Argentina’s Fernández cancels his trips abroad in the middle of a government crisis

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, suspended his trips abroad, including his visit to Mexico for the summit this Saturday of heads of state of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), “to finish defining the economic measures that will be announced in the next few days”, government sources confirmed to Efe this Friday.

In addition to canceling his attendance at the meeting with his Latin American peers of Celac – a group that Argentina seeks to preside during 2022, in case it receives the necessary support -, the president will not attend the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) but will participate with a recorded video.

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These decisions take place within the framework of the crisis opened this week within the Argentine government, after the defeat of the ruling coalition in last Sunday’s primary elections – prior to the legislative elections of November 14 – and the subsequent decision to resign of several ministers of the Kirchnerist wing of Peronism, followers of the former President and current Vice-President Cristina Fernández.

The conflict escalated this Thursday, when the Vice-President – who must replace the President when he travels abroad – published in her networks a broad letter in which she openly criticized, among other things, the economic policy of the government – which “undoubtedly was going to have electoral consequences”, she remarked- and reminded Fernández that she was the one who chose him as candidate for President.

Hours before, the President chose Twitter to express himself publicly for the first time regarding the conflict: “I have heard my people. High-handedness and arrogance do not nest in me. The government will continue to develop in the way I deem convenient. That is what I was elected for. I will always do so by calling for a meeting among Argentines”, he wrote.

Before the internal situation in the cabinet worsened, the government had planned to present this week, as reported by the local press, a set of economic measures. Argentina has been in recession since 2018, aggravated during the Covid-19 pandemic; however, for the time being that action did not take place.