Given the weak state of the political opposition in Argentina today, it has become evident that the biggest threat to the government is not coming from the outside, but from within the Kirchnerist ranks.

Kirchnerism, like Peronism, is an ideologically broad movement held together by pragmatic interests and strong leadership. Progressive and conservative forces coexist in a delicate balance that anything, like the upcoming elections or personal interests, can upset.

Hugo Moyano talk with the press. (Photo: Santiago Trusso)

After two years of mounting tension, the leader of the CGT umbrella union, Hugo Moyano, finally broke ranks and made his move to the opposition explicit. There has been much speculation as to the reasons why Moyano and President  Cristina Fernández de Kirchner grew apart. From pseudo-psychological explanations about her blaming him for her husband’s death (apparently, Kirchner and Moyano had a heated argument the night before he died) to more politically significant ones about Moyano’s own aspirations.

Moyano’s CGT was an important ally of both Kirchnerist governments, even at their most difficult times during the campo crisis. In true Peronist fashion, unionism became one of the ‘legs’ the Kirchnerist project stood on. However, history shows that the relationship between unions and politics has never been as smooth as politicians would like.

From the frustrated attempts in the 1960s by CGT leader Augusto Vandor to create an ‘autonomous Peronism’ during Perón’s exile, to the deadly wounds inflicted on unionism by former president Carlos Menem in the 1990s, many examples illustrate what historian Ezequiel Meler calls an “historical tension”.

Encouraged by the strategic alliance between the first Kirchnerist government and the unions, and by the leading role the latter gained after a decade of decline, Moyano decided it was time to raise the stakes. Increasingly, he moved from making strictly union-related demands, to a more political discourse. He suggested that it would be good to have “a worker as a vice-president”, and pushed to have unionists included in the ballots for deputies in last year’s election.

The president’s refusal to open up the game to unionists before the election led to an escalation of this “historical tension”, which culminated with Moyano’s break-up with the official CGT and his defiant call for a general strike and manifestation at Plaza de Mayo on 27th June.

The long-awaited break-up, however, has not proven favourable for Moyano so far. His display of strength on the 27th June rally backfired, as he did not receive the support he was expecting from other unions. His ideological limits and bad public image have, so far, rendered him unable to become a unifying figure for the opposition and make the jump from unionism to party politics.

With Moyano’s political threat seemingly neutralised, loyal Kirchnerists have focused their attention on another, much bigger internal menace: Buenos Aires province governor Daniel Scioli. When on 12th May he mentioned his intentions to run for president in 2015, alarm bells started ringing within Kircherism. The recent spat between the national government and Scioli’s administration over the economic crisis in Buenos Aires province was the preview of a war that has, for the time being, remained cold.

A product of the 90s, Scioli started his political career with Carlos Menem, and became Néstor Kirchner’s vice-president in 2003 thanks to Eduardo Duhalde’s support. For many progressive Kirchnerists, he does not belong to “the project”. He is seen as a Trojan horse for the neo–liberal right, who cannot be trusted. More worryingly, he has very high approval ratings and would today beat anyone in an election, except for Cristina.

The lack of an “ideologically suitable” successor for the current president is the main issue Kirchnerism is facing at the moment. Cristina cannot run for another term without a constitutional reform, for which the vote of two thirds of congress is needed. Many government supporters hope those two thirds can be obtained next year with a good result in the legislative elections. However, Cristina herself has not made any mention about reforming the constitution and running for a third term. She has, in fact, made remarks that suggest the opposite.

It is likely that the idea of constitutional reform will not be denied or confirmed until the last minute though, as doing so earlier (especially ruling it out) could result in an accelerated loss of power for Cristina. In the meantime, Kirchnerists speculate over the possible options for 2015, which at the moment are mainly three: a re-election; the emergence of a new leader that can be anointed as Cristina’s successor (following the example of Dilma and Lula in Brazil); or a pact with Scioli by which he would be allowed to run for president, but remaining heavily conditioned by “true” Kirchnerists.

They fear that a failure to reach one of these solutions and win the 2015 election could mean the end of the “Kirchnerist model”, not at the hands of the opposition, but of one of their own.

The Association of State Workers (ATE) announced today that they will stop work next Thursday, 13th September, and congregate outside Buenos Aires City Government buildings in protest of recent government reforms.

The concentration of the demonstration will be held outside the Ministry of Modernization after they recently brought forward a provision, which would have required the workers of public offices to ask permission to create assemblies, this was however suspended by a judge last Monday.

“[The suspension of this by a judge] gives us the right to reject provision 40 of the Ministry of Modernization which was intended to allow them to decide whether or not we can make assemblies in our own workplaces,” said Humberto Rodríguez, the secretary general of the ATE this morning.

The workers are also striking against what they call the “persecution of state workers,” and a “precarisation at work.” Precarisation is defined as an increasing change of previously guaranteed permanent employment conditions into mainly worse paid and uncertain jobs. They also want to reopen negotiations with the government in regards to salary increases.

“In previous negotiations the [government] put forward a clause to reopen talks in August if inflation rose sharply, but there’s been no sign of [reopening negotiations],” said Rodríguez.

Rodríguez had previously threatened a strike on the 28th August when he said that “the province of Buenos Aires is an immensely rich province and as demonstrated by previous strikes, when workers mobilize silver appears.”

Rodríguez warned that there is a “criminalization of social protests in the city of Buenos Aires,” and that the decision of the city government is a “severe media siege.” He requested “there is respect for the laws and judgments of the Justice,” because, “[the government] cannot continue to persecute those who think differently, that is exercising arrogance and authoritarianism.”

Rodríguez made the announcement this morning in a press conference held at the trade union’s headquarters on Carlos Calvo 1378.

After nearly half a century of conflict, the Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and the left-wing guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), signed an agreement to initiate peace talks in Havana, Cuba.

The peace talks will formally begin in October in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, before delegates will return to Havana to sit down and negotiate “with the aim of not leaving the table until a peace accord has been signed which will put an end to the nearly 50 years of conflict”, said Jorge Enrique Botero, of TeleSUR.

Botero confirmed that the peace process had begun in May when secret conversations began in Havana, coordinated by the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Norway.

The conflict began in 1964, when FARC, a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organisation picked up arms against the government of the time. The organisation has forces numbering around 18,000. The on-going conflict has led to the displacement of over two million Colombians, one of the highest rates of internally displaced people in the world.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (courtesy of Wikipedia)

When Cristina Fernández de Kirchner won last year’s presidential election with a landslide 54% of the votes, it was not only the amount of support but how far she was ahead of her competitors that made the victory so impressive.

The 46% of the votes she did not win were split between six opposition parties, with second-placed Frente Amplio Progresista (FAP) obtaining a meagre 17%. It was a pretty good reflection of the situation of government and opposition at the time.

After the government lost its parliamentary majority due to a disastrous result in the 2009 election, the opposition did not manage to live up to the expectations placed upon it. Renamed “Group A”, the illusion of a strong, coordinated opposition capable of snatching the political initiative from a weak government quickly faded away. It soon became evident that, unable to set a common agenda, the only thing holding “Group A” together was its animosity towards the government. To paraphrase Borges, they were not united by love, but by horror.

The lack of initiative and fragmentation of the opposition were apparent in the poor performance of an almost paralysed Congress throughout 2010 and 2011, when only 70 and 65 bills were passed respectively, well below the ten-year average of 116.

And so we arrived at October 2011. In the two years since the fateful 2009 election, the government managed to regain control of the agenda, aided by its own initiative, the shock caused by the death of former president Néstor Kirchner, and the lack of a serious and organised political opposition.

It only takes a quick look around, however, to realise that there is an important, and very vocal, sector of society that does not feel represented by the government. As opposition is an integral part of democracy, the question of who represents those people is one that must be asked.

It has become quite evident for many in the past few years, specifically since the campo crisis of 2008, that the weakness of opposition parties has resulted in certain economic groups affected by governmental policies taking political matters into their own hands. At the forefront of this new opposition are those with the most influence on public opinion: the media corporations.

The 'cacerolazos' in Plaza de Mayo (Photo: Luciano Signorelli)

In Argentina, politics has become to a large extent a war between pro and anti-government media groups unabashedly campaigning for their own interests, without much regard for the traditional laws of journalistic ethics.

An interesting debate about the role of the media has since ensued, not only in Argentina, but also in Latin America and other parts of the world. The sanctity of journalism and its classic role as the “fourth estate” have been brought into question as big media groups are, analytically speaking, stripped bare and shown for what they mostly are: businesses. Powerful businesses, with political interests and a massive influence over public opinion and politicians alike.

There is a positive side to this situation, as nothing in a democracy should be immune to analysis, discussion, and criticism. Media groups have always had political and economic interests, and it is a positive thing that people have become more aware of this and can see through their supposed neutrality.

The obvious negative side is that businesses are not elected and are not accountable to society as politicians, government officials, union delegates, and other political institutions are. This is not exclusive to media businesses, as it is becoming clear all over the world that uncontrolled corporations are openly displacing elected politicians from their decision-making roles.

In Argentina, this situation has evolved from a more-or-less open support of certain media groups to specific political parties and candidates, to the current situation where they seem to have mostly given up on politicians altogether. Nowadays, it is journalists like Jorge Lanata with his Sunday TV show that seem to set the opposition’s agenda for the rest of the week.

The debilitating effect of such political weakness was demonstrated by the recent cacerolazos in Buenos Aires. They were small, unorganised gatherings of individuals without any clear direction or common ideas, other than a visceral rejection of the government. It is worrying that for many, being unorganised was seen as a virtue rather than a weakness.

A political movement without solid ideas and organisation is doomed to fail. And politics, like nature in Aristotelian physics, abhors a vacuum. If the vacuum left by a weak opposition is not filled by legitimate and solid political institutions, it is going to be filled by whoever has the power to impose their point of view.

This morning the Argentine Government published the controversial Resolution 3333 of the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP). Resolution 3333 effectively tightens the government’s control over the dollar.

The official release of Resolution 3333, published in the Official Gazette, breaks down the new law into several clauses. The first sets out the resolution to apply to subjects living in the country who are seeking to purchase foreign currency and orders them to officially register the transaction.

Information for the clause will be found through a service called the “consultation exchange transactions” found on the “travel abroad” option of www.afip.gob.ar.

The Federal Government will use the information for analysis and will offer it in real-time. The new legislation will come into effect tomorrow.

Senator Aníbal Fernández said today controls for foreign currency trading “are for the benefit of all Argentines.”

“If (a person) is being handed with money that is not declared, it cannot be bought,” said the former chief of staff. In recent weeks generated strong criticism and unease among investors and small and medium savers, hit by the restrictions.

Resolution 3333 should help to determine that the “money comes from a legal situation.”

Aníbal Fernández stressed, “Argentina has to make a lot of decisions that make all the Argentines in their trade balance, imports, exports and foreign exchange trading.”

In this regard, he noted “for each of the issues, there is a recipe” and postulated that the duty of making decisions should be that of the State.

“The reality is that at the end of the race, which is very short because the goal is short term, [the idea] is to solve the problems and go out to find that they fulfill the objectives for the benefit of all Argentines ” said the former chief of staff and current senator.

Transport Secretary, Juan Pablo Schiavi, announced this morning that it will be the State’s job to decide whether aeroplanes are fit to fly. This comes after ash from the Puyehue volcano in Chile continues to disrupt air travel at Ezeize and Aeroparque airports.

“We are definitely going to take state control in the next few weeks,” the Transport Secretary said during an interview with radio station ‘La Red’.

Schiavi explained that the plan will be put in place to make sure that a situation where companies have “differing” and “subjective” criteria will be avoided. Instead, all planes will be judged according to the same criteria.

“Airlines have very rigid and fixed security parameters,” he continued, “but it could be that one company takes a little more precautions than the rest.” He denied, however, that those companies allowing flights to go ahead were acting dangerously. “With this I don’t want to say that the companies that are flying are not taking precautions.”

Aerolíneas Argentinas y Austral had predicted that flights would resume this afternoon, after the National Meteorological Service (SMN) registered improvements in the bad conditions caused by the ash cloud emitted by the volcano.

The former president and late husband of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner will be remembered, and in 17,000 different ways.

The latest in a succession of tributes marking the one-year anniversary of Néstor Kirchner’s death, the presentation of thousands of documents gathered from the former president’s appearances at public events, currently on display in the Museo del Bicentenario, behind the Casa Rosada.

Positive, Peronist and mythical are three words that first come to mind.

Family photos line several walls of the exhibition (Photo: Shane Korpisto)

A Whole Lot of Néstor

The recently opened museum is part of the historical structure of the Casa Rosada, which, forming part of the original Fort of Buenos Aires, dates back to the 18th century. “Because we have a history, we can build a future,” President Fernández declared as the doors of the Bicentenario were opened for the first time in May 2011.

Following a routine security check, you’ll instantly find yourself in Néstor-world, where banners, photos, letters and videos beam from the white walls of the Bicentenario. “The idea was to unite. Unite voices, feelings, testimonies. Unite moments shared with Néstor Kirchner,” the exhibition proclaims.

Produced by government deputy, Fernando ‘Chino’ Navarro, and publisher, Jorge ‘Topo’ Devoto, the overwhelming display claims to be an overspill of material that Tochineki (Topo-Chino-Néstor Kirchner) productions received whilst collecting material for a forthcoming film, and just had to display to the public.

Explicitly political, this exhibition is as much a reflection on Argentine history as Néstor himself, given his fundamental role in shaping politics in the last decade. There’s no hiding the idolisation of a deceased icon, nor the direct connections made between him and all of humanity.

One of many unique press images on display (Photo: Shane Korpisto)

Néstor kicks a football. Néstor laughs with workers in a factory. Néstor holds his hand out of a train for the poor to shake. Néstor cradles an adorable baby. Néstor hugs one of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Néstor hugs Cristina.

“Still images are central to myth-making,” Juan Travnik, photographic advisor for ‘Néstor for All’, and a director of the San Martín Theatre Photo Gallery, told daily newspaper, Clarín. “The myth is built based upon a political project.”

This vast collection of images, sound bites and video clips give a clear indication of what the Néstor film, due to be released in March next year, will be comprised of.

A Much-Missed Néstor

On the recent anniversary of his death, 27th October, widowed President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner escorted her late husband’s remains to an impressive mausoleum in his home town of Rio Gallegos, and several statues and sculptures were unveiled in his honour, whilst leaders and public figures around Latin America paid homage.

There is no doubt about the mark Néstor has left on Argentina, or about the legend that tribute exhibitions such as this one are helping to create.

“It’s important to remember Néstor because he was a great president,” exhibition guide, Damien Luna, explains. “After the 2001 crisis, he changed the whole country.” “Yes,” a passer-by interrupts in agreement. “Even looked at objectively, he changed the entire country.”

Letters of thanks and mourning addressed to the former president (Photo: Shane Korpisto)

‘Gracias Néstor’ read the signs held by the public, photographed in mourning outside the Casa Rosada in 2010. Images of children, teenagers and the elderly holding flowers and hand-written messages round up the exhibition in an emotional finale; demonstrating what Néstor meant to the nation.

Though expectedly biased, a visit to ‘Néstor for All’ is informative, interesting and fundamental in understanding Argentine culture. It would be a shame to miss it.

Weeks after 11-year-old Candela Sol Rodríguez was kidnapped and murdered, the media have only just begun to move away from the case that captured the attention of the nation. But although six suspects remain in custody, police are still working to figure out who murdered the girl, and why.

Candela went missing on August 22nd, after which time the government deployed thousands of police officers, and a “48 hours for Candela” campaign brought celebrities and NGOs together in the search. She was found a week later by two cartoneras (rubbish collectors) who discovered her body in a bag in a trash dump.

The Argentina Independent hit the streets to find out what the public thinks of the coverage Candela’s case received and the government’s response. How well do locals think the press and the government responded to the Candela Case? And was the press coverage good or bad for the investigation?

Photos by Lili Kocsis

Erla, Clothing retailer, 60

The majority of journalists did a bad job because they focused on the family and the mother. No one can judge her until we know who is responsible. Even though the father is in prison the child doesn’t deserve what happened to her. The government doesn’t seem to have done such a bad job. It tried to look for the girl, but the police didn’t find the right lead. If the police had gotten on the right track faster, maybe it would have saved her life.

Germán, real estate employee, 34

What happened is a disaster. Sometimes the press seems very morbid and shows things that they don’t need to show, like when the child was inside the bag and they showed the mother seeing her. But it sells papers, that’s the problem.

Jose Alberto, Retired from Consruction materials Business, 65

The justice system has to be allowed to act first, and only afterwards can you or I or whoever get involved. Here the press distorted everything and now we don’t know who is at fault because today it’s the carpenter, tomorrow it’s the fruit seller, and we just don’t know. You listen to the news and every day it’s a different version.

Florencia, Housewife and student, 36

The government in this case seems to have acted as it should have. There are many suspects but we don’t know whether they are the real people at fault. But at least there has been movement, probably because we’re in election season. It gave the opportunity for the government to act and say ‘we’re against this.’

Estefania, student, 18

Thanks to the press they found out a bunch of things. People made calls and gave information. They put us all on alert as to who she was and where to go if we saw something. Every morning they said whether there had been a new clue, a new call. This seemed good to me because every day you learned something.

The government has announced a 22.7% increase in child benefits. Each child will now, therefore, receive $270 a month, as opposed to the original $220.

President Fernández first stated that “this meeting has the objective of complying with a policy that has been developing for a while and that constitutes one of the fundamental pillars of this model, which is social inclusion,” before announcing the increase that will constitute a further $2.2 million to be set aside from the annual State budget.

The AUH was introduced in 2009 for every child under the age of 18 for children whose parents are unemployed.
The upper limit of $270 will be granted to those whose parents earn up to and including $2,800 a year. This goes down to $204 for children in families earning between $2,800 and $4,000, and to $108 for those in the $4,000 to $5,200 category.

For disabled children benefits have risen to $1,080 from $880.

A leaked document published by WikiLeaks has revealed a confidential conversation between Argentine Lawmaker Gabriella Michetti and US ambassador to Argentina, Vilma Socorro Martínez regarding an “informal group” to develop “a common agenda” within the government and opposition parties.

According to the document Michetti believes President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government “has an hegemonic and non-democratic conception of power,” although she insists the Kirchnerite movement is far from over.

Members of the group named in the document include Civic Coalition lawmaker Alfonso Prat Gray, Salta governor Juan Manuel Urtubey, UCR leader Ernesto Sanz, and Supreme Court Judge Ricardo Lorenzetti.

Michetti stated: “most of the key opposition leaders are capable of reaching an agreement, except for Elisa Carrió”