Crisis between Milei and the governors: "Not a single barrel of oil will go to Argentina"

Sebastian Fest Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Updated Saturday, February 24, 2024-09:42

On Friday night, Argentina

plunged into an institutional crisis of

unknown origins

, an open and public confrontation between President

Javier Milei

and a good part of the country's governors.

"We give the national government time until Wednesday. If they don't get the paw off of us on Wednesday, not one more barrel of oil will come out of Chubut for Argentina," the governor said loudly, surrounded by union members. Ignacio Torres.

The governor of the Patagonian province of Chubut demands a federal co-participation payment withheld by the national government.

While Torres points out that those 13.5 billion pesos (about 12 million euros) correspond to him, the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos, pointed out that this money was retained to pay a debt of the province.

In

Argentina

, the provinces are owners of the natural resources of the subsoil.

Torres had the monolithic support of the other new governors of the opposition coalition Together for Change (JxC): "Total support and support for the governor of Chubut Ignacio Torres in this difficult moment that the people of Chubut are going through. The National Government must comply with the Constitution and urgently send the shared resources that belong to the province."

Milei

, on a flight to the United States for the Conservative Action Conference (CPAC) this Saturday in Washington, applied on social networks all the aggressiveness and irony of which he is capable: "Hello Nachito and accomplices, I give you something from the Penal Code ".

Torres responded that he is not afraid of the president and that he does not plan to give in to his "insults and threats."

The president redoubled the bet: "Nachito, don't create drama, we are going to resolve it in court... By the way, learn to read a debt contract so you avoid being left in a very ridiculous off-side... Cheer up! You will learn...".

The virulence of the exchange

plunged the country into a stupor

on the eve of the weekend.

Despite the threats from the Patagonian provinces to cut off oil shipments to the rest of the country, the president celebrated that "the caste" was "in evidence."

Patricia Bullrich

, Milei's Security Minister and president of the PRO, Torres' party, described the governor's threat as "obscene."

The relationship between

Milei

and the governors is the worst that a president has had in the 40 years of democracy inaugurated in December 1983. Milei accuses them of being wasteful and "fiscal degenerates", and this Friday he added one more qualification: "Chavistas."

The president must give a speech this Friday, March 1, before Parliament to declare the ordinary session open.

After ignoring Parliament on the day of his inauguration as president, the expectation for what Milei can do next week multiplied from the governors' stand against the Casa Rosada.

Carlos Maslatón, who was a close ally and promoter of Milei in his first steps in politics, celebrated the reaction of the provincial leaders.

"More than one is surely thinking about reestablishing provincial militias in the face of the undoubted constitutional and pre-constitutional violation of the founding federal pact of the Argentine Nation by this simulation of a village tyrant that Javier Milei is becoming, surrounded by an undemocratic and fascist environment. ".