Two decades later, Mendiguren returns to production

The private jet landed at an airport with a dirt runway, near Sierra de la Ventana, where José Ignacio de Mendiguren has its own field. From there come the unique quarter-mile horses (bred to run 402 meters), one of them derives from being awarded in the Rural.

Mendiguren was in the countryside with his grandchildren, enjoying the winter holidays, when he got the call from Serge Massa, who asked for an urgent meeting in Buenos Aires. The Sierra de la Ventana is 500 kilometers away, including 300 kilometers along Route 3 overcrowded with trucks. “I’ll send you a plane”Massa told him.

After the meeting, it was sealed that Mendiguren would take charge of the area Productionno longer as a minister, but with the entire industrial area in charge.

To the 70 years oldtwo decades after being minister of Eduardo Duhalde, Mendiguren is one step away from leaving what in his environment they call the “comfort zone”: the presidency of the Investment and Foreign Trade Banka second-rate institution that also served as a window. Mendiguren’s posts with SME industrialists, in photos where he can be seen next to new machines, have been a constant over the past three years.

Mendiguren is both an official and a factory leader, as he continues to be part of the Industrial Union. He remains a producer since For 45 years he has owned a shoe and industrial textile factory in the town of Justo Daract, in San Luigi. For many years he was called, without reason, “industrial without industry” because he had sold his own brand of children’s clothing Rabbit for a million dollar sum to the Exxel Group. But he never stopped running his own factory in the city of San Luis.

They say in his environment that he returns to executive power with the idea of ​​”saving” from the current crisis one of the assets recognized by the management of Alberto Fernández: industrial activity, which had a strong impetus until the Central Bank limited the ability to import inputs. “This government has given 750,000 million pesos to the industry to keep factories running in the midst of the pandemic and the factories are still active today. This has to be saved, “they added.

One of the first gestures that he is said to have had after his meeting with Massa he had to call Daniel Funes de Rioja, the head of the Industrial Union. Mendiguren, former president of the UIA, currently holds a presidency on the manufacturing plant’s board of directors. But last year, when there was a renewal of the authorities, he had moved the chips to get a seat at the “small table”, as the Executive Committee of the UIA is called. he couldn’t, and then He came out to say that the Techint group had “vetoed” him for being part of this government.

In their environment they ensure that those grudges they have been left behind. “He spoke to Funes and told him that he has no problems and that he wants the link with the UIA to be transparent. And he made him understand, in this sense, that he asked Massa that SIMIs leave the Industry area and be managed by the Secretariat of Commerce “.

What are SIMIs? They are the acronym of Complete import monitoring system. Indeed, it is the window through which the government authorizes or denies all non-automatic import licenseswhich includes, for example, car imports.

He has been in charge of this task for nearly three years ariel schaleofficial from the textile sector (he was director of the ProTejer foundation), who held the post when he left Matias Kulfa and hired Daniele Scioli. But now, in the private sector, they give it to us outside the government. “The last messages we received were almost a goodbye“said an auto industry manager, with whom Schale had a daily deal.

From the surroundings of Mendiguren they look out over the SIMI area sideways. “El Vasco is a man of industry, who has a seat on the UIA board, therefore he has no intention of setting himself up as an officer to approve SIMIs now. But he doesn’t even eat the glass: he asked for the area to go to Commerce, reserving himself, however, at the decision-making table your delegate“.