MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Despite the clamp, Timerman’s plans big ‘dollar splash’ next March in Uruguay

Hector Timerman the father of the bride and sponsor of the “Weekend Wedding” for ‘Jordi&Martin’

While most Argentines face increasing difficulties to access to US dollars, to travel overseas or use their debit and credit cards abroad, (the famous ‘dollar clamp’) one of President Cristina Fernandez most notorious and loquacious ministers, Hector Timerman is organizing a three-day major splash at Uruguay’s most posh resort to celebrate the marriage of his eldest daughter.

The three-day March event with at least 300 guests will be held at Jose Ignacio, next to Punta del Este in Uruguay’s most expensive resort, and the invitations sent out via internet, to try and avoid public exposure, simply say that “Jordi&Martin” (in The New Yorker style calligraphy) would like to have the pleasure of your attendance to their “Weekend Wedding”.

Jordi&Martin are Jordana Timerman (29) and Martin Levinton (32)  

The wedding will take place at the restaurant La Huella, virtually on the beach and considered one of the top spots of Jose Ignacio. 

It is estimated that the guests will have to pay over a thousand dollars each to spend the weekend in Jose Ignacio at the exclusive resort and which takes off on Friday March first and ends on Sunday, March 3, with a “recovery brunch”.

In other words while the government of President Cristina Fernandez is doing the utmost to prevent the outflow of dollars from Argentina, one of her ministers will certainly be spending dollars lavishly to celebrate his daughter’s marriage and none less than in neighbouring Uruguay, a country with which Timerman has constantly clashed over a long list of issues from the bilateral agenda: from protectionism to dredging River Plate access channels.

However ‘double-talk’ from the Cristina Fernandez cabinet is not an isolated incident. The man head of the tax revenue office AFIP and implementing the ‘clamp’ and all the measures to prevent US dollars fleeing from Argentina, Ricardo Echegaray, has his summer residence in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

Nothing shocking about that, but the fact he is a newcomer to the Uruguayan resort famous night and social life: he bought the house in 2011.

Another minister Axel Kicillof, a late incorporation to the team of Cristina Fernandez but who is proving to be the brains behind most of the latest economic and financial measures, also has a summer house in Uruguay, although in a more modest resort and closer to Buenos Aires, in Colonia on the River Plate.

Solicitor Carlos Zanini, the Legal and Technical Secretary of the Executive, which means he drafts the bills for Cristina Fernandez and is in daily contact, also likes to take stress off along Uruguay’s Atlantic coast. More exactly he was seen a couple of weeks ago at Jose Ignacio, the exclusive resort which the Timerman family have contracted for the first weekend of next March.

But yes, he was seen driving a 4x4 Super Toyota with Argentine plates, but the initial identification letter was a big ‘K’, pointed out the Buenos Aires media.

All this happens in the midst of the campaign to convince Argentines not to save in dollars but in Pesos and in a titanic effort, to prevent every loophole that could let a single dollar escape the country.

Furthermore when the administration of Cristina’s husband, President Nestor Kirchner, Argentine cabinet ministers simply didn’t’ dare spend holidays outside the country, following on strict orders from the K boss.