• Economy: Eight years after YPF's expropriation, Argentina faces multi-million dollar losses

The Argentine government invoked today a new concept, "food sovereignty", explaining its intention to expropriate the fourth agro-export company in the country. "We have taken a step towards food sovereignty," said the president, Alberto Fernández, in a surprise press conference in which he made the announcement, critically received by sectors of the exhibition.

"The Vicentín Group has expressed a huge crisis and the national State is its main creditor. That is why we have ordered measures that have the purpose of rescuing that company so that it continues to function with its workers," explained Fernández, justifying the intervention of the State in the company and sending a bill to Parliament to expropriate it.

"We are making a strategic decision for the national economy," added the head of state. "All of the group's assets will become part of a trust fund, and we will entrust the management of that fund to YPF Agro", a YPF subsidiary, expropriated from Repsol in 2012 by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, today Fernández's vice president.

Vicentín has a debt of about 1,300 million dollars and declared himself unable to pay it. The agro-export complex is key to the economy of Argentina, one of the main agricultural producers on the planet, and the bankruptcy of the company implied a serious social problem in Argentina, a country that has been in recession for two years, a crisis that deepened in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

The opposition critically received the measure. "It is a lousy exit in terms of confidence to generate investment at a time when the economy needs certainty, the government is turning to Venezuela," deputy Luis Petri wrote.

Fernández did not hide his displeasure in the face of criticism: "The debate will have to take place in Congress. There they will have the opportunity to compare us with Venezuela, with hell and with all other things. Those who want to do it. I always say that there are two types of opponents: those who govern and those who write on twitter. "

The field, a power factor in Argentina, massively supported Mauricio Macri in his years in office, political analyst Augusto Salvatto told EL MUNDO: "But this movement in Argentina is dangerous, because unlike what happens in other countries , the State tends to stay forever in companies. "

Fernández rejected days ago that he supports a project by the Kirchner deputy Fernanda Vallejos that contemplates that the State should keep portions of companies that have been financially assisted by the coronavirus crisis. In turn, confirmation is expected next week of whether Argentina goes into suspension of payments or not for $ 66 billion that it owes to foreign private creditors.

The image of Fernández, who made the announcement accompanied by Senator Anabel Fernández Sagasti, Vice President Kirchner's right-hand man, bristled the skin of the opposition, irreconcilable in confrontation with the former president.

"This decision points to two key issues for the future post-pandemic: regulating the inflow of dollars, of the much-needed foreign exchange, which is something we lack, and the price of food," said analyst María Eugenia Duffaurd on the channel. of TN news.

Norberto Yahuar, former Minister of Agriculture of Cristina Kirchner, confirmed the analysis: the future state-owned company will aim to regulate prices in the domestic market. "The idea is that it can be used as a witness company that can contain the thousands of producers around . It is the defense of the Argentine table, of prices. It will be a reflection, a floor for producers to export its products. Vicentín produces biofuels, oils, textiles ... It is a company of enormous volume ".

The former high-ranking Kirchnerist included the decision in a strategic analysis related to the Covid-19 pandemic: "After a pandemic a famine comes, we must be prepared with what we can fundamentally do, which is to produce food."

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  • Venezuela
  • Mauricio Macri
  • Luis Planas
  • Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
  • Alberto Fernández
  • Argentina
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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