When the debate in Deputies takes place for the agreement with the IMF, its manager, the minister Martin Guzman, is not in the country. the pupil of Joseph Eugene Stiglitzthe Nobel Prize winner who has close ties to the Joe Biden administration and who could open other doors for the “covered” who came to the government of Alberto Fernandez on the recommendation of Pope Francis, is today in Houston.
Guzmán, who arrived as the plumb technician necessary to carry out the negotiations with the Argentine creditors, and who later took a liking to the political game, sees the party that will define the fate of those negotiations off the pitch: participates in CERA Week 2022, the largest annual energy event, where he met with directors of energy companies with investments in Argentina.
“Guzmán closed the deal and was in Congress. The Executive power negotiated and now passed to the Legislative. Meanwhile, the minister is in constant communication with President Alberto Fernández and the President of the Chamber of Deputies Sergio Massa”, they remarked from their surroundings, insisting that the trip “was on the agenda for a long time”, but that “the decision to get on the plane was made at the last moment”. , and “agreed with the president”. The return of the minister is scheduled “for Friday morning hours”, with the agreement already voted in Deputies and the management goal achieved.
But in the Palacio de Hacienda they know that, with the goal accomplished, there may be goodbye. After the exultant announcement of a preliminary agreement with the IMF made by Martin Guzman On Friday, January 28, came the resignation of Maximo Kirchner to the presidency of the block of the Front of All in Deputies. A rejection to the IMF, but also more comprehensively to the management of Alberto Fernandezand specifically to the thought of the Minister of Economy, to whom he had repeatedly requested changes in the 2022 budget, whose vote ended up blowing up.
It is that Kirchnerism has not hidden its annoyance with Guzmánnor with the Minister of Productive Development, Matias Kulfasor same with Miguel Angel Pesce, president of the Central Bank. Three that he would have liked to replace (the name of Martin Redrado sounds insistently, and he himself acknowledges his meetings with the vice president Cristina Kirchnerwho has the final approval).
And the Economy Minister himself could facilitate this procedure, with a elegant exit. While in Argentina, a wide political circle criticizes the agreement with the IMF, and if it is indeed positive for the country, Guzmán’s international interlocutors in recent years weigh it, according to their own environment. And suspicions aside (those who criticize him locally suggest that “because of the same criticism that we make of him, the bank weighs him”), he would have the chance to leave his position as head of the Treasury to occupy an important position in the World Bank. In the environment of the minister they deny it, but the heads in the Front of All are already considering possible replacements, and even a new scheme for the ministry, absorbing Productive Development.
