[R-P] Una opinión del NYT sobre Kirchner

[Julio Fernández Baraibar]

A continuación va, en inglés, el artículo publicado hoy, con foto, por el New York Times,
por su corresponsal en Buenos Aires, a propósito de la cancelación de la deuda con el
FMI.
Entre otras cosas sostiene:
"Desde su victoria electoral a la mitad de su mandato en Octubre, Mr. Kirchner se ha
movido hacia el establecimiento de una alianza con el líder populista de Venezuela y,
como un peronista tradicional a meter más profundamente la mano del estado en la
economía, el poder judicial y la prensa".
Siempre es bueno que el enemigo nos ayude a entender.
A continuación el artículo completo sin traducción.
Julio Fernández Baraibar
fernandezbaraibar en yahoo.com.ar


Dwindling Debt Boosts Argentine Leader 

By LARRY ROHTER
Published: January 3, 2006
BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 30 - Just four years ago, Argentina's economy was prostrate and its
politics in chaos, after a financial crisis resulted in bank deposits being frozen, the
government defaulting on more than $100 billion in debt and five presidents holding
office in two weeks. But on Tuesday, the country is expected to pay off the last of its
debt to the International Monetary Fund and simply walk away from further negotiations
with the group.
Argentina still owes tens of billions to private lenders, even after a debt restructuring
in March. But the $9.8 billion payment is an important symbolic milestone and just one of
several recent signs that President Néstor Kirchner appears to be concentrating more
power in his own hands and steering his government to the left. Since a midterm election
victory in October, Mr. Kirchner has also moved to establish an alliance with Venezuela's
populist leader, Hugo Chávez, and, as a traditional Peronist, to extend the hand of the
state deeper into the economy, the judiciary and the news media.

"With this payment, we are interring a significant part of an ignominious past," Mr.
Kirchner said recently, adding that the action would liberate Argentina from a
supervisory body that was making "more and more demands that contradict themselves and
economic growth." That position is popular here because many Argentines believe that the
I.M.F. is responsible for the policies that led to the economic crisis of 2001, and then
left the country to recuperate on its own.

Mr. Kirchner, 55, took office in May 2003 having won less than a quarter of the popular
vote. But he has erased memories of the crisis of 2001 and early 2002 and now enjoys
record levels of public support - 75 percent or more, according to recent polls - that
allow him to do largely as he pleases.

"Kirchner has resolved the problem of power and legitimacy" that the crisis created, "and
so has more margin to maneuver," said Juan Carlos Torre, a political scientist at
Torcuato di Tella University here who has written extensively on Peronism, the
nationalist movement formed in the mid-1940's by Juan Domingo Perón with strong
working-class support. "But instead of being more generous and open, he has become more
sectarian." 

Mr. Kirchner's popularity is mainly a result of three consecutive years in which the
economy has grown by an average of about 9 percent. That has left him and his team
confident, even cocksure: the presidential chief of staff, Alberto Fernández, told
reporters just before Christmas that although the government surely made some mistakes in
2005, he would be hard pressed to name one.

But an inflationary surge is now threatening, and Mr. Kirchner has responded in statist
fashion, trying to impose price controls on certain essential products. He first used
that weapon in March, when he urged Argentines to buy "nothing, not even a can of oil"
from Shell after company executives ignored his suggestion that they not raise prices.

Late in November, as a prelude to negotiations to control increases in food prices, he
blasted owners of two of the country's biggest supermarket chains, warning them to "stop
extorting us." Supermarkets then agreed to temporary price freezes that are to expire
early in 2006, but economists said they feared that the accords might be a prelude to
more systematic controls if inflationary pressures did not abate.

Complaints of official pressures on the news media are also growing. In a report on what
it called "indirect censorship," the Association for Civil Rights warned this month that
"the current government has made control of national media content a priority that it
pursues with systematic vigor, subjecting the media to a behind-the-scenes executive
siege." Most controversial of all, however, is Mr. Kirchner's plan, now before a Congress
that recently renewed his emergency powers over the economy, to overhaul the Council of
Magistrates, the 20-member panel that oversees the judiciary. Human rights groups and
opposition political parties say the plan, which would cut the number of members to 13,
is intended to give Mr. Kirchner greater control over judicial nominations.

"We believe this reform is unconstitutional and a step backwards," the executive director
of the Association for Civil Rights, Roberto Saba, said in an interview here, adding,
"There is a sensation that the government feels stronger and wants to make its authority
felt."



	


	
		
___________________________________________________________ 
1GB gratis, Antivirus y Antispam 
Correo Yahoo!, el mejor correo web del mundo 
http://correo.yahoo.com.ar