In your team you define Martin Guzman like a Filipino boxer: “They hit him over and over again, but he never kisses the canvas,” they say with a hint of humor to explain what has become an official sport: crossing the Economy Minister.
Guzmán became the main factor of tension between Kirchnerism and Albertism. Therefore, in a handful of days he criticized him from Máximo Kirchner to Hebe de Bonafini. The Campora he wants him out and the President does not agree to give him up.
Meanwhile, the minister has to carry out an economy that is not recovering: inflation is uncontrollable and they blame him exclusively. In his inner circle they exhibit their agenda full of activities to demonstrate validity. With his uncomforting style and restrained tone, Guzmán resists, despite everything.
Guzman, the punching ball
The statements of Maximo Kirchner Before the unionism of Buenos Aires they raised the bar of criticism. It is that the detractors are no longer alternative characters, but the protagonists themselves. The deputy took hold of a phrase that Guzmán had said that same afternoon in Río Negro, when asked about the tensions in the Government: “My thing is management,” he assured. Enough. Hours later came the response from the vice president’s son: “Martín Guzmán says that he does not get involved in these power disputes. So what we do?”.
In their small work team, they assure that the minister “gets all the criticism”, but that he “abstracts himself” to continue working and not get tangled up in more controversies. Pure denial. Who is permanently looking for him is the Buenos Aires minister and general secretary of La Campora, Andres Larroque. “No one voted for Guzmán,” she protested with a flimsy argument: he was not elected by suffrage either. Then, in another statement, “El Cuervo” asked for his head next to that of Matías Kulfas and Claudio Moroni, a trident that to his liking “is building defeat.”
From the plain he also receives criticism: the president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, accused him of being “shameless.” “He is a son of a good mother. The truth is, sometimes it makes me want to have him close to trump him, ”she completed.
Underneath, the K had already nicknamed the minister “Holy Week” because they discounted that it would not resist until beyond that date. But she did.
Rudeness is not a fashion for 2022. In fact, it has been a year since the Undersecretary of Energy disobeyed him. Federico Basualdo resisted modifying the rates, despite the directives of Guzmán, and he asked to be fired: Alberto Fernández He promised her he would, but it didn’t happen. Even on the first anniversary of the controversy, the President appeared in a public act with the wayward official.
The strong criticism does not only come from Kirchnerism. More than one Albertista protested to the President about Guzmán’s self-sufficient ways, which, displaying absolute secrecy, usually withholds information even from his own.
There are not a few workers at the Ministry of Economy who celebrate under their breath the constant criticism of the minister. It is that he never established political alliances: he works with a team in which young people abound and reduces his level of communication and trust to them, excluding the rest. That annoying political clumsiness.
Empowered by the lack of resolution of his case, which some attribute to the lack of a replacement rather than to his own merits, Guzmán even dared to refute La Cámpora, which demands greater social spending. “There must be a commitment from all of us who govern to stick to an economic program,” he protested.
Guzman’s allies
Luckily for his own interests, a group of defenders appeared to Guzmán that he did not imagine he had. “The attacks are for Alberto, not for the minister. And I told him: ‘Martín, rest assured that this is not for you’”, said Anibal Fernandez.
The Security Minister replied to Máximo, who had complained to Guzman to put his feet in the mud of politics: “He puts the economy into practice, he cannot discuss power. That is in the Buenos Aires student manual, it is a meaningless thing”, Hannibal benched him.
In Guzmán’s entourage, they confess that this defense was not so surprising, because they have had a good relationship since the beginning of the administration, even when the former chief of staff had not taken office as minister.
But who did draw attention is Luis D’Elía, who signed an armistice with Alberto Fernández and that settled him on the Guzmán side of the discussion. Even, to the surprise of many, now the radio editorials of the piquetero leader are shared among the cell phones of the economic team to listen to the strong declarations in defense of his work.
For the environment of Guzmán responses to the constant insults of The Campora they are a logical attitude: “We started to have replicants. Until now, only one bell had been heard,” they say.
In the comfort zone of the Minister of Economy, within a Cabinet with too many dissidents, appear, in addition to Aníbal Fernández, Matías Kulfas and Daniel Filmus, with whom he usually shares 5-a-side football matches, when the agenda allows it.
Very focused on his own, he usually ignores criticism to continue working. Only that can explain how, at this point and after so many provocations from Kirchnerism, he still hasn’t resigned from his position.
challenges
After agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the subject that continues to obsess him, Guzmán has to take control of other economic problems with which he has been unable to date. The main one, inflation.
In the middle of the month the price index for May will be known and it will be, once again, bad news: it would push inflation to more than 20% in the first four months of the year.
The responsibility for such a large number could be shared, but the other officials who work on economic issues are reluctant to assume it. Robert Feletti, Secretary of Commerce and ideologue of careful prices, he already warned in April that “lowering inflation is the task of the Ministry of Economy.” and hee asked Guzmán to “lower clear lines”.
Just as it happened to Mauricio Macri during his presidency, with a lotted economic area, the division that Alberto Fernández proposed between the Ministries of Economy and Productive Development produces a decoupling that makes the task difficult and serves as an excuse to delimit responsibilities. No one is responsible for what happens.
But inflation is not Guzmán’s only challenge: Public hearings begin next week to define the increases in electricity and gas rates that the minister promoted but that Kirchnerism resisted. The result will cause discomfort in some of the wings of the Government and, probably, greater erosion of the image of the most battered leader of the Cabinet.
for these hours, Guzmán works on another of the challenges that will face the K: the updated extension of the 2022 budget.
As the Congress did not approve the law that orders the public accounts, the President will have to sign a decree of necessity and urgency to update it. The Minister of Economy It is studying what the reallocation of items will be and for this reason it has in its hands the possibility of benefiting or harming the different state agencies at will. A great power, which only Alberto Fernández’s review could have.
Reluctant to media interviews, the minister goes ahead with meetings with businessmen from both the Capital and the interior. “The issue is not that you rub shoulders with the red circle. The issue is if you blend in with them. On the other hand, we are telling him what the thing is about, ”explains a source who accompanied him on recent trips, to ruin the criticisms made by the K.
It is that the leaders who accompany Cristina protested when they saw to the Minister of Economy at the Llao Llao Forum, the pinnacle of the establishment. “He went to explain the Unexpected Rent to them. In fact, the businessmen objected to many things, they did not go to applaud him, ”they say in his environment. And they compare: “Furthermore, last year he exhibited ‘Wado’ by Pedro there. Before it was not so serious and now it is?
On his next trip he will return to one of his favorite activities: he will give a lecture at the National University of Salta. If he releases his agenda, he wants to go back to teaching master classes in study houses in the interior of the country.
Guzmán does not acknowledge receipt from both internal and external wear. Unless Alberto asks him to resign, he plans to remain in office.
