May 31st, 2024
1. Javier Milei travels to the U.S. and meets with tech CEOs
Javier Milei is finalizing his trip to San Francisco, California, as part of his fourth trip to the United States as President. His agenda included meetings with leaders of technology companies in Silicon Valley and will end today with his presence at the inauguration of his Salvadoran counterpart, Nayib Bukele, for his second term in office. Among the entrepreneurs with whom he met are OpenAI President Sam Altman; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. He also spoke at conferences and universities on economics and technology. During these meetings, AI and tech development in Argentina were discussed.
DPL News: Milei con los CEOs de Google y Apple, su plan para avanzar en la IA
2. Nicolás Posse resigns as Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francos takes over and cabinet changes expected
After several weeks of tensions between Nicolás Posse and President Javier Milei, the now former Chief of Staff resigned and was replaced by the Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos. As a result of this, the Chief of Staff absorbed the competences of the Ministry of the Interior, in a Secretariat of the Interior, in charge of Lisandro Catalán. In addition to this change, yesterday Pablo De la Torre, now former Secretary of Childhood and Adolescence of the Ministry of Human Capital, was forced to resign following allegations of corruption with the delivery of food, and some secretariats of the Ministry of Health were restructured. And others are rumored: Diana Mondino is expected to leave her position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, since, as a result of the diplomatic conflict with Spain, the Executive Branch is lowering her exposure. There is also a growing rumor that the Ministry of Infrastructure will finally be created and that Federico Sturzenegger will occupy the position, as initially proposed. Finally, it is also expected that the new head of the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) will be Sergio Darío Neiffert, former head of Acumar, after the resignation of Silvestre Sívori. However, Francos denied yesterday any further changes in the cabinet.
Ámbito Financiero: Javier Milei echó a Nicolás Posse del Gabinete y Guillermo Francos ocupará su lugar
PuntoBiz: Javier Milei echó a Nicolás Posse del Gabinete y Guillermo Francos ocupará su lugar
3. Government obtains approval for Bases Law and tax package
After a day full of tension and last-minute negotiations, the Government reached an agreement to unblock the resistance of several senators of the pro-dialogue opposition and will have the committee rulings that will enable the approval of the Basic Law and the tax reform bills. Once this step is completed, which took place this Thursday, the ruling party will be able to call a session for next week to deal with both initiatives. The situation was finally unblocked after the Chief of Cabinet, Guillermo Francos, and Vice-President Victoria Villarruel met in the presidency of the Upper House with senators José María Carambia (Por Santa Cruz), Guadalupe Tagliaferri (Pro-Capital) and the dissident Peronist Edgardo Kueider (Unidad Federal-Entre Ríos). The three ended up giving their signatures in partial dissidence, and thus the Bases Law bill reached the majority required to obtain a ruling. At the same time, the tax package finally obtained the committee’s opinion this Thursday. The decision to have the two opinions together was what led to the postponing of its official presentation.
4. PRO internal conflict continues and grows stronger
Finally, the internal conflict between Mauricio Macri and Patricia Bullrich crystallized in a rupture. The deputies who respond to the Minister of Security launched today “PRO Libertad,” a bloc of their own in response to the wave of resignations in the board of directors of the party in the province of Buenos Aires, which aimed at consecrating the national deputy, Cristian Ritondo, as the new president of the yellow group at a local level. The fracture was maturing in the last days and was formalized this Tuesday. Through a communiqué, the parliamentarians who are loyal to Bullrich made official the decision to constitute a bench in the Buenos Aires Legislature, in the middle of the hard dispute about the course that the party should take before the government of Javier Milei. “PRO Libertad is born in the province of Buenos Aires: an unwavering commitment to change,” states the heading of the communiqué signed by the Buenos Aires deputies Fernando Compagnoni, Sofía Pomponio, Florencia Retamoso, Abigaíl Gómez, Oriana Colugnatti and Senator Daniela Reich. Previously during this week, Bullrich had accused Ritondo of carrying out a “coup d’état” after the massive resignation of Pro leaders. On the other hand, she asked everyone to pull for the same side because otherwise “the same old ones will come back.”
5. Government temporarily cuts gas supply to CNG stations and large industrial users
At the beginning of this week, the Government decided to cut the gas supply to all Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) service stations in the country and also to large industrial users. The decision was taken by the crisis committee convened by the Energy Secretariat led by Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, the National Gas Regulatory Entity (Enargas), the Wholesale Electricity Market Administration Company (Cammesa) and companies of the sector, after an LNG ship purchased from Brazil’s Petrobras refused to pay with a letter of credit, for the more than US$20 billion that the cargo cost. Finally, after a negotiation by Diana Mondino, Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, the letter of credit was accepted, the LNG began to be unloaded and the situation was resolved. The Secretary of Energy, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, mentioned that the lack of local gas was due to the unfinished works of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline during Alberto Fernández’s administration. He added that the gas demand is due to the fact that “we are in the coldest autumn since 1980, which was not forecast.”
Infobae: Falta de inversión e imprevisión: cuáles son las causas de la falta de gas y a qué sectores afecta