Alberto Fernandez He closed his state visit to Chile on Wednesday, the first of his government, lasting a year and a month, with a press conference in which he described it as “more than fruitful” and reiterated concepts that have already been heard as that the lack of unity that exists in the region “takes away our strength to discuss” and to better face the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
The President arrived in Santiago on Tuesday, the day his bilateral convention took place. Sebastian Piñera, a meeting in which a series of agreements were signed, but which above all sealed a reconciliation between the two leaders after the short circuits that occurred during the pandemic. By the way, it is also part of a change in strategy that Fernández started as president pro tempore of Mercosur and facing the image of the center that seeks to give Democrat Joe Biden. distances for ideological reasons with Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are things he wants to leave behind.
This Wednesday, before returning to Buenos Aires with his entourage, Fernández met with businessmen, spoke to ECLAC and was with former president Ricardo Lagos. With the executives he was in a lunch organized by the ambassador Rafael Bielsa at the Argentine headquarters in Santiago de Chile and there were heavyweights like Horst Paulmann, President of Cencosud – which promised investments of US $ 163 million in its supermarkets in Argentina- Rodrigo Javier Hinzpeter Kirberg, from Cervecerías Unidas; Bernardo Larraín Matteof Colbún SA and the Sociedad de Fomento Fabril; and Antonio Gallart Gabas, Naturgy, among others.
By the way, in the last hours one of the agreements that were signed and that are important is the possible participation of Arsat in the trans-Pacific submarine cable project from New Zealand and Australia, and that Chile also wants to take to Brazil. The Secretary of International Economic Relations of the Foreign Ministry had been working on this agreement and it is an important advance for, in the future, to have infrastructure for 5G technology.
However, other issues were pending on this visit. Although Fernández was accompanied by the governors of Catamara and San Juan no progress was made on issues of common interest such as mining, or the ambitious construction of the Aguas Negras tunnel. There was also no mention of Chilean opposition to the extension of the continental shelf by Argentina. And so the two leaders dedicated themselves to a positive agenda.
In the same press conference on Wednesday, Fernández referred to a confusing situation because he said that he had not spoken with Piñera about the crisis in Venezuela, a sensitive issue in the Frente de Todos alliance, where a sector linked to the former president Cristina Kirchner opposes putting pressure on the Maduro regime. The problem arose at the earliest, in radio statements the Chilean Foreign Minister, Andrés Alllamand he had told reporters that Argentina and Chile were working on a “common strategy” and a political solution for Venezuela.
By the way, his speech before ECLAC did not go unnoticed, since he spoke of the “Insufficiency of capitalism” and the need to “recreate a more humanitarian capitalism.” Because, he said, “this capitalism of financial derivatives, where fortunes have been made in minutes simply by betting on a bond or a stock, the truth is that it makes many rich, but it postpones millions of human beings in the world.”
In these two days, Fernández had a more than cordial reception from Piñera. The President traveled with the first lady, Fabiola Yáñez; with the Chief of Staff, Santiago Cafiero, The chancellor Felipe Solá and with his spokesperson Juan Pablo Biondi, among others.
The visit had its personal side and, which Clarín knows from very high sources in the Chilean Legislative and Executive, caused some degree of concern in the Piñera administration: one was Fernández’s desire to visit the former president’s grave Salvador AllendeThis visit was exchanged for a tour of the office in La Moneda where the former socialist president, who was overthrown by the Augusto Pinochet coup, worked.
Another difficult moment was the meeting that on Tuesday afternoon Fernández had with the leaders of the socialist party of the communist party and others of the opposition, whom he called – Clarin knew – to achieve spaces of agreement between the “left, the center-left and progressivism”, he said Karok Cariola, leader of the PC, and who was in the meeting.
He had dinner on Tuesday with his great friend and strong influence on foreign policy Marco Enriquez Ominami. The former opposition candidate for the Chilean presidency invited him and Fabiola to his house with his wife, Karen: the four of them had dinner and there was also former senator Carlos Ominami, MEO’s adoptive father and friend of Fernández.
.
source https://pledgetimes.com/alberto-fernandez-in-chile-few-agreements-and-the-call-for-humanitarian-capitalism/
Disqus comments