{"id":35001,"date":"2013-05-21T15:08:08","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T14:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/democracia-k-whats-going-on-in-argentina\/35001\/"},"modified":"2013-05-21T15:08:08","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T14:08:08","slug":"democracia-k-whats-going-on-in-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/democracia-k-whats-going-on-in-argentina\/","title":{"rendered":"'Democracia K': What\u2019s going on in Argentina!?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t<!–Adrian Salbuchi<\/a>–><\/p>\n

Adrian Salbuchi is a political analyst, author, speaker and radio\/TV commentator in Argentina.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

May 25th marks the tenth anniversary of N\u00c3\u00a9stor Kirchner being inaugurated President of Argentina. At the time, few Argentines would have imagined what was in store for their country with the advent of the \u201cK\u201d \u2014 for Kirchner \u2014 Regime.<\/p>\n

Especially after his hand-picked successor Cristina Kirchner
\nbecame president in 2007, later re-elected in 2011. \u00a0A year
\nand a half into Cristina\u2019s second term, Argentina is once again
\nroller-coasting increasingly out-of-control into what may yet
\nbecome another national catastrophe, marked by spiralling
\ninflation, a panic-driven foreign exchange clamp-down, economic
\nslump, increasing street violence, ferocious taxation of workers\u2019
\nfalling salaries and \u2014 worst of all \u2014 rampant, unprecedented
\ncorruption at the highest levels of government.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the economy, stupid…!<\/h2>\n

After her re-election, Mrs Kirchner thought she could easily
\nstay in power by continuing to subsidize the poor, divide the
\nopposition and pick fights with traditional sectors like the
\nCatholic Church, the armed and security forces, farmers, the
\nopposition media, and periodically whip-up \u201cnationalist fervour\u201d
\nwith suitably staged measures.<\/p>\n

\"Argentina's<\/p>\n

Demanding the UK return the Falkland\/Malvinas Islands to
\nArgentina, for example, even though her government has all but
\ndisarmed the country\u2019s armed forces. \u00a0Or permanently harping
\nover the \u201cdesaparecidos\u201d \u2014 the militants who disappeared under the
\nmilitary regime of the \u201870\u2019s – but never investigating Argentina\u2019s
\nnow almost $137 billion foreign debt<\/a> whose roots
\ndate back to that military juntas\u2019 economic policies. \u00a0Or
\nnationalizing Spanish oil company Repsol\u2019s majority shareholding in
\nArgentina\u2019s YPF, which N\u00c3\u00a9stor and Cristina Kirchner helped
\nprivatize 21 years ago. \u00a0Or attacking the opposition media by
\npromoting \u201cdemocratization of the press\u201d, with government taking
\nover key media conglomerates putting them in the hands of
\npro-Kirchner frontmen and targeting \u201cClarin\u201d, the country\u2019s largest
\ngroup. \u00a0More recently, by \u201cdemocratizing\u201d the Judiciary: a
\neuphemism for bringing it under the full control of the executive
\nbranch.<\/p>\n

Most of this has been high profile government propaganda often
\nserving as smoke screens to hide deeper economic trouble brewing in
\nthe dark, involving three key factors that are now all but out of
\ncontrol: inflation, the rapidly depreciating Argentine Peso and
\ngross corruption at the highest levels of government that has all
\nbut halted local and foreign investment and trust. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Inflation & Devaluation<\/h2>\n

First and foremost, then, inflation, which for two years has
\nbeen eroding workers\u2019 salaries at a time when government deficit
\nspending translates as ferocious, record level tax pressure on all
\nworkers. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Private consultancies put annual inflation at 30 to 35 per cent,
\nbut the official government figure put out by the INDEC government
\nstatistics office under the grip of powerful commerce secretary and
\nKirchner insider Guillermo Moreno, says it is \u201cjust 10.8%\u201d.
\n\u00a0This is so laughable that even INDEC\u2019s employees publicly
\ndenounce such blatantly falsified data. \u00a0<\/p>\n

When a Greek journalist recently asked Economy Minister Hern\u00c3\u00a1n
\nLorenzino a simple question – \u201cWhat is Argentina\u2019s
\ninflation?\u201d<\/i> – a visibly terrified Lorenzino looked at the
\ncamera, asked for the interview to stop and was then heard twice
\npleading, \u201cI want to leave\u2026! I want to leave!!. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

He knows only too well that telling the truth about inflation
\nwill get him into huge trouble with Mrs Kirchner, Mr Moreno and the
\nmilitant Marxist organization \u201cLa Campora\u201d led by presidential son
\nMaximo, which today runs much the economy as well as key state
\ncompanies such as YPF, flag carrier Aerol\u00c3\u00adneas Argentinas which
\nlosses around 3 million dollars a day, the Central Bank, and the
\nANSES Public Pensions Fund.<\/p>\n

Last year, the government went into panic-mode imposing an all
\nbut full exchange clamp-down, especially in US Dollar trading, for
\ndecades a key financial indicator. \u00a0During its first eight
\nyears in power, the Kirchner government artificially kept it stable
\nat around 3 pesos per dollar. \u00a0However huge government
\ndeficits and payment of Argentina\u2019s foreign debt forced the
\ngovernment to do everything necessary to get its hands on every
\ndollar in town. \u00a0Result: no dollars for anybody; whether for
\ntravelling abroad, or imports, or the real estate market which
\ntraditionally uses the dollar to offset endemically high local
\ninflation, or for foreign companies to pay dividends abroad.<\/p>\n

The official rate has now peaked to over 5.35 pesos whilst the
\nblack market rate \u2014 which did not even exist until around a year
\nago \u2014 pierced the 10 peso mark a few weeks ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Government Corruption<\/h2>\n

But what has become a prime source of national concern is
\nmassive government corruption<\/a> in which money
\nstolen by Kirchnerites runs anywhere from one to many billions of
\nDollars, or rather Euros, since we have now discovered Mr
\nKirchner\u00b4s fetishist obsession with 500 Euro bank notes. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Kirchner\u2019s own former deputy-governor of Santa Cruz Province,
\nEduardo Arnold, went public describing how he relished touching
\nlarge bundles of cash, filling his pockets, safes and vaults with
\nit. \u00a0A private video from several years back just surfaced
\nshowing Mr K joking with a group of cronies whilst caressing a
\nlarge safe exclaiming \u201cthis is ecstasy to me!\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the \u201cK Corruption List\u201d is very long:\u00a0<\/p>\n