MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Controversial Cavallo is back and with political ambitions

Former Argentine Economy minister Domingo Cavallo will be deciding in the next few days if he will run for a seat in the Lower House in the coming October elections, but what is definitive is his return to Argentina.

"What I have decided is to return to Argentina and serve my country, fight for my people, for my ideas", said Mr. Cavallo currently teaching in New York and who served two periods under different parties as Economy minister of Argentina.

In the nineties he worked for Peronist President Carlos Menem imposing the successful, --for some time--, convertible system of one US dollar per Argentine Peso, which was later blamed for Argentina's lack of international competitiveness and collapse of the economy.

He was later called by the opposition Alianza and abandoned Argentina following the debacle and commotion caused by his decision to freeze bank deposits at the end of 2001 which then led to the ousting of President Fernando de la Rúa.

"I'm not sorry of nothing I've done in my life: I always acted with the best of intentions, sometimes things worked out, many times they went wrong, but I'm looking forward to returning to Argentina", stressed Mr. Cavallo.

"The youth of my party (Accion por la Republica) have invited me to be candidate and I'm thinking about it", confessed the controversial former official.

However Ricardo Lopez Murphy who's a candidate for a Senate seat for the city of Buenos Aires and represents a conservative/liberal position close to Mr. Cavallo, admitted he was surprised by the announcement.

"I wonder if it's not a psychological move to try and weaken the strong centre right opposition group we have here in Buenos Aires", indicated Mr. Lopez Murphy.

However, "I don't want make any further comments until the news has been confirmed", added Mr. Lopez Murphy.