Yesterday, Congress passed a bill to nationalise currency printing company Compañía de Valores Sudamericana. According to the government, the printing of money should be the responsibility of the state. However vicepresident Amado Boudou is currently mired in a scandal with the company formerly known as Ciccone, prompting many to doubt the motives behind the decision.
We took to the streets to ask what the Buenos Aires public think about the controversial bill.
Portraits by Felipe de la Fuente.
Guillermo Godoy, 56, agricultural expert, Bragado
There are two main reasons I’m against the expropriation. First, we need to recognise the corruption of the government in relation to inflation which is increasing every month and galloping out of control. We need to understand what’s happening with inflation are recognise that there are problems and that we can’t rely on the mint to print money as is necessary.
Second, there is the issue of the corruption of Boudou which we saw yesterday in the national congress in the Senate. This was a situation which proved the hypocrisy of the government – it seems unbelievable that Boudou presided over a session about the expropriation of a company which he is thought to be guilty of having corrupt links to.
Maria Pecaldi, 61, retired, Saavedra
The Ciccone issue is another example of scheming behaviour from this government at an infamous level and has been done to disguise bigger scandals within the government. The only role that we as the public can play in this, the only thing we can do is to think carefully about how to vote in the future, it’s the only power we have here.
The Boudou scandal is yet another thing, I don’t think much else could surprise us in relation to him now. Unfortunately we are getting too familiar, and this is the worst thing, to the fact that everything is a mess. Look wherever, health, education, trains. Instead of increasing things we are cutting them. It all makes me very angry.
Fabián Acevedo, 46, architect, Zona Norte
I think that this is all very strange. It gives me the impression that things are being covered up, that this is an effort to hide something else that is happening behind the scenes. This is a political move to cover up the scandal with the economy minister Amandou Boudou.
I don’t think that the state should be taking control of a company which has had very shady links with the economy minister. I trust private companies a lot more to handle the printing of our money. I don’t think this is a good thing at all.
Christian Dojosoba, 26, anthropologist, San Telmo
Politics is all very complicated, particularly this. It’s difficult to know whether it’s a good or bad thing. In general completely agree with the principle of the state taking control of its own industries. It seems right to me that the national government should manage the printing of its own money. It shouldn’t be the responsibility of private companies.
I was in favour of the nationalisatoin of YPF. I think all countries should be able to manage their own resources and I thought that was a good thing. Though the situation here is a bit different. There are all the issues with Boudou and I’m not sure what I think about that scandal.
Cristina Uranoa, 43, music teacher, Microcentro
I think that this has been done to cover other things. It isn’t clean and it isn’t transparent. I don’t think the printing should be in the hands of the state. Maybe if it was done in a clean and transparent way and if it was handled well then yes, but this isn’t good. It seems very suspicious. It’s not that I think private companies should be trusted more in general but in this case I don’t think the government should have control.
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