Despite the complaints against him for human rights violations and the protests of the opposition, the president Alberto Fernández defended the arrival in the country of his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro. “He is more than invited”said the Argentine president in an interview with Sao Paulo leafin which he defended his management, spoke of the “convulsed times” that the region is experiencing and anticipated that “the real negative consequences of the war in Ukraine will begin to be seen now”.
“Venezuela is part of Celac and Maduro is more than invited,” Fernández responded when asked about the arrival of the leader of the Bolivarian regime in the country, to participate in the regional summit. “Argentina’s position in relation to Venezuela is that, through the Contact Group, stimulate the dialogues that are carried out in Mexico. We believe that this can give good results. The idea is that Venezuelans decide things among Venezuelans, not with us.”, added the President.
Argentina will receive on Tuesday the presidents members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), between them to Nicolas Maduro (President of Venezuela), Miguel Diaz-Canel (President of Cuba) and Xiomara Castro (President of Honduras), accused of human rights violations and censorship of the opposition. The Celac meeting takes place within the framework of the VII Summit, which will take place in Argentina, the country that exercises the pro tempore presidency.
Alberto Fernandez highlighted the triumph of Lula da Silva in Brazil and its importance in Celac. “It is too important a country to be absent from international forums, as happened with Jair Bolsonaro. Now, Celac begins a stage of regional integration in which Brazil will have a leading role”, said the President.
When asked if something similar to the riots in Brasilia on January 8, the President said: “What Brazil experienced should call the attention of the country and the continent. Something like this would hardly happen in Argentina, because we have Armed Forces aligned with institutions, but we had a very serious episode that was the attack on the vice president Cristina Kirchner, we must be vigilant”.
Meanwhile, he referred to his relationship with the vice president and denied an alleged “fight between them over friendship with Lula.” “I may have differences with her, but we do have a coincidence and that is that Lula is a very special person for us, but it is true that he is concerned that the Peronists remain united,” he told the Brazilian media.
He also drew a direct comparison between the Argentine opposition with the legacy of Donald Trump, the Bolsonaristas who attacked the headquarters of the three powers of Brazil and the Chileans who voted for “proposals with Nazi characteristics”, alluding to the candidate José Antonio Kast. “In Latin America we have a right that is very strong. Here I won, but the right had 41% of the votes. The election of Brazil was also very disputed”.
Fernández described his government as one that “has been working well”, although he warned of the “disaster of the Macri government”, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine as the main factors that complicated the management. “If you ask me if I am satisfied, no, the poverty and inflation figures are very worrying”.
Regarding whether he will run for re-election this year, he said he was convinced that the Frente de Todos would win, but that both he and another of the leaders could be a candidate. “The only thing I don’t want is for Macri to win again”, Fernández pointed out against the former president. “Macri or any of his circle, Macri and what he represents, which is the opposite of what we have done.
THE NATION