Argentina's Macri said by officials to have opted out of running for reelection in 2019.

[forest444]

Ricardo Kirschbaum, the longtime editor-in-chief of Argentina's largest newspaper, Clarín, revealed in this morning's op-ed that officials in President Mauricio Macri's inner circle disclosed to him that the president has decided not to seek reelection in 2019.

According to Kirschbaum, President Macri arrived at this decision in large part as a result of a heart condition that has appeared to have worsened since taking office seven months ago. The decision was made after consulting his team of doctors and his wife, Juliana Awada, whose concerns over her husband's health made her particularly supportive of this decision.

Administration officials admitted to Kirschbaum that Macri "finds it difficult to deal with the daily tension his job entails," and that he and his family "have given much thought recently to the need for a change in lifestyle, one outside politics. Macri, officials said, explained to his inner circle that "besides politics, I have a life."

The Argentine president's health made headlines on June 3, when he was hospitalized for several hours after suffering from cardiac arrhythmia while resting in the Olivos presidential residence. Since then, his presidential medical team, led by Drs. Simón Salzberg and Andrés Atamañuk, has added six more physicians.

Possible nominees

The news led to immediate speculation as to who Macri intends to back as the nominee for his "Let's Change" coalition in 2019. The right-wing PRO party, which he leads, favors fielding the Governor of Buenos Aires Province, María Eugenia Vidal; Macri, however, reportedly prefers his Chief of Staff, Marcos Peña.

The soft-spoken Peña, 39, is especially close to the president and enjoys a good relationship with the media. He grew up in Potomac, Maryland, and would thus be well positioned to enhance U.S.-Argentine relations - a key priority for Macri.

Vidal, 42, maintains high approval ratings as governor of the nation's most populous province (home to 38% of Argentines). She has come under fire, however, for ordering protesters violently dispersed, as well as for scandals surrounding a number of her high-profile appointments.

These include Justice Minister Carlos Mahiques, who opposes abortion rights even in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother's life; the director of the Port of la Plata, José María Dodds, who faces allegations of asset stripping at a leading food processing firm as well as charges of domestic violence; and the head of the Provincial Police, Pablo Bressi, who was accused by Congresswoman Elisa Carrió (a key Macri ally) of receiving payoffs from convicted drug trafficker "Mameluco" Villalba while Bressi headed a drug enforcement agency in a Buenos Aires metro area county.

While Peña is known as a moderate within the PRO, moreover, Vidal - like her appointees Mahiques and Dodds - belongs to the far-right Roman Catholic power group Opus Dei. The Opus Dei fell into disrepute in Argentina due to their leading roles in the Onganía and Videla dictatorships, as well as in the freewheeling Menem administration.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.politicargentina.com/notas/201607/15213-para-clarin-macri-no-buscaria-la-reeleccion-en-2019.html&prev=search

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is unexpected. Maybe Macri has done so much damage already, there won't be much left by 2019

for anyone to govern.

It appears he does think Marcos Peña is a peachy keen political asset, having ties to the US, and probably having access no one else would have, maybe...

He would be grooming him day by day, too, to step into his loafers, if he's going to be his choice.

[center]

María Eugenia Vidal, however, looks as if she is "in" with the "in crowd" already.





She's got it all down, by now. Politics is her second nature, and she has many friends in high places. [/center]
I really wonder who the people are betting to run.

It sounds serious about Macri. He doesn't really look like the very embodiment of glowing health, does he? Probably all the crooked dealings, a life of sneakiness, plotting, scheming, treachery are eating him up, turning him into the picture of Dorian Gray.

Thanks for the news we can read her probably YEARS before our corporate "news" will mention it!

[forest444]

2. Sure, Judi. While not entirely unexpected, I was surprised he had decided to opt out this early.

My guess is that three considerations may have played a part in his decision:

One: As the article states, his heart problems. He is 57, and while he's always been fit his own father did almost die of a heart attack at 53 (the year Trump reputedly sabotaged his massive Lincoln West development in the Upper West Side, btw). Cocaine use as a young man - the scourge of upper-class youths everywhere in the 1980s - is said to have played a part in his current heart condition as well.

In any case, I certainly wish him well health-wise.

Two: The economy. As you know, Judi, Argentina (not a rich country to begin with) is struggling mightily under Macri's IMF austerity playbook.

Argentine voters are really not that different from American voters - and if people feel their president is somehow hurting their pocketbook, it's curtains. One of Macri's biggest fans, former President Fernando de la Rúa, knows all about that.

Three (and this one really worries me): Electronic voting.

I can't help but suspect that Macri is taking the liberty of leaking these news because, after all, what does he have to lose if he knows that easily-hacked electronic voting machines will practically guarantee that his coalition remains in power almost no matter what.

As you know, the machines Macri plans to use nationwide (assuming Congress passes his Trojan horse "electoral reform" package) were already proven to be highly vulnerable to tampering last year by the Buenos Aires IT security expert Joaquín Sorianello (whom Macri had detained at the time).

It could very well be that, while health concerns were a factor, Macri might also be speculating with an electronically-produced foregone conclusion in the 2019 race. His opting out now helps ensure this outcome, moreover, by making the electoral reform bill mentioned above easier to pass.

You know, before the Sáenz Peña Law instituted the secret ballot and other guarantees in 1912, elections in Argentina were known by local journalists and reformists as the "vote song" because the results were almost always like a predetermined script.

Could history be repeating itself?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Electronic elections will probably nail the door shut on honest elections. Horrible.

All you need is a computer guy and you indicate they've got a pro, already.

[center]

If you're going to be a geek, you must look the part! [/center]
So Trump (Father, or son?) really hurt Macri, Sr. in New York business?
Both families have been mad for money for a long time, haven't they?

South America needs some new leaders, good leaders as soon as possible.

[forest444]

4. Sorianello was a real hero for exposing Macri's e-vote scheme, so of course now he's struggling.

Thank you for that. I hadn't seen it.

As far as the Trump heist, that was the older Macri (Francesco). He bought the former Penn Central rail yard in 1979, and spent $100 million (in 1980 dollars!) on improvements - even a new subway station. Yet somehow, the city kept creating all manner of obstacles; moving the goalpost, as it were.

Finally, after his marriage failed in part from the strain (as well as infidelities), and after a heart attack nearly killed him, Macri read the writing on the wall and sold the project in 1984 to...Trump! There's no way of knowing if Trump was behind all the sudden resistance from the city; but it certainly looked that way.

As karma would have it, Trump was unable to develop Lincoln West as well on account of his bankruptcy in 1991 - and he sold out to Hong Kong investors later on. They did a great job, I think.

South America does indeed need better leadership, fewer eltists and kleptocrats - and above all clean elections. Thanks again!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Very interesting info. on the acquisition of that enormous project after Macri had made improvements

on it, for goodness sakes.

Trump may have had access to local ties which gave him the edge, in the end.

Macri went bankrupt? Did he get land on his feet, bounce back?

I think I've heard Trump has gone backrupt at various times, too.

Horrible game they play. Most people couldn't take the pressure.

[forest444]

6. Trump went bankrupt...Macri simply unloaded his debts on the state.

Francesco Macri's Socma group transferred $125 million in debts to the Central Bank in 1982 by way of a rigged exchange rate guarantee mechanism designed to "protect foreign investors" (the perennial excuse for Argentine right-wingers).

The Argentine government later had to bail out the Postal Service (which Menem sold to Macri in 1997 at fire sale prices) in 2003 as a result of $900 million in debts - including $400 million in unpaid fees and taxes. It's generally believed Macri used that money to bail himself out of losses stemming from his failing Sevel automaker - which struggled due to poor workmanship and the austerity policies prevailing at the time.

All oof that was simply added to Argentina's public debt, which as you may remember reached a Greece-like 160% of GDP when Néstor Kirchner took office in May 2003.

It was down to 40% of GDP when Cristina Kirchner left office last December - but guess what: it's going up again. Argentina's public debt has risen by $27 billion since Macri took office (payoffs to vulture funds, tax cuts for the rich, etc.).

When you put the fox to guard the hen house...