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Moyano eyeing presidential seat?
Buenos Aires Herald
December 28, 2009

by guillermo h skel
Herald staff

Encouraged after having averted the split of Argentina's largest umbrella union and in the face of the low popularity of President Cristina Kirchner and her husband, ex-president N stor Kirchner, CGT leader Hugo Moyano seems to be eyeing the presidency in 2011.

"As long as we continue to organize ourselves we will be strengthened and as long as we are strengthened it will be possible to attain what all workers deserve, that some day a unionist takes office at the Government House," he said at a union rally a week ago.

A week before that, he had managed to gather about 80,000 workers from the teamsters union headed by his son Pablo Moyano, at the V lez S rsfield soccer stadium where he and Mrs. Kirchner celebrated Teamsters' Day reinforcing their coalition.

Moyano is the main ally of the Kirchners, who suffered a severe defeat in the June mid-term vote, when 70 percent of the population voted against the government.

After that, the Peronist Kirchners, who until this month still controlled Congress, moved quickly to pass a battery of legislation that the opposition claims is a manoeuvre to support a would-be reelection of N stor Kirchner.

Among the new legislation is a media anti-trust law targeting mainly the Clar n conglomerate that the Kirchners say is plotting with the opposition and some economic sectors to destabilize the government.

Also, Congress passed a political reform that the opposition says is aimed at forcing dissident Peronists to face Kirchner in a primary, in the belief that his control of the party's machine will allow him to beat them.

But the reform also reinstated the compulsory, simultaneous and open primaries that Kirchner eliminated to appoint his wife presidential candidate without resorting to a primary in 2007.

Critics of the "ruling couple" say that that the reinstatement of open primaries will be the Achilles' heel of the Kirchners, arguing that they are now so unpopular that people will massively vote in the primary against any Peronist challenging them.

Furthermore, they add, if Kirchner manages to win the primary he would be beat by any opposition leader if there is a runoff, among them, possibly Vice-President Julio Cobos.

Cobos is the politician with the best image while the Kirchners have the worst public image of all Argentine politicians.

Kirchner became president after Carlos Menem, who had beat him in the first round vote in 2003, dropped out of the race fearing that voters at large would favour Kirchner in the runoff.

Aware of his political weakness, even Kirchner supporters admit that the ex-president would need a proxy. And here is where Moyano could fit in.

Opposition leaders say that he could have hardly advocated a unionist for president without the green light of the Kirchners. Some say that Buenos Aires Province Governor Daniel Scioli could be another option but he is also highly discredited after having filed "a virtual" candidacy to support the Kirchners. After being elected to the Lower House he refused to take his seat as a deputy and continued to be a governor. Also, his province is a hotbed for crime, one of the main concerns for Argentines, and is in dire economic straits amid the country's crisis.

In July, large unions, upset at what they say is the Kirchners' favouritism of Moyano in the distribution of union-run social funds, put the Peronist-run umbrella union at the brink of schism but Moyano managed to avert it.

He had accused them of having "hidden beneath the bed" when unionists were being persecuted and killed under the 1976-1983 military dictatorship that killed thousands of people.

Attending the rally in which he advocated a unionist for president were many of the most outstanding union leaders: Mario Manrique (SMATA mechanics union workers), Antonio Cal (UOM metal workers) Julio Piumato (court workers), Omar Viviani (taxi drivers), Omar Plaini (newspaper street vendors), Juan Carlos Schmid (longshoremen) and Domingo Moreira (ceramics workers), among others.

After the rally, Manrique, asked by the Herald whether the unionist president could be Moyano himself, replied: "It can be any man coming from union ranks."

President Luiz In cio Lula da Silva, from Brazil, a country often used by Argentine politicians to trace comparisons, is a former winch worker.

Most CGT leaders spoke of the alleged destabilization attempt, and some of them launched veiled criticism against ex-president Eduardo Duhalde, who says will beat Kirchner in a Peronist primary and run for president.

Manrique, asked whether Duhalde could be counted among the "plotters" said that it would be not proper to mention any names.

Schmid has said that Duhalde was a democratic man but that his statements that the government "has a deadline" points to a termination of the presidential term.

All union leaders highlighted the importance of the UOM and SMATA leaders sharing rallies such as that held at the SMATA headquarters in Buenos Aires. Schmid said that the UOM had been failing to attend those rallies for more than 30 years.

Moyano's "personal" leadership of the CGT has been challenged by the "fat cats," among them the leaders of large unions like the Federation of store clerks (Armando Cavalieri), health workers (Jos Luis Lingieri) and power utility workers (Oscar Lescano).

The leaders of the UPCN civil servants union (Andr s Rodr guez), the UOCRA construction workers union (Gerardo Mart nez) and Cal had been taking more independent stances. Cal 's attending the rally at SMATA was hailed by Moyano, who said: "There are more things uniting us than separating us."

Asked about the absence of the "fat cats," Manrique said that never all union leaders were gathering at one same rally. "There have always been some nuances. Now, what really matters is that there are no creaks in the union movement."

Schmid and Plaini highlighted that some UOCRA leaders had attended, and that leaders of UPCN and the SUTERH janitors union led by V ctor Santa Mar a attended the launching the previous day in the City branch of the 62 Organizations the political arm of the CGT, something that Moyano hailed as of being of the utmost importance.

Viviani was one of the most vocal speakers at the SMATA headquarters rally. He criticized calls by CTA independent umbrella union supported by the opposition to obtain legal status. He added that it was not enough with saying "my life for Per n. If it is necessary to defend the national people's model, we must be ready to really give our lives."

His words were met with chants by hundreds of union members that "unions belong to Per n," the legendary three-time president who died in 1974 and was succeeded by his third wife, Mar a Estela Mart nez de Per n, aka "Isabel." She was toppled by the military in 1976.

Just hours after the government was defeated in the June 28 mid-term vote, Kirchner quit the Peronist chair of the party and appointed Scioli instead. Dissident Peronists cried foul, saying that the party could not by led by a loser.

However, Kirchner supporters, among them Moyano who is the party's second vice-president urged Kirchner to resume the leadership. According to Tres de Febrero Mayor Hugo Curto, Kirchner would do so in late January or early February.

The same as in 2003, the party is in disarray, with dissident Peronists even fighting among themselves.

Duhalde's candidacy was severely criticized by former Buenos Aires Governor Felipe Sol and his ally and fellow Lower House member Francisco de Narv ez, both of whom are also willing to run for the presidency, as well as Chubut Governor Mario das Neves, who launched his presidential candidacy last year.

Duhalde launched his bid after his repeatedly failed to convince Santa Fe Senator and former Governor Carlos Reutemann to become his dauphin. This is the fourth time Reutemann rejects an offer by Duhalde or Menem to be their presidential race champion.

Sources in Duhalde's camp say that he reluctantly launched his candidacy because he is not doing well in opinion polls, among other reasons, for his being "the father of the creature."

Duhalde's support was crucial for Kirchner's becoming president in 2003. However, immediately after taking office he moved to crush Duhalde, who went into a long self-imposed "political exile." Mrs. Kirchner even suggested that Duhalde is a drug lord.

Meanwhile, the non-Peronist opposition also and odd mix is likely to chose Cobos as its presidential candidate.

Cobos was expelled from the Radical Party after he sided with the Kirchners in 2007 but after he last year supported farmers who are locked in a fierce dispute with the government over export duties, the Radicals said that they would welcome him back.

The Radicals, highly dispersed after two Radical-led administrations failed to complete their mandates in 1989 and 2001, have forged an alliance Social and Civic Accord with the Civic Coalition and the Socialists.

There is also infighting within not only the alliance, as Civic Coalition leader Elisa Carri is also eyeing the presidential candidacy, but within the Radical Party itself, a sector of which claims that it should choose a candidate that had never quit the party.

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