“En la época de Menem no había grieta porque había trazado un puente”

El recuerdo fundamental que tengo de Menem es su sentido de la tolerancia”, y“en esa época no había grieta porque Menem había trazado un puente. Siempre trataba de seducir al oponente”.

Nunca lo escuché denigrar al adversario o una actitud impropia. Nunca lo escuché hablar mal de nadie”, y: “Otro aspecto muy importante es que Menem le puso punto final a los golpes de Estado“.

Karin Silvina Hiebaum
Mgter. en RREE y Psicología
Corresponsal Internacional

Javier Milei drafts his economic team with two former Menem officials

The candidate announced the inclusion of Carlos Rodríguez and Roque Fernández as possible advisors when he arrives at Casa Rosada

Karin Silvina Hiebaum – International Press
Source La NACION

Javier Milei and Roque Fernández, Carlos Menem’s former Minister of Economy.

With two former officials of Carlos Menem, Libertad Avanza presidential candidate Javier Milei is moving forward in shaping a possible economic team if it comes to power. Through a statement, the libertarian announced the inclusion of Carlos Rodríguez and Roque Fernández, who were part of the Menemist government in the 1990s, in his group of advisors.

Rodriguez, who served as head of the Cabinet of Advisors of the Ministry of Economy between 1996 and 1998 and was Secretary of Economic Policy, would be the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors of the Presidency in the event of Milei’s triumph in the October elections.

This council would also consist of Roque Fernández, former Minister of Economy of the Nation and former president of the Central Bank during Menem’s government. They would also carve into the proposals emerging from this team Alberto Benegas Lynch (H), who recently accompanied Milei in the presentation of his latest book, and economist Juan Carlos De Pablo.

Former Menemist official Carlos Rodríguez, Karina Milei and Javier Milei.

Kindness.

“In the late 1978 I returned from the United States to join CEMA, where I am still after 45 years. The CEMA became UCEMA and I was its founding rector for 24 years,” Rodríguez explained about his beginnings in the statement distributed by La Libertad Avanza. In this sense, the former Menemist official added: “Something similar happened to Roque Fernández. He was working at the IMF when he received the offer to integrate CEMA and decided to return, also in 1978. Roque Fernández accompanied me all these years, also since we were students at the University of Chicago. Now we are both professors emeritus at that university.

Rodriguez also recalled his time in public service with Fernández, who was chief of advisors and deputy minister for two years. “With Roque, we share the same principles of political and economic freedom, openness, integration and competition as cornerstones of a modern capitalist society. These principles guided our research and teaching activities from the time we joined CEMA to the present,” he recounted.

Roque Fernández at Casa Rosada

Roque Fernández is syndicated by Rodríguez as “a fundamental pillar in the implementation of the Convertibility Plan.” The truth is that during the passage of both through the Ministry of Economy in 1996, one of the most severe adjustments to date was announced, which included a tax package that included a sharp increase in fiscal pressure and the reduction or disappearance of various incentive schemes for exports and investment.

In 2018, Fernández had stated in an interview with LA NACION that “strong debt growth can revive populism” and that the fiscal adjustment should not be done by reducing pensions or salaries, but by eliminating “union privilege boxes.” “You have to isolate those sectors with extreme poverty from any adjustment by identifying them properly, with a mechanism similar to the SUBE card. And then increase all tariffs for the rest of the population. This delay in adjustments is not to get out of this populist disaster. It is an effort that we must make among all, although it will cost the government votes,” he told this newspaper at the time, in the midst of the government of Mauricio Macri.