A cold day in June 2020, when Argentines remained under coronavirus quarantine, Alberto Fernández held a virtual conference with Luis Inacio Lula da Silvathat he was already out of prison, but still not risking the presidential candidacy.
In the zoom communication “Thinking of Latin America after the COVID 19 pandemic”, Fernández sent with one of his memorable phrases, regretting that only he and the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador they were the only leaders they wanted “change the world”.
It hadn’t been a month since the Mexican showered Donald Trump with sweet praise, in the Casa Rosada itself. And there would come not one but several episodes that would leave the Argentine president alone in his commitments in front of a López Obrador who ended up embarking on his foreign agenda.
That difficult path with Mexico, plus the coming to power of Lula da Silva, would have ended end of Fernández’s romance with AMLO. And Alberto would resume his link with Brazil, which he did not have, not even in terms of protocol with Jair Bolsonaro.
Well, not only is the leader of the PT in a position of greater power than when he was in prison and on the plains, and Alberto led the Lula Libre campaign. The current president of Brazil has a an internal agenda fraught with problems, and an extremely ambitious external one, once again global and always fluctuatingA. Just think of the clashes he had with Washington in his recent trip to China and his closest position to Russia on the war in Ukraine, when he sought a negotiation that he was unable to even open.
Today Lula is faithful to Alberto Fernández and wants to help Argentina in this new crisis, they say in Brazil. In fact, Brazil is the best partner the government can have, discounting the containment that the United States is offering it, especially before financial bodies such as the Monetary Fund.
But with neighbors, the agenda does not necessarily coincide and there is no shortage of disagreements despite continuing to apply their old saying of “strategic patience” towards Argentina.
One of them is the short circuit which saw the participation of the Minister of Economy, Agriculture and Production, Sergio Massawhen last week, while in Montevideo, he sent a letter to the authorities of fonplata announcing the withdrawal of Argentina.
Massa sent the letter stating anger at not being able to put Gabriel Delgado in charge of this Fund, a man from his circle, a representative of the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA).
But the Brazilians forced the candidacy of Luciana Botafogo and had the support of Paraguay and Bolivia, a situation that has also put Argentina out of the game in the fight for the two vice-presidencies that they will create in the organization.
Formerly known as the Financial Fund for the Development of the Countries of the La Plata Basin, Fonplata (with little media coverage and smaller financial reach) is one of the organizations of which Argentina has always been one of its core members, since its inception. foundation in 1974.
Even if the Farnesina has ignored the new conflict, focusing on the economy, the country he thus abandons an instance of cooperation more than half a century without corresponding treatment in Congress. The decision of a minister was enough.
There is an international treaty and to dedicate itself to the Fund, the World Bank, the IDB and the CAF, the government is handing over the management of Fonplata to Brazil, which is the abandonment of a financial instrument whose arm is FOCEM.
“The decision damages the portfolio of projects currently underway in Argentina with investments that respond to the needs of provinces and municipalities and that are of interest for integration and territorial dynamics”. pointed to a source steeped in the subject,
It is not the only road in several routes with Brazil. Because although he was Washington’s candidate, the president of the IDB since the end of last year Ilan Goldfajn he is brazilian. And Lula supported him when Bolsonaro was still in government and today Argentina has not achieved the vice-presidencies they had promised in the organization.
On the other hand, there is no significant support from the new Brazilian administration for Argentina to enter the BRICS Development Bankas requested.
Go ahead difficulties in obtaining funding from BNDESand it is worth mentioning that both pro-government and opposition supporters in Brazil have refused to go along with Argentina’s idea of creating a common currency for trade that avoids the use of the dollar.
Source: Clarin
