He is the last important official who maintains his fidelity to President Alberto Fernández in his internal fight within the Frente de Todo
By Antonio D’Eramo
25/04/2023 – 13,00hs
If there is an impartial arbitrator within the Alberto Fernández administration who judges what was done by the head of the highest monetary authority in the country, he Banco Central, It will not be any of the members of the Frente de Todos but the pragmatic diplomacy that is deployed in Washington, USA. Especially in a context in which the blue dollar continues to exert strong pressure and is already close to $500.
Because the continuity in his position as the economist Miguel Angel Pescewill depend on the confidence that it arouses among the officials who respond to the Democratic president, Joe Biden, who have been receptive to saving Argentina from a financial tragedy of proportions and are analyzing the possibility of granting a loan of the order of US$5 ,000 million to u$s10,000 million, through the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which will serve to reinforce the meager reserves of the Central Bank.
If this possible disbursement materializes, the North Americans do not want to hear or read about disagreements over political reasons and economic implementation between the authorities of the Central and the leadership of the Ministry of Economy of Sergio Massa.
In the midst of the fall in the value of the national currency, on Thursday, April 20, a photograph was released showing the two economic area officials working side by side. However, this image failed to change the suspicions of the market agents who assure and testify about the enmity they maintain the two civil servants.
The reproaches to Pesce grow
For the moment, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, he managed to control the dollars for imports by appointing a trusted reference point at Customs, Guillermo Michel. Doubts about whether he will advance with full control of the economy by intervening with a director he trusts in the Central Bank have increased in the last few hours, while reproaches to Miguel Pesce have grown for the obstacles they registered at the Palace of Finance during operations of the third edition of the soy dollar.
Besides, Pesce managed to reap the contempt of numerous Kirchnerista leaders who pointed out, on repeated occasions, that his performance produced the loss of a trade surplus of more than US$ 40,000 million dollars by endorsing the entry of imports at the beginning of his term.
The relationship between Massa and Pesce is at its worst, despite the images that show them working side by side
Concern about his future was heightened by two factors. The first, of an exchange nature, as a result of the rise in the price of the selling point of the Dolar blue. The parallel price reached $265 per unit of the green ticket in the illegal market. But the prices of the legal MEP and counted with liquidation also grew.
The second factor had political matrix. The step back from President Alberto Fernández, who decided not to run for re-election despite the fact that the National Constitution empowered him for a second consecutive term, left a bad taste in Pesce’s mouth, who had a presentiment of that decision, but not in the worst week of the exchange crisis and in the midst of intense negotiations for the entry of dollars from multilateral credit organizations that are carried out in Washington.
Then, in the two-hour meeting on the afternoon of Monday the 24th, between the president and thead of the “autarquico” Central Bank, institution that governs itself but through national laws, the ratification arrived in his post from President Alberto Fernández, ratified by several witnesses of the meeting, but not exempt from some reproaches and warnings about possible future currency runs that would put to the management of Pesce in checkmate.
