Martín Guzmán , a 37-year-old academic who has been installed in New York for years, will be the man in charge of taking the Argentine economy out of the crisis next week. The announcement was made by President-elect Alberto Fernández , which will happen on Tuesday in office to Mauricio Macri.
"Martín Guzmán comes from the university elite of the United States. It is a great joy that Martin has agreed to leave New York and come to Buenos Aires to take charge of the Argentine economy," Fernandez said when presenting it during a press conference in Buenos Aires. . "I have enormous confidence in him, he is a young man, very prepared . We have been working together on this problem for several weeks (that of external debt)."
Fernández, at the head of a coalition that groups Peronism and left-wing sectors, shaped a cabinet made up of 21 ministers , only four of them women. The economy, which for a large part of the Macri government was divided into multiple ministries, will focus on two hands: the Minister of Economy, Guzman, and the Minister of Productive Development, Matías Kulfas.
Disciple of the Nobel Prize in Economics Joseph Stiglitz , Guzmán is a specialist in restructuring sovereign debts, and is the intellectual author of the decision with the greatest impact at the beginning of the Fernández government: no more money will be requested from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the debt will be renegotiated to avoid paying both capital and interest for at least two years.
"The central problem facing the country is the debt. If it does not solve it, there will be no way to implement a macroeconomic program that allows it to recover," Guzmán said recently during an interview with "Clarín." "It is imperative to roll back due dates. Not only capital should be included but also interest. Argentina needs a much more elaborate and complex negotiation than that of other countries. And we must go to a primary fiscal surplus, because that is the condition to stabilize Debt".
Beyond Guzmán, Fernández shaped a government with a large majority of men, highlighting the appointment of Felipe Solá , an expert on agricultural issues and former governor of the province of Buenos Aires, as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The president-elect managed to fulfill his goal of not announcing the name of his ministers until he was close to assuming power; I wanted to avoid premature wear . He appeared with the 21 bosses of each portfolio behind him, in addition to other positions, and with the notorious absence of the elected Vice President Cristina Kirchner, who was the one who appointed Fernández as candidate for president.
Fernández mentioned several times to the late Nestor Kirchner , of whom he was chief of staff between 2003 and 2007, but not once to his widow and next vice president, of which he was chief of cabinet between 2007 and 2008 before resigning.
The closest thing he was to mentoring his formula partner was when he announced Carlos Zannini as the new attorney of the Treasury, the head of state law, who was the secretary of Legal and Technical of Cristina Kirchner and spent 107 days in prison: "To be clear, nobody imposed it on me."
The next president, who announced the creation of a Federal Social Policy Council , said his immediate priority will be to attack the high poverty rate, which is around 40 percent of the population.
"We are going to face a new challenge, to receive a country with 41 percent poverty ... One looks for solid foundations there and fails to find them. If there is going to be a privileged person in Argentina, it will be that man and that woman who has fallen into the poor. We are going to help them. "
Fernández also referred to very specific aspects of his economic ideology in announcing the new head of Agriculture, Luis Basterra: "The most important thing in the coming times is to bring dollars to Argentina. That is why I have raised the rank of ministry to the farming".
He also ruled out freezing prices - "we do not need to freeze prices or irresponsible people who raise prices for doubts" - and praised his chief of staff, the young Santiago Cafiero: "Santiago has the necessary condition to be chief of staff, to be the alter ego of the president. Santiago is. "
The impending Argentine head of state said the IMF is very aware of his plans . "With the Monetary Fund we are already working. It is a work that must be done silently and we have been doing it for weeks."
Fernández questioned Thursday's statement by outgoing president, Macri, who said he will deliver a country with solid bases, despite inflation of 55 percent and the recession in which the economy is: "I wish I received the country of which the President, but I will receive a different country. "
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