In the midst of a series of crossed operations about his possible landing at the Ministry of Economy, the chief of advisers to President Alberto Fernández, Antonio Aracre, submitted his resignation.
“Following the rumors that circulated and for the purpose of deactivating any operation tending to unsettle the markets, I have presented to President Alberto Fernández my irrevocable resignation as chief advisor immediately,” Aracre announced on Twitter.
The official’s departure occurred amid insistent versions about Sergio Massa’s resignation from the Economy portfolio and the arrival of Aracre as a replacement. According to reports, Massa was furious at the reports and a new internship was unleashed within the ruling party, since the minister had pointed to sectors of the Casa Rosada itself as a powerhouse for those reports. But some sectors of the market close to the minister pointed to the offices of the Central Bank, in obvious reference to the unresolved tensions between Massa and the head of that entity, Miguel Angel Pesce.
Just arrived from Washington, where he announced that his team began working with the IMF to change the goals of the current program, in the midst of the tremendous impact of the drought on the local economy, the native of Tigre is convinced that the noise of his departure generated the rise of the free dollar and the financial ones that was registered yesterday.
“The ambition of the mediocre who believe that one grows by destroying the other only generates noise,” he would have said to some men he trusted.
Aracre thanked Alberto Fernández for having “honored” him with the position of chief adviser and assured that the president can count on him “for whatever he needs.”
Until Fernández added him as chief advisor, the now former official served as director for Latin America of the Swiss multinational Syngenta.
The resignation of Aracre, an economist by profession, follows weeks of rumors about his alleged differences with Massa, about how to tackle complex macroeconomic problems, including currency and exchange rate imbalances.
But in the last few hours, amid renewed exchange rate tensions, these rumors even pointed to an imminent resignation of Massa and his eventual replacement by Aracre, versions that have never been confirmed but have affected the market.
The versions were reflected in the liquidation of the soybean dollar, which had strung together four days of almost USD 1,000 million, since it began to move last week. Yesterday, the soybean complex barely entered USD 36 million under the program that establishes a differential exchange rate at $300 known as the soybean dollar 3. In this context, the Central Bank was able to retain just USD 1 million.
Beyond the dissimilar visions with Massa, Aracre had a bad relationship with the circle close to the President, made up of spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti and Julio Vitobello. Those same sectors pointed to the now former official for being the one who allegedly leaked off-record information to journalists.
On Monday, the President and Aracre had lunch alone and the economist brought a series of proposals on economic matters. Massa found out about this movement, rumors began and the official internship deepened.
It is even said that the Minister of Economy pointed to him because of the versions about an alleged exchange rate split, which is why he would have complained that “we lost 400 million dollars.”
