, province of Buenos Aires.
During the government of Mauricio Macri, Píparo headed the list of provincial deputies in the Eighth Electoral Section in the 2017 midterm elections.
By 2021 and without much space in the Together for Change party, it decides to leave the community and join Libertad Avanza, the “libertarian” coalition, accompanying José Luis Espert on the list as the second candidate for National Deputy for the province. from Buenos Aires. Just as during that year, she also aspired to be governor for the party led by Mieli.
“No kid is born a criminal (criminal) is a cowardly slogan; It is a hypocritical phrase. Crime will go down when we work more in prisons,” she said in an interview with Clarín, during 2017, while blaming human rights organizations for “turning minors into murderers.”
She has been classified by Argentines as a person with a sharp and disruptive tongue, like Milei, as well as promoting hate speech in the country. Although, according to what she said to the aforementioned media, she “does not hate nor does she have expressions of hate” and that these kinds of issues “generate repudiation,” although at one point during her gubernatorial campaign, she described the members of Together for Change of “arrogance” and “being far from people and reality.”
With the arrival of Milei to power, the twelve ministries that Argentina currently has will be reduced to eight. It will retain the ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Public Works, Security, Justice, Interior, Defense and Human Capital, and will unify those of Social Development, Health, Labor and Education.
This last ‘super’ Ministry, which will integrate four portfolios into one, will be directed by Sandra Pettovello, a specialist in family policies on issues related to the health and development of children.
Milei Government Proposals
“Destroy” inflation and privatize: the ultra-liberal Javier Milei, elected president of Argentina in a resounding victory, began this Monday to define his first government measures to confront the economic crisis.
The high inflation, of more than 140% annually, will be a long fight that will require “between 18 and 24 months to destroy it and bring it to the lowest international levels,” he said in radio statements.
His first step will be to undertake a strong reform of the State that will include privatizations, he indicated.
“Everything that can be in the hands of the private sector is going to be in the hands of the private sector,” he declared, and pointed out among the companies to be privatized the oil company YPF and the state media.
“We are going to start first with the reform of the State, to put the public accounts in cash very quickly,” he added.
Transition
Milei must assume the presidency on December 10 for a four-year period, a ceremony to which he has already invited former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.
On the other hand, the current president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom Milei has disqualified as “corrupt” and “communist”, will not attend the investiture, according to a Brazilian government source.
Often compared to Bolsonaro and former US president Donald Trump for their extreme right-wing positions, Milei is opposed to abortion, legalized in Argentina in 2020, and denies that climate change is caused by human activity.
Trump was among the first world leaders to congratulate him on Sunday night. “I’m very proud of you. You will completely change your country and make Argentina great again,” he wrote in a message.
On the other side of the political spectrum, other leaders have harshly criticized him, as the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, did on Monday: “The extreme right-wing neo-Nazi won in Argentina. (…) To the Argentinians we say: you chose, but we are not going to remain silent, because the arrival of a right-wing extremist with a colonial project is a tremendous threat.”
A meeting with the outgoing president, center-left Peronist Alberto Fernández, is pending to begin the government transition.
Since 2003, Argentina has been governed by the Peronism of the current vice president and two-time president Cristina Kirchner, except for the period of the right-wing Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
“It has been shown that most Argentines want change,” Óscar Sario, a 68-year-old retiree, told AFP.
The president-elect announced that he will travel privately to the United States and Israel.
Economic goals
Milei’s victory did not have an immediate effect on the volatile Argentine markets, as Monday was a holiday. However, Argentine shares listed on Wall Street registered strong increases, especially those of the state oil company YPF, which rose 40.17% to $15.04 per share, compared to $10.73 on Friday.
In addition to YPF, which has been listed on the New York stock market since 1993, Telecom Argentina (23.22%), Grupo Financiero Galicia (17.20%) and the e-commerce company Mercado Libre (2.10%) also won.
In this area, Milei’s main economic challenges will be to lower inflation, balance public accounts, eliminate exchange controls and cut public spending. It proposes tougher goals than those of the International Monetary Fund, an organization with which Argentina has had an agreement for 44 billion dollars since 2018.
Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, congratulated Milei on Monday. “We look forward to working closely with him and his administration in the coming period to develop and implement a solid plan to safeguard macroeconomic stability and strengthen inclusive growth for all Argentines,” she wrote on the X social network.
Milei aims to end subsidies for public services and eliminate export taxes.
He also assured that he will promote the end of the exchange control established in 2019, but first he wants to pay off the debt issued by the Central Bank, through bonds.
Regarding the Central Bank, Milei reiterated that it will be suppressed “because it is a moral slogan: stealing is wrong.”
Regarding the idea of dollarizing the economy, it was more ambiguous this Monday. “The central axis is to close the Central Bank, then the currency will be the one that Argentines freely choose,” he stated.
Milei warned that he will begin his reforms immediately because “there is no room for gradualism, for lukewarmness or for half-measures.”
But it requires strong political support. Although he obtained an important vote in the partial parliamentary elections in October, his party La Libertad Avanza has only seven of the 72 senators and 38 of the 257 deputies, so it will depend on alliances.
In the runoff, Milei had the support of Macri and former candidate Patricia Bullrich, of the center-right coalition Together for Change, the second parliamentary force that was, however, cracked by this decision.
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