Download Cabinet Chief: Alberto Fernandez: Lawyer from Buenos Aires, he

Cabinet Chief: Alberto Fernandez:
Lawyer from Buenos Aires, he worked in the Insurance official agency during Carlos
Menem's administration and is Deputy in the city where he entered former Economy
Minister Domingo Cavallo's lists. He is also remembered due to his important role in
BAPRObank (Banco Provincia) during Eduardo Duhalde's government. He has been a loyal
follower of President-elect Nestor Kirchner and political spokesman for his candidacy. He
represents the province of Buenos Aires in the new cabinet, coming from what it was called
the "green list" of the capital's peronism in the 90's explaining the presence of Gustavo Beliz
and Rafael Bielsa in the incoming team.
Economy Minister: Roberto Lavagna:
Lavagna assumed as Economy Minister to Eduardo Duhalde's government on April 27, 2002
and two weeks before the presidential elections he committed his continuity with Nestor
Kirchner. This means the policies seeking a high dollar price and imports substitution will be
maintained. Two short-term goals: forcing a new agreement with the IMF (the Fund's
demands for a 3-year program cannot be complied) and closing the debt restructuring.
Lavagna is on of the most independents ministers Kirchner will have.
Minister of Federal Planification, Public Investment and Services: Julio de Vido:
Julio de Vido is a childohood friend of President-elect Nestor Kirchner. He will head the
Energy and Public Services areas and nothing less than the renegotiation with privatised
companies over the utility rates, key to the future economic program. He was about to be
named Cainet Chief, but he will occupy this area due to the importance the new government
wants to give to a "neokeinesian" program of public works to reactivate the employment. He
is an architect and has been working with Kirchner since 1987, when the incoming president
was running for mayor of Santa Cruz capital, Rio Gallegos. He was born in Buenos Airs
capital and moved to the province of Santa Cruz in 1982 after working in ex phone company
ENTel for 10 years.
Minister of Interior: Anibal Fernandez:
Lawyer and accountant from Quilmes district, Fernández was the secretary of Carlos
Ruckauf before 2002, post where he gained experience in the negotiation with picket
leaders. He applied that competence as the General Secretary of Presidency although he
was then assigned to head the Ministry of Production. His continuity in the new cabinet
marks the perpetuity of very strong infightings against also continuing ministers like
Lavagna and Pampuro. Fernandez will try to improve the relations between Kirchner and the
provincial governors and will also face a very heavy electoral timetable until the end of this
year.
Minister of Education and Culture: Daniel Filmus:
A magic Education Secretary in the capital due to the continuity he has had. Ha has
managed to domesticate the teachers' unions, thanks to a high budget, and the pedagogical
corporation, a low-profile sector which has been handling the national education since
Carlos Menem's administration. He was designated in Kirchner's cabinet due to his
relationship with incoming first lady Cristina Kirchner, when she was the chief of the
Deputy's Education Commission. He said he would pay the special funds for teachers
("teachers' incentive") and will have to fight for the cabinet's funds.
Minister of Justice, Security and Human Rights: Gustavo Beliz:
This lawyer from Buenos Aires will be probably the most serious source of conflicts within
the new cabinet. He recused the Supreme Court in the lawsuit he filed against Alredo Bravo
and now he must mainstin relations with that govrnment power. Beliz was Minster of
Interior during Carlos Menem's administration and protagonized problems with the Federal
Police; now he will have to get along with Prefecture, Gendarmerie and the Aeronautical
Police. He supported the security program implemented by New York's Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani called "Tolerance Zero." He has walked along many political parties in the last ten
years. He was about to follow Elisa Carrio before the elections were held but he did not
move forward. He was the electoral star in the capital, obtaining 22 seats in the lower house
but lost power and now he has got an investigator office at Austral University in Pilar
district.
Minister of Foreign Relations: Rafael Bielsa:
Lawyer and poet, Bielsa has worked in the Justice area since at least 1983 as
undersecretary, aide and responsible of the Justice's informatization. He finally left the
official sector during the end of Carlos Menem's era and exonerated himself with his past in
the uprising peronism. He worked as computer adviser in Banco Provincia. He assumed in
1999 as the Nation's general trustee, the controller of public expenses. As a writer, he
dreams about being Kirchner's Saint-John Perse, a great French poet, who was ahead of the
Foreign Relations during Charles de Gaulle's administration with his real name Alexis Legér,
the idol of Bielsa who if a Newell's Old Boys fan and brother of the coach of the national
soccer team. His number two will be Buenos Aires city deputy Eduardo Valdes and Guillermo
Oliveri will replace Esteban Caselli in the Cult area.
Minister of Defense: Jose Pampuro:
Oncologist from Lanus district, he represents the guarantee of the Kirchner-Duhalde alliance
but also the prize to the manager of the "neolemas" operation which made Kirchner
president. The artificer of this was Juan Carlos Mazzón who will remain stuck to the new
president and who was led to Duhalde's government by Pampuro. Pampuro does not count
with experience in this area but neither did Ricardo Lopez Murphy in 1999. Nobody can
imagine he will have trouble with the Police, because agents are only worried about how
they will maintain their posts until the end of 2003. Kirchner will be Pampuro's tutor, as he
will be in close contact with he Army.
Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security: Carlos Tomada:
Lawyer and a specialist on labor rights, he is partner in the firm of current Labor
Viceminister Noemi Rial, also wife of former Labor minister Enrique Rodriguez. He worked
for the outgoing Cabinet Chief Alfredo Atanasof as Labor Secretary. He occupied the
Direction of Labor Relations, when the ministry was headed by Ideler Tonelli during Raul
Alfonsin gpovernment. He is a teacher and works as an adviser to UOM and the train
unions. He also colaborated in the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. In 1995, he worked on Jose
Bordon presidential candidacy. Union leaders did not reject his designation in the new
cabinet.
Minister of Health: Gines Gonzalez Garcia:
His designation was delayed because he didn't agree on some distribution of areas with
Kirchner's sister, Alicia, who will head the Social Development Ministry. His continuity is
essential for the government because the fresh funds received by Argentina to finance social
programs and even the current expenses are given in exchange of the development of
health plans.He maintains a good relation with the United States, he heads a private
university, and holds excelent relations with the provincial governors of all the parties. He
shares with the President the passion for Racing soccer team.
Minister of Social Development: Alicia Kirchner:
She is a social assistant with background in the province of Santa Cruz, where she has been
minister during her brother's administration and during Arturo Puricelli's administration. He
has got experience in assistance plans and will have to prove capacity as she is related to
the president. She would be in charge of the plans for unemployed household chiefs
currently under the Labor area, but which under Duhalde's government have been handled
by first lady Hilda Duhalde, now running for national deputy. Of low-profile she has serious
challenges ahead with the victims of the floodings in Santa Fe and the areas with high rates
of malnutrition.
General Secretary of Presidency: Oscar Parrilli:
A lawyer from the province of Neuquen he was part of the "cafierism" (in reference to
politician Antonio Cafiero) in 1988 and supported Jose Bordon in 1995 although he didn't
leave, on Kirchner's advise, the party's affiliation. He was national deputy until 1993 and
has dedicated since then to the professional activity at his office in San Martin de los Andes
city. He participated in the primary againet menemism in Neuquen in 1997 and in 1998 he
was one of the founders of "Calafate" group, a duhaldist progressive movement which was
the basis of Kirchner's support to Duhalde's candidacy in 1999. In the elections held on April
27 this year Parrilli worked for Kirchner's electoral campaign.
Chief of the State's Intelligence Secretary (SIDE): Sergio Acevedo:
Lawyer and candidate for governor of the province of Santa Cruz, Acevedo will remain at his
post for several months, according to what President-elect Nestor Kirchner anticipated. It is
a polemic designation because he was the protagonist of the frustrated impeachment to the
Supreme Court and it is a secret that some times there are communicating vessels between
the intelligence agency and the Justice which no government has broken. He is one of
Kirchner's closest aides as well as the undersecretary Francisco Larcher, a former director of
Santa Cruz Bank and financial responsible of Kirchner's campaign acts. Like it happened
with Fernando de Santibañez designation in the first cabinet of ex president Fernando de la
Rúa, he could be a source of potential conflicts due to his will to end with certain practices.