<a href=www.falkland-malvinas.com>MercoPress, Elected Argentine president Nestor Kirchner, who takes office next May 25, anticipated he will struggle to recover the government’s action capacity and “Argentines can count that I’m not going to be an employee of financial interests”.

Resting for the weekend in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz which he has ruled for the last twelve years, Mr. Kirchner made it a point to underline that he wasn’t going to become a manager for the corporations, but rather a president who will look after the interests of all Argentines.

“We’re the representatives of a new way of making politics that is emerging”, said Mr. Kirchner adding that “our government will be present to thrust open and ensure access to education and health to all Argentines, to guarantee as much as possible jobs and social inclusion”.

When asked about his plans to end poverty and improve distribution, the elected president said that his governments main targets will be to put an end to poverty and social injustice, and to reduce the gap between the rich and the needy.

“We’re going to launch a production and job-creating model including a public works program, following Keynes but without fiscal deficit, and a tax reform plus a head on fight against tax evasion and elusion; those who don’t pay their taxes will be jailed, take my word”.

When asked more specifically about his plans, Mr. Kirchner anticipated a program to build three million homes; a stable exchange rate that helps promote export industries and “a reasonable estimate is 3 Argentine pesos to the US dollar” (the current exchange is 2,80 to the greenback); and strong discussions with the International Monetary Fund.

“We need time to recover our economy, we need several years to improve our payment possibilities with a growing economy and social inclusion”, said Mr. Kirchner. Argentina has a provisional (postponing payments) agreement with the IMF that ends next August, and in September is scheduled to repay over 3 billion US dollars.

Further on Mr. Kirchner admitted that the support of caretaker president Eduardo Duhalde was critical to win the presidential election.

“Without the support of the “duhaldismo”, the maximum I could have reached on April 27 was 12 to 14% of the vote. However this Sunday if Mr. Menem had competed I would have won with 70 to 75% of the vote”.

In his statements to the press Mr. Kirchner has also made it clear he will be taking office not as president of a political party structure (in direct reference to Mr. Duhalde’s stronghold in the province of Buenos Aires, the country’s main electoral circumscription), but as president of all Argentines.

As to the political support in Congress, Mr. Kirchner said he appeals to all sectors, because “this is a unique opportunity to turn the page and build a new country. I’m sure after all that Argentina and its people have gone through, that we’re all determined to build a new country”.

Regarding foreign corporations and privatizations, Mr. Kirchner was positive, “if they begin working for the reconstruction of Argentina, great; if they are only interested in financial and individual speculation, evidently they don’t know what kind of Argentina is emerging”.

Finally Mr. Kirchner stated that most Patagonians feel “very distant” from the rest of Argentina, but “when you look at Patagonia it’s like looking at Argentina: it’s all there, but everything is to be done”.

The elected president is scheduled to return to Buenos Aires on Tuesday when he will announce the names of his cabinet and prepare for the taking office ceremony next Sunday that will have several Latinamerican political stars as first line guests, Hugo Chavez from Venezuela; Fidel Castro from Cuba; Lula da Silva from Brazil; Ricardo Lagos from Chile; Lucio Gutiérrez from Ecuador; Alejandro Toledo from Peru.

Roberto Lavagna the current Minister of Economy is the only confirmed name of the future cabinet. He’s the architect of Argentina’s current quick recovery who held months long negotiations with the IMF and is considered a crucial man for the transition period.

Mr. Lavagna has been promised Foreign Affairs once the new administration settles down.

<a href=www.newsday.com>NewsDay.com By Reed Lindsay SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

May 18, 2003 Buenos Aires, Argentina - In the 1990s, no Latin American leader more unreservedly embraced the market-oriented policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. government than former Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem. So when Menem bowed out Wednesday from his campaign to win a new presidential term, his departure symbolized the end of an era of unrestrained economic liberalization in Argentina. Following the election of left-leaning presidents in Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela, it also was the latest sign in South America of the political shift against U.S. policies. Menem's opponent in the election planned for Sunday, Nestor Kirchner, will assume office on May 25. He has vowed to pull Argentina out of one of the worst crises in its history by replacing a "model of economic concentration and financial sectors" with a large-scale public works program, subsidies for small- and medium-sized companies and increased social welfare. "This new model means taking a stronger position towards the IMF, rejecting the idea that the market will solve everything, and consolidating Mercosur," the South American free- trade bloc, said Torcuato Di Tella, a white-haired left-leaning Buenos Aires intellectual who has spoken in favor of Kirchner's candidacy. Kirchner has said he will give priority to relations with Brazil and the rest of Latin America, at the expense of the intimate ties Menem had knit with the United States. Kirchner has voiced opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which was hugely unpopular here, while praising outgoing President Eduardo Duhalde's decision to abstain on a U.S.-backed resolution in the United Nations to condemn Cuba for human rights violations. "I haven't come this far to make pacts with the past, or for this to all end in an agreement among the elite," said Kirchner, 53, at a news conference on Wednesday. "I'm not going to fall prey to the corporations." Governor for 11 years of the vast, sparsely populated Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner has won praise for running an efficient administration that has stayed debt-free and has boasted relatively low poverty rates despite more than four years of recession in Argentina. Critics say that's the least that might have been expected from an oil-rich province where the government is the main employer. Kirchner's opponents in Santa Cruz say he held power through authoritarian methods and a system of political patronage. What is certain is that the president-elect, who has not held federal office, will face challenges far more daunting than he did as governor. These include a monstrous $130-billion debt, an entrenched political elite riven by factions, unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty and a crisis-weary nation that has come to view its leaders, and even its institutions, with scorn. Worse, Menem's withdrawal prevented Kirchner from solidifying his mandate with an electoral majority. Kirchner was set to trounce Menem in a runoff Sunday, but won only 22 percent of last month's first-round vote - a record low for an elected Argentine president. "Kirchner has a strong discourse, but in Argentina people are used to leaders who say one thing and do something entirely different," said Graciela Ocaña, a legislator with the center-left ARI party. "He's got an enormous opportunity to make up for his lack of legitimacy by pushing through some of the popular measures he's promised." This opportunity will be limited, however, by a lack of money. While the economy has showed signs of rebounding in recent months, the Duhalde administration will leave some potentially explosive financial problems. Most grievous is the ever-rising external debt. To avoid default, Argentina will need a new deal with the IMF after a temporary agreement ends in August. "The IMF is going to demand a high budget surplus and a tough monetary policy to keep inflation low, but this could contradict with the government's plans for spending and growth," said Alejandro Vanoli, an economist at the University of Buenos Aires. Like Brazil's new president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Kirchner has tempered nationalist rhetoric with assurances of fiscal responsibility to international investors and creditors. He has vowed not to renationalize the formerly state-owned companies privatized during the 1990s and has announced that Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna, who negotiated the last agreement with the IMF, will stay on. "Kirchner's not a leftist," said Buenos Aires-based analyst Analia Del Franco. "He isn't bringing a revolution. This is going to be a government of transition, which will be more nationalist than anything." According to Del Franco, Kirchner must win a consensus from a wide range of antagonistic sectors, both within and outside his long-dominant and much-discredited Peronist Party. Menem's supporters hold a significant minority in congress and in the provincial governments, and new anti-Peronist political leaders from both the left and right are gaining force after surprisingly strong showings in the first-round vote. Kirchner must consolidate support from the main Peronist faction, led by Duhalde, his most influential ally in the election. Analysts warn that Kirchner's need for alliances with Duhalde and other party bosses who backed his candidacy may compromise his vow to reform politics and fight corruption. For now, this seems a minor concern for Argentines who, like Ernesto Argento, yearn for normalcy. "We just want this mess to end," said Argento, 69, who runs a shoe-shine shop. "We want a president who will last four years."

boston.com, By Reed Lindsay, Globe Correspondent, 5/17/2003

BUENOS AIRES -- No political leader in Latin America more openly embraced the 1990s market-oriented policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the US government than former Argentine president Carlos Sal Menem.

Menem ended his latest quest for the presidency Wednesday when he bowed out of a runoff election rather than face a potentially humiliating defeat at the hands of fellow Peronist Nstor Kirchner.

The former president's early exit seems to mark the end of an era of economic liberalization in Argentina, and is the latest indication of rising anti-US sentiment and shifting political winds in the region, which include the electoral triumphs of left-leaning presidents in Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

Kirchner, who will assume office May 25, has vowed to pull Argentina out of one of the worst crises in its history by replacing a ''model of economic concentration and financial sectors'' with a large-scale public works program, subsidies for small- and medium-size companies, and increased social welfare.

''This new model means taking a stronger position towards the IMF, going against the thinking that the market will solve everything,'' said Torcuato Di Tella, a political analyst who endorsed Kirchner's candidacy.

Before a meeting earlier this month with President Luiz Incio ''Lula'' da Silva of Brazil, Kirchner told reporters that his foreign policy would make ties with Brazil and the rest of Latin America a priority, at the expense of relations that Menem had cultivated with Washington.

Kirchner also has expressed his opposition to the US-led war against Iraq, which was hugely unpopular in Argentina, while praising outgoing President Eduardo Duhalde's decision to abstain from voting on a US-backed resolution in the United Nations to condemn Cuba for human rights violations.

''I haven't come this far to make pacts with the past, or for this to all end in an agreement among the elite,'' said Kirchner, 53, at a news conference Wednesday. ''I'm not going to fall prey to the corporations.

''Argentines can be certain that the person speaking to them is determined to turn a page in history.''

Governor for 11 years of the vast, sparsely populated Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, Kirchner has won praise for running an efficient administration that has stayed debt-free.

But opposition forces accuse him of keeping a tight grip on power through an ingrained political patronage system.

As president, Kirchner will face a $130 billion debt, an entrenched political elite riven by factional disputes, unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty, growing social movements that have become increasingly combative, and a crisis-weary public skeptical of its leaders and institutions.

To make matters worse, Kirchner will assume office after obtaining only 22 percent of the vote in the first-round April 27 election, two points fewer than Menem received and a record low for an elected president in Argentina.

Pollsters say Kirchner would have walloped Menem by more than 40 points, not so much because of overwhelming enthusiasm for his candidacy, but because of a generalized hatred of the former president, who is widely blamed for driving the nation into financial ruin.

''Hopefully, for everybody's sake, things will change,'' said Amrico Escobar as he leaned on an oversize shopping cart stacked with cardboard and parked on a Buenos Aires curbside. ''I'm 53, and look at the job I have. There is no work anywhere.''

Escobar and his 20-year-old son, Mario, are among thousands of jobless Argentines who have become self-employed trash scavengers in recent years. Escobar voted for Kirchner, whom he ''preferred a thousand times more than Menem,'' but he said his expectations of change are low: ''I'll believe it when I see it. They promise and promise and promise, but they never do anything, except steal like crazy.''

Kirchner's plans to spur growth through increased government spending and subsidies will be conditioned by the tight fiscal straits he will inherit as president. While the economy has showed signs of rebounding in recent months, the outgoing Duhalde administration has left unresolved several potentially explosive financial issues, especially Argentina's ever-rising external debt, which will involve striking a new deal with the IMF after a temporary eight-month agreement ends in August.

Like Brazil's leader, Kirchner has tempered nationalist and leftist rhetoric with assurances to international investors and creditors, including the announcement that current Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna, who negotiated the last agreement with the IMF, will continue in his post.

''Kirchner's not a leftist,'' said Anala Del Franco, an analyst based in Buenos Aires. ''He isn't bringing a revolution. This is going to be a government of transition, which will be more nationalist than anything.''

May 16, 2003 The Transportation Security Administration claims all of its 55,600 screeners have been checked out properly. (AP) In early May, the government announced plans to eliminate 3,000 more airport screening jobs by the end of September. TSA head James Loy (AP) (CBS) The push to put federal screeners at airport gates and metal detectors led to botched background checks on some workers who were then given security passes, a newspaper reported Friday.

Among the foul-ups were questionnaires that were lost and fingerprints that were never checked against a national crime database.

Because of the problems, several major airports plan to recheck the screeners the Los Angeles Times reports. New York City area airports began that process last month, and LAX plans to start soon.

The problems came to light after several screeners were fired for having criminal records. The Transportation Security Administration said it had conducted sufficient checks on all of its 55,600 screeners. But a congressional office told the Times that thousands of workers had not been vetted.

"The legal mandate required them to hire a full complement of screeners, and they couldn't meet the deadline and also run with background checks," the official told The Times.

The background checks are one of several growing pains now afflicting the agency created in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks

In early May, the government announced plans to eliminate 3,000 more airport screening jobs by the end of September. The cuts, coupled with 3,000 others announced in March, amount to about 11 percent of the 55,600 screeners employed. The moves will save the TSA an estimated $280 million, director James Loy said.

The job cuts address critics in Congress, mainly Republicans, who believe the TSA grew too large too fast. To get around a congressionally mandated cap of 45,000 full-time screeners the TSA hired 9,000 "temporary" workers, most of whom were given five-year contracts.

Airline security advocate Paul Hudson said the job cuts would compromise airport security unless the TSA improves other parts of the system. For example, he said, buying more van-sized bomb-detection machines would mean fewer screeners would be needed to operate the labor-intensive wands that detect traces of explosives.

"These labor cutbacks — unless they're coupled with some other measures to compensate to improve the system further — they will result in an overall reduction in security," said Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project.

TSA uses a four-part process to verify that its employees are not security risks. The third step in the process is a background probe conducted by a private firm, ChoicePoint.

A federal office then double checks the information that applicants gave ChoicePoint.

A TSA spokesman tells the Times the fourth step is the only part that is not yet complete.

However, some screeners tell the Times that ChoicePoint did not contact them until they had worked at airports for months. Some workers had to re-submit prints because, they say they were told, they had been lost.

ChoicePoint last year settled a lawsuit brought by the NAACP over the actions of a subsidiary, Database Technologies, which was accused of wrongly purging thousands of voters from the rolls in Florida ahead of the tight 200 presidential election. ChoicePoint acquired Database Technologies after the initial list of purged voters was prepared.

ChoicePoint currently is contracted to provide information on residents of 10 Latin American countries to the federal government.

The company says it buys the files from subcontractors in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. But it refuses to name the sellers or say where those parties obtained the data.

Privacy experts in Latin America question whether the sales of national citizen registries have been legal. They say government data are often sold clandestinely by individual government employees.

The Washington Post Outlook • Argentina, Shortchanged: Former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz explains why the once-prosperous country is in economic meltdown: because it followed the advice of the International Monetary Fund. News from Argentina • Argentina's President-Elect Seeks Allies (Reuters, May 15, 2003) • Argentines Doubtful About New President (Associated Press, May 15, 2003) • Argentines Have Doubts About New Leader (Associated Press, May 15, 2003) • Argentina's President-Elect Scours for Support (Reuters, May 15, 2003) • Injuries Force Russia to Pull Out of ATP Event (Reuters, May 15, 2003) • Why the Hemisphere Resists Most Latin American countries are opting out the Bush administration's war on terrorism.   

Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, May 16, 2003; Page A24

BUENOS AIRES -- Claudio Gerosa has done well for himself. His consulting business all but sprouted wings in the 1990s, growing by 500 percent as he and his partners helped foreign businessmen sell soft drinks, cars, televisions and other merchandise. Gerosa's income quadrupled. He stashed some but spent gobs more: He took the family to Disney World, went through eight cars in 10 years and bought a new home.

"I'm not the kind of guy who hides his money under his mattress," said Gerosa, a tanned and affable man. "I like to spend it."

Enrique Saavedra, 44, is a year older than Gerosa and agonizingly poorer. The past decade was not nearly as kind to him, as the deluge of better-made foreign goods into the country cost him not one factory job but two. Since 1999, he has made a living -- for lack of a better word, he says -- rummaging through garbage for cardboard, cans and other recyclables to sell for a few pennies per pound. He says he earns about $50 a month. Even with the recession, Gerosa says that he earns the equivalent of between $1,000 and $2,000 monthly, down from a peak of $5,000 in the 1990s, but still enough for a middle-class lifestyle.

"We live like animals now," said Saavedra, wiry as a bantamweight and the father of a 9-year-old boy. "What I do to survive is what a stray dog does to survive. I was much better off 10, 11 years ago than I am today. It's like I'm living my life in reverse."

The differing fortunes of the two men provide a vivid illustration of how Argentina's effort to plug into the global economy has split this comfortably middle-class country in two: one well-off and hungry for more, the other wretchedly poor and hungry.

The gap in incomes between Argentina's richest and poorest families is now more than 10 times what it was just 15 years ago. According to government statistics, the wealthiest 10 percent of Argentina's population earned nearly 178 percent more than the country's poorest 10 percent last year; in 1988, the margin was only 18 percent.

It is an epic transformation for a country that has not known pervasive poverty since the Great Depression and has largely avoided the abyss that divides rich from poor in such other Latin American countries as Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela. And it is that growing division that largely fueled the backlash against former president Carlos Menem, who abandoned his bid Wednesday to win a third presidential term. Opinion polls had showed Menem trailing Nestor Kirchner -- now the president-elect -- by margins in the double digits. Under Argentine election law, Kirchner, who qualified for a runoff election by finishing second to Menem in a field of five major candidates in the first round of balloting on April 27, won the presidency when Menem dropped out.

Just a decade ago, Argentina's middle class made up 80 percent of the population, according to government statistics. The unemployment rate had not eclipsed 5 percent since the 1940s, when Juan Peron's government expanded the rights of labor unions, extended government control over domestic industries and modernized the welfare system.

In 1993, however, Argentina's unemployment rate surpassed the 5 percent barrier for the first time in more than 60 years and has continued to climb. Economists estimate that a quarter of Argentina's workforce is jobless.

When Menem was elected in 1989, he sold virtually all of the country's state-run industries, pegged the value of the peso to that of the dollar to quell inflation and borrowed heavily from international lenders such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Those policies yielded a potent but short-lived growth spurt in the 1990s, at once raising the ceiling on possibilities for the educated and well-connected while removing the floor underneath blue collar workers.

Argentina's economy contracted by 10.9 percent last year. That, coupled with its default on nearly $141 billion in foreign debt payments and the devaluation of the peso by nearly 70 percent 16 months ago, has dried up foreign investment.