MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

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  Enrique Massot

  Cristina's trial was postponed because of health problems of judge Jorge Alberto Tassara. The other two tribunal judges elected to postpone the trial instead of replacing their peer.
  
  The acusation submits that 51 of 81 transportation public works in the Santa Cruz province were granted to Lázaro Báez and that there were delays, payments for unfinished work, and overpriced work.
  
  The tribunal declined to audit the 51 undertakings but chose instead to audit five. It's not clear whether the audits be completed before the start of the trial in May.
  
  Let's remember that the originals of the famous “corruption notebooks” were allegedly burned and therefore could not be examined to established at what time were they written. Only photos of the originals were published.
  
  In the meantime, agribusinessman Pedro Etchebest has presented a serious extortion accusation against the prosecutor Carlos Stornelli, in charge of the “corruption notebooks” case.
  
  To sustain his denunciation, Etchebest has presented numerous video recordings, pictures, audio recordings of telephone conversations and Whatsapp messages he exchanged with Marcelo D'Alessio, Stornelli's alleged middleman. D'Alessio is under arrest.
  
  http://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/evidence-against-prosecutor-stornelli-irrefutable-says-businessman.phtml

  Feb 21st, 2019 - 05:50 pm - Link - Report abuse -2
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  Jonaz_BsAs

  The fact that some 20%-30% of Argentine population would vote for CFK in 2019 should be the final nail in the conversation whether “people vote their own best interest”.
  
  Or as Einstein said: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

  Feb 21st, 2019 - 10:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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  Enrique Massot

  @Jonaz
  
  Good point! You are right. In 2015, the Argentines voted for Mauricio Macri as president, and the consequences have been devastating.
  
  It is true that, to lure the electors, Macri told an epic series of untruths: He was going to drastically reduce inflation (he said it was the easiest thing to do) he was going to eliminate income taxes, attract investments, and make “zero poverty” a reality.
  
  Macri presented himself as an anti-corruption crusader -- and one of his first acts in government was to declare an amnesty on undeclared offshore money. He modified the law that Congress approved to include family members in the amnesty, which of course allowed some Macris to benefit. Macri also attempted to condone most of the debt his family has with the state for the Argentine Poste franchise -- skilfully using his presidential powers to make the Macri family richer. The Macris also made juicy amounts by getting the rights to build solar plants and then reselling them to other firms.
  
  Most importantly, Macri assumed the presidency with a manageable foreign debt, and will reach his fourth year in October with the IMF firmly in charge of the main economic variables -- which is not preventing the downhill slide of Argentina's economy to the depths of recession.
  
  Einstein was right -- however, come October, the Argentines will at least know Macri promises' worth.

  Feb 22nd, 2019 - 01:54 am - Link - Report abuse -3
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  Zaphod Beeblebrox

  “...the consequences have been devastating”
  
  Let us (again) look at some data: https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/indicators
  
  Over the last 5 years, here is are my observations on the data to address your points above:
  
  Unemployment = seasonal variations but no clear trend
  Inflation = A disaster
  GDP constant prices = seasonal but increasing trend
  Balance of trade = recent upward trend. Positive.
  Capital flows = Negative but reducing trend
  External debt = Appears to have peaked and now reducing
  Government budget = Clear reducing trend
  Foreign direct investment = After some wild oscillations, it now seems to be on a gradually increasing trend with a big peak a few months ago
  
  Feel free to check the data yourself. I've tried not to cherry-pick just the good bits and I am not an economist but it looks like Macri might be starting to pull the Argentine economy out of the hole dug by CFK's unsustainable policies.
  
  “come October, the Argentines will at least know Macri promises' worth.”
  
  Didn't the last opinion polls show that it was very close?

  Feb 25th, 2019 - 06:25 pm - Link - Report abuse +1
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  imoyaro

  Kamerad/Komrade Rique, the José Goebbels of Mercopress, is desperate to get that money flow back if only La Asesina can get back in power.
  Time for the RCMP to investigate him as an undeclared foreign agent... :)

  Feb 26th, 2019 - 08:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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