From a Porteño viewpoint: Macri

It's been a long time, August in fact, since we had one of these. But better late than never, I suppose. The Porteño (resident of Buenos Aires city) in question happens to be a very close friend and we're always passing mails and commenting between ourselves.

So when Porteño (we'll use that moniker) saw the Mauricio Macri video in the preceding post this morning he sent me a mail with his views on Macri and entourage that's well worth putting through the Ottotrans™ and sharing on the blog (permission has been granted). As mentioned already today, Macri is one of these "love him or hate him" characters down there. Enjoy.

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Lord, how these people make me angry. I hate him (Macri). I'd even say that I hate him more than Menem. At least Carlos had charisma. This guy has less charisma than a Korean's fringe (Ottonote; translated directly just for fun. All he's trying to say in a true Porteño tone is that Macri has no personality), he's more boring than De La Rua*. Macri is a total product of political marketing. With some small discourse and big-spending campaign he can even position his friend De Narváez** as a political candidate. The mainstream media fully support him; Clarín, La Nación, TN are always promoting Mauricio Macri and Francisco de Narváez.

Speaking of De Narváez, five or six years ago he bought Juan Perón's personal library and still hasn't read one of the books. He said it himself, no kidding.

But back to Mauricio: I still don't understand how nobody realizes that the guy is a packaged product. But he's also a dangerous package. Up to now all that he's done is:

• Raised Buenos Aires property taxes an average of 300%
• Increased road tolls
• Increased the number of parking meters and their charges
• Attempted to cut gross salaries.
• Added stamp duty to house sales
• Added tax to credit cards
• Sold construction materials to out-of-city centre residential projects (known as "countrys")
• Stopped education grants and scholarships
• Cut health spending
• Destroyed the Colon Opera House
• Created a disaster in the hospitals system
• Sacked local gov't people that protest and ignored the corrupt
• His government functionaries are resigning en masse
• His execution of the city budget plans is the worst in 30 years

The saddest thing of all is that he appears in the media six hours a day transmitting an image of direction and management. I'm telling you that even Telerman (Ottonote, the previous mayor of Buenos Aires, known for his relaxed attitude) did more than him. At least Telerman fixed pavements and gave out domestic refuse containers without raising taxes.

I could go on and on about this idiot but I'd get boring. The Duhalde/Macri/De Narvaez association scares me, frankly, but it looks like it's going to be the future.

Firma y sello, El Porteño

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*President at the time of the 2001 crisis. Famous for being dust dry.

**Explanation from Porteño himself: "Francisco de Narváez is a businessman who made his fortune in the 1990s. After the 2002 crisis he started in politics with a discourse based on crime/security. In the same way as Mauricio he spends a lot of money on propaganda and has smart people as political advisors. His slogan is very good; "Knowledge brings safety". Thus he pushes his "grand project, the "safety map". His speeches are aimed at the typical scared middle class."

News roundup

Oooh, I love a parade. Click on the photo for
a big image of yesterday's Evo-party

Bolivia has its new constitution. Evo signed on the dotted line yesterday in front of about half a million people and the whole thing is now official. He called it "the end of neoliberalism" (in Bolivia, I presume) and gave thanks to historical characters such as Tupac Katari. Rain and sleet in El Alto, La Paz didn't spoil the parade. Evo rocks.

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Ecuador: Thanks to the dozen or so people that have mailed me with the "Correa Expels US Diplomat" story. It is a case of 'you can't fire me cos I quit' cos the dude in question. Armando Astorga, had already been retired from Ecuador on what the US Embassy called 'a normal rotation of staff'. Smell the BS? Yeah, me too.

Anyway, Studmuffin sure likes to make a scene (he announced it as part of Radio MUFN), but he's well within his rights here; this was a classic case of foreign diplo meddling in national affairs. In the end it's no biggie, but as reader MG said in his mail last night, "I just like how the embassy/state dept hasn't lost it's talent for playing dumb post-Bush". Quite right, MG.

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Peru: Isn't it strange how the mining companies that treat their workers as slaves are nearly always the ones that suffer accidents? Following on from the five dead in La Escondida, Peru last month, another five are trapped (and the worst is currently presumed) by a rockfall in one of the tunnels of the Casapalca mine, East of Lima. This is the same mine featured in this recent note that includes:

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Casapalca is run by the Peruvian Gubbins family, and has a long history of treating its workforce like slaves. In June last year this report highlighted how the workforce was made to work seven days a week for a basic monthly salary of 675 Soles. However even that low number is whittled down through various deductions and becomes 343 Soles (about U$110) in take home pay. To add insult to injury, the company then charges each of its workers between 100 and 150 soles per month for living quarters (and by that I mean 100 soles for a 2m X 2m shoebox just big enough for a bed).

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Nuff said.

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In Argentina, things are beginning to heat up in the run to the congressional elections at the end of the year. Now that the summer break season is drawing to a close there, lines are beginning to be drawn and the atmosphere is already getting bitter. The main line of interest is the "Kirchner versus Duhalde" fight, with the ex-presidents battling for the hearts and minds of the Peronist party. There's a lot to unfold from here so watch this space as 2009 progresses.