In the early days of Carlos Menem’s government, before Domingo Cavallo could stop the hypermarket with his Convertibility formula that tied the peso to the dollar, there was an economic plan that the Riojan bought and that did not end up working. It was sold to Jorge Born, one of the owners of what was then the most important business group in Argentina, Bunge & Born. The signing was made by the Riojan’s first Ministers of Economy, Miguel Ángel Roig – who died in office – and Néstor Rapanelli, and the post-Alfonsinist stabilization attempt was called Plan B&B.
More than 35 years later, the news is that Javier Milei, a great fan of Menemism, has his own B&B Plan, not through Bunge & Born, but through Bessent & Bennett, as consultant Carlos Fara jokes in one of his latest columns for Perfil. Let’s see who it is.
Scott Bessent is Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury who announced the bailout of 40 billion dollars for Argentina that allowed Milei to reach the elections with air and calm the markets when they were putting pressure on the exchange rate. This help prevented a run and, with Monday’s newspaper, allowed the Government to win the elections. In addition, Bessent closely follows the Argentine situation, he bought pesos in successive rounds to stop the pressure on the dollar in the local exchange market and he also tweets almost every day showing that he is on top of the situation. His last tweet is from Tuesday the 28th. And he usually compares, in those messages, the North American Democrats with the Argentine Peronists. In their heads, they are all populists.
Bessent traveled twice to Argentina, on the plane of Leonardo Scatturice, the lobbyist linked to Santiago Caputo who is a partner of the North American Barry Bennett, the second B of this formula.
Bennett is a friend and former consultant to Donald Trump (he advised him in the 2016 presidential campaign) and has a direct contact with him. It was with that contact that the libertarian government achieved the meetings between Milei and Trump and the bailout of the Treasury.
Bennett was also at the Casa Rosada with Santiago Caputo. And he traveled to Buenos Aires again for the crucial weekend of the elections, to monitor the process and the subsequent reaction of the markets. He was there from Saturday the 25th to Monday the 27th and also flew on his partner Scatturice’s plane, the same aircraft that became famous for not being confiscated at Aeroparque months ago. He left satisfied with the result – much better than expected – and with the subsequent exchange rate calm.
The Bennett & Bessent duo is crucial in the US intervention plan in Argentina, rescue through. And so is Scatturice’s plane, their air taxi.
