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Argentines March in Downpour to Keep Fernandez on Defensive

Cindy Arnson

Cynthia Arnson, Director of the Latin American Program, is quoted in this article regarding the march in Argentina to commemorate Alberto Nisman in one of the largest protests against President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

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The target of the government’s verbal attacks over the past seven years have included everyone from the soybean farmers who account for a third of the country’s exports to hedge funds that refused to take part in a debt restructuring following the country’s 2001 default.

Nisman’s allegations against Fernandez and the march are part of a “judicial coup,” Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said last week. Fernandez’s Chief of Staff Anibal Fernandez called the march organizers “anti-Semites,” linking them with prosecutors who tried to obstruct the investigation into the 1994 bombing.

Those battles are helping fuel a political and economic crisis overshadowing Fernandez’s last year in office, said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. The president’s refusal to comply with a New York court ruling in the bond restructuring case led to another default last year, which kept the nation excluded from international credit markets as the economy contracts.

Fernandez is attempting to “divide the country into the good people in favor of her and the bad people who are the enemies of the nation,” Arnson said. “She does still have a strong base of support, but she’s appearing increasingly erratic and unstatesmanlike.” 

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To read the full article, click here.

This article was also published by Bloomberg


Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more