President Fernández arrives in Mexico for G20 summit

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner arrived in Mexico yesterday for the Group of 20 (G20) Summit. The Summit, which takes place in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, aims to secure a long-term strategy for European growth and financial security and runs from the 18^th to the 19^th June. President Fernández is expected to raise issues about fiscal adjustment policies favoured by the IMF and promote the importance of economic growth and employment.

President Fernández and her Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff met earlier today to discuss their visions for global economic growth. Together they are expected to present a common stance on the importance of new strategies, as well as a unified position against the protectionism exhibited by developed countries which blocks goods from emerging economies such as Argentina.

President Fernández has already raised doubts over the efficacy of IMF policies and will present arguments for supporting growth over austerity measures. She has also scheduled meetings with Vladmir Putin and Francois Hollande before the close of the Summit tomorrow. The Argentine leader recently congratulated Hollande on his presidential win and expressed desires for the two countries to work together to promote economic policies that run against fiscal austerity measures.

Today President Fernández takes part in a plenary session of the summit titled “The Global Economy: A Framework for Robust, Sustained and Balanced Growth”. The session is set to be a heated debate between countries advocating for a bailout of European banks and those favouring policies supporting social investment and employment. The Argentine leader is expected to face questions about the Falklands Islands and the nationalisation of YPF in particular and could face opposition from groups who criticise the takeover of the formerly foreign-owned oil company.

Tonight President Fernández will attend a leadership dinner before a second plenary tomorrow which will focus on economic inclusion. Tomorrow, the summit comes to a close tomorrow and the President will return to Argentina.

Protests took place yesterday on the eve of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit, which began today in Los Cabos, in the state of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Yesterday, thousands of representatives from different organizations marched through Mexico City to express their opposition to the G20 conference and the economic policies it represents.

Protestors denounced the role of neoliberal policies in the creation of social inequality and poverty throughout the world. Many citizens also used the march to express their rejection of current Mexican President Felipe Calderón, pointing to the rise in unemployment and the thousands of deaths due to organized crime that have taken place during his presidential term.

Another march of around 500 protestors took place in La Paz, which has become the headquarters for an international meeting of organizations and individuals determined to show their opposition to the economic, environmental, and social policies upheld by the G20. The Group of 20, the leaders of the most important industrialised and emerging economies, are meeting at a luxury beach resort in Los Cabos to discuss the most recent financial crisis.  The majority of activists and organizations dedicated to opposing G20 policies were not allowed into Los Cabos due to security regulations established for the conference, but decided to carry out peaceful protests, forums, and workshops in the city of La Paz.

Some larger civil society organizations like Oxfam have expressed their concerns with the G20 to the press and in meetings with officials from participating governments. In an interview with CNN, Director of Oxfam Mexico Carlos Zarco asked that conference leaders think not only about how to rescue Greece and Spain, but to also think about long-term economic solutions that could help combat poverty in developing countries.

It’s Friday again!

And honestly I have no idea why I sound so cheerful when in fact everything that happened this week pretty much sucks.

Seriously! People dying, prices skyrocketing and on top of that, Big Brother Argentina is back. It’s been a tough week.

So I will understand if after reading this you decide to go spend your Friday night drowning your sorrows in alcohol.

Unless you’re reading this on Sunday morning while having breakfast. If that is the case then I’ve totally made your Sunday ever more horrible than it already is, and for that I apologize.

Here’s what you need to know:

• 

  "Come on, let's blow this joint," Obama said. Cristina agreed, giggling. (Photo/Wikipedia)

  Alright guys. Honestly it’s very strange, but the US has suddenly had a change of heart and it seems that all it wants to do is become Argentina’s totally cool BFF these days.  Remember last week when I told you that Barack Obama had asked for a private meeting with President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner when they met in Cannes for the G20 Summit? Well it happened! What did they talk about? Are they best friends yet? Will Argentines continue to require a visa to enter the US? Did they swap spit? No, yes and maybe. So after the meeting they said the usual: blablabla “important business partners,” blablabla “opportunity to be friends again,” blablabla “we both care about science and technology,” and not much more, all while they were trying to fight the strong sexual tension between them. That’s it. Here’s a video of the joint conference they held afterwards, and if you want to know more, then go check the news and find out for yourself. I’m not your bitch.

• Minutes before the first meeting between the G20 presidents yesterday, Obama, Fernández de Kirchner and French President Nicolas Sarkozy got together for a brief chat. What did Obama do? He pointed at Cristina and told Sarkozy that “they both needed to learn lessons from her” after she managed to get reelected by such a large percentage of the population. Cristina then spontaneously combusted.

• US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called the President this week and told her that she wanted to congratulate her on her reelection and looked forward for renewing their bilateral relationship and being friends again. A few days later, Clinton’s mother passed away and President Fernández de Kirchner was one of the first to send her a letter offering her deepest sympathies. Told ya! The have gone from this to this in less than a week.

• As if that weren’t enough, yesterday a congressman from New York (a Democrat, obviously) asked Obama to declassify all files that the CIA has on the Argentine dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, since he believes it may help identify many of babies who were born in captivity and improve relations with Argentina.

• So yeah. I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but if you Americans are thinking of asking for money, let me tell ya, we don’t have any. In the meantime, Argentines are loving all this kind of attention, proving that the reason why Argentina hates the US so much is because they want to marry it.

• In other G20 news, Italy’s Prime Minister and perverted womanizer Silvio Berlusconi will continue to behave as such and he doesn’t give a shit about what you think.

• As of last Monday, the National Government announced that the AFIP Tax Agency would require background checks for anyone trying to buy dollars, since for the last few months the Central Bank reserves have been going down like crazy after paranoid crazy fucks, fearing that Cristina herself was going to come for their savings, began sending their money abroad.  So now, in order to increase the supply of dollars on the local market, the Argentine Government has gone all post-9/11 US on our asses. Tough shit!

• In a completely unexpected move, yet totally expected, the National Government announced this week that they had decided to begin eliminating the subsidies that they had put in place in 2003 in order to help a majority of the population when the economy was in the crapper. Now that Argentina is like, the best country in the history of the universe and everyone is rich again, there’s no more need for them! So they announced they would begin by eliminating energy, gas and water subsidies for corporations and eventually for families. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but chances are that very soon your utilities will triple from one month to another. You live in Palermo and you pay $50 a month of electricity? Well, by January you will surely be paying $150.  Tough shit, part 2!

Send Adrian your comments, thoughts or tips at adrianbono@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @AdrianBono

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was received last night in Seoul, by the South Korean leader Lee Myung-bak to speak along with other heads of states from around the world at the opening of the G20 summit to debate the world economy. United States President Barack Obama, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, Hu Jintao of China and Nicholas Sarkozy are among the politicians present in Seoul.

The Argentine head of state was welcomed with a round of applause when she arrived at the meeting.
President Fernández stated at the summit that the solution to the international crisis and avoiding a “war of currencies” is international cooperation between both developed and underdeveloped countries.

She went on to speak of Argentine economic success in recent years and suggested that this is a model that could be applied elsewhere to strengthen the global economy. She stressed the need again for cooperation by stating that “It is impossible for a given sector or economy to grow while the rest decrease or become an obstacle to that economy.”

Despite speaking on Argentina’s own economy, it has been confirmed that Argentine national debt issues with the Paris Club will not be discussed at the meeting as the heads of state are solely “discussing matters that are only related to the global economy.” This was confirmed by both Economy Minister Amado Boudou and Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman. The pair also stated that President Fernández wants to rectify all the problems caused by the 2001 default but denied that G20 was the forum to raise economic issues related to only one country.

She also asserted that developed countries have a “responsibility” to underdeveloped countries and that “holding back their growth and their social inclusion, is not the right way to obtain the goals we proclaim.”

Before returning to Argentina, President Fernández also held a meeting with 30 of the most important transnational CEOs with interests in Argentina in order to foster relations against the global crisis.