CFK returning to work tomorrow

 President also confirms first public activity in Córdoba on Tuesday

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is scheduled resume her official agenda at Government House tomorrow according to official sources, while her presence at a rally in Córdoba province on Tuesday was also confirmed yesterday, which would be her first public activity following the death of her husband, former president Néstor Kirchner.
Media Deputy-Secretary Alfredo Scoccimarro confirmed yesterday Fernández de Kirchner will resume her official activities tomorrow while the Córdoba government announced later yesterday afternoon the President had confirmed her presence at the event.
On Friday, two days after Kirchner’s death, Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo stated “the President will get back to work very soon.”
Also yesterday, Labour Minister Carlos Tomada expressed his support for the idea of Fernández de Kirchner’s re-election bid next year, in line with recent statements byForeign Minister Héctor Timerman.
Fernández de Kirchner spent the night in Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz province, after the remains of her husband were taken to the local cemetery, and travelled to her residency at El Calafate after the coffin was placed in the Kirchner’s family vault yesterday morning.
The President was joined by her children, Máximo and Florencia, at a house in the Barrio Jardín neighbourhood, where her late husband planned to have his legal address changed to.

Fernández de Kirchner had suspended her official agenda for 48 hours last Monday due to an angina before the sudden death of her husband on Wednesday.
Kirchner’s burial was initially scheduled for Friday night, but official sources confirmed his coffin was placed in his family vault yesterday morning as the wake held at the Río Gallegos cemetery extended overnight due to the large number of people that went to the cemetery to pay their last respects to the former president.
The remains of Kirchner, 60, will remain in the crypt, owned by his cousin Carlos Kirchner, until the construction of a new family vault is finished.
On Friday night, Fernández de Kirchner thanked Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the members of the cabinet who travelled to Santa Cruz for the funeral.

The President headed the official ceremonies following the death of her husband and is scheduled to return to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning to resume her activities.
Yesterday, the pro-government sectors of the Peronist party — which Kirchner headed at the time of his death — confirmed their support for the administration of Fernández de Kirchner and considered the President is “the political boss” and the “best representative figure” of the party, which is formally headed by Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli following Kirchner’s death.
Deputy Agustín Rossi, the head of the ruling party caucus in the Lower House, said “it is clear” that the President “is our boss.” However, asked about the statements of Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman who said Fernández de Kirchner will run for re-election next year, Rossi stated “it is not the time” to evaluate such a decision.
San Juan Governor José Luis Gioja agreed with Rossi as he considered as “inopportune” the statements by Timerman while he did not rule out the possibility of a reunification of the Peronist party as stated by Hugo Moyano, the head of the CGT union umbrella group.
Scioli is scheduled to meet with Peronist mayors and party authorities tomorrow to “honour the commitment of Néstor Kirchner with Buenos Aires province,” according to government sources.
The Buenos Aires Governor also praised the “maturity of the CGT and (local) businessmen,” who resumed talks following the death of Kirchner and confirmed the suspension of the CGT-sponsored profit distribution bill which was introduced by Deputy Héctor Recalde in Congress.
“I praise the maturity of the businessmen and the CGT,” said Scioli. “We have a big challenge ahead of us to continue the path of growth,” he added.

Opposition calls to ‘defend institutions’

Officials confirm support for CFK government but voice criticism

Opposition figures from different parties agreed yesterday on the importance of “defending the institutions” after the death of former president Néstor Kirchner and confirmed their support for President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to stay in office until the elections of 2011 — although they confirmed their criticism toward the government — amid the power struggle which is likely to beunleashed due to the political void left behind by the head of the Peronist Party.
Left-wing Proyecto Sur leader and Lower House Deputy Fernando Pino Solanas called for anti-Kirchnerites to “help the country recover” and said he did not know how the ruling party would “resolve the void” left by the former president.
Since Kirchner’s death from a heart attack on Wednesday, the majority of the opposition kept a low profile and made cautious and respectful statements, avoiding any predictions about the political future of the country following the news of Kirchner’s death. However, many opposition figures began to refer to the probable political situation in the near future yesterday.
Radical Deputy Ricardo Alfonsín stated he does not believe “any major changes will be seen in the ruling party or the opposition” and also expressed his doubts about a possible reunification of the Peronist party — currently divided between pro-government and dissident factions — as suggested by CGT union umbrella group leader Hugo Moyano, a close ally to the late former president.
“We are not willing to generate conditions to achieve that rapprochement,” said Alfonsín, one of the two possible presidential candidates of the Radical Party along with Vice-President Julio Cobos. The son of the late former president Raúl Alfonsín also stated his party “will continue with the same (political) position as always” and insisted the Radical Party “does not change its opinions and considerations” about the national government.
However, Radical Party chairman Ernesto Sanz had a more conciliatory stance and said he hoped “the country can modify its confrontation agenda.”
On Thursday, a delegation of the Civic Coalition visited Government House to express their condolences to the President and her family, although coalition leader Elisa Carrió did not attend, neither did she make any public statement of condolences for the Kirchner family.
Civic Coalition Deputy Adrián Pérez tried to defend the attitude of the lawmaker yesterday and considered “absolutely hypocritical and harmful” the gesture by several opposition leaders who had voiced strong criticism against Kirchner and changed their attitude after his death.
Although Pérez did not made any particular reference, his statements seemed directed at Cobos, who had been at odds with the government since the farm sector protests in 2008 but referred to Kirchner as “a great president” after his death.
“That’s absolutely hypocritical and harmful, you can’t be a critic and all of a sudden praise (the government)” said Pérez. “There have been officials who had that attitude and I find it absolutely wrong, almost speculative,” he added.
Meanwhile, Solanas insisted on the importance of “defending the institutions” and expressed his concern on “how to resolve the void left by a man who covered so many fronts,” although he stated he was “not underestimating or denying the capacity of the President.”
However, Solanas also criticized the government for “the way they have handled the Congress and how they have distorted the institutional life of the country,” which he considered “unacceptable.”
“We cannot continue on this road,” said the filmmaker. “Congress had worked to 30 or 40 percent of its capacity,” he added.

Scioli confirms support for President

Moyano: ‘Cristina is the boss’

Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli and Hugo Moyano, the head of the CGT union umbrella group, yesterday both expressed their support for President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner following the sudden death of her husband former president Néstor Kirchner on Wednesday.
Scioli, who was vice-president during Kirchner’s term in office (2003-2007), arrived at the Government House early yesterday and was part of the motorcade that took the former president’s remains to the Metropolitan Airport.
“I will be wherever Cristina needs me,” Scioli said when entering the Government House yesterday morning. “That was always Néstor’s request, to administrate with her,” added the Buenos Aires governor.
Moyano — who had already confirmed the support of the CGT for the government of Fernández de Kirchner that same Wednesday — said yesterday that “Cristina is the boss.”
Moyano considered the “massive turnout” to Kirchner’s wake at the Government House proved “the absolute and total support of the people” for her administration.
Kirchner was chairman of the ruling Peronist party. Scioli, who was the party’s vice-president, is technically in charge. But Government House sources said that “Cristina will be the party leader.”

Weeks before Kirchner’s death speculation was rife that Scioli, who was outperforming the Kirchners in public opinion polls, would make a bid to clinch the Peronist party’s presidential nomination next year with or without Kirchner’s blessing.
Also yesterday, the head of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Hebe de Bonafini, stated the human rights organization was “proud of being Kirchnerite” and supported the alliance between the government and the CGT.
Meanwhile, the CGT leader also hinted at the possibility of a reunification of the Peronist party — currently divided between a pro-government and a dissident faction. Peronism, Moyano said, is “like a big family” despite the differing views of many of its officials.
“I think it is possible,” said Moyan when asked by journalists about the possibility of a reunification of the Peronist party. Moyano claimed “there have always been some differences” within the party “because it is such a large movement.”

“The only person who could hold together the Peronist movement was (former president Juan Domingo) Perón,” said Moyano. “After him, it has been very difficult,” added Moyano. On Wednesday, after the former president’s death, unconfirmed reports surfaced that Moyano and Kirchner had argued on the phone about the situation in the Buenos Aires branch of the party. Moyano, with Kirchner’s backing, was recently named head of the Buenos Aires province after Buenos Aires province Liuetenant Governor Alberto Balestrini suffered a stroke. But a group of eight Peronist mayors from Greater Buenos Aires, including Tigre Mayor Sergio Massa, are not ready to accept Moyano as leader of the provincial branch.
CFK administration officials meanwhile also tried to put in context Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman’s statements to CNN on Thursday that he expected the President to seek re-election. “Now is not the time for candidacies,” the sources said.

Favale turns himself in to Police

 Two days after arrest warrant issued for alleged murder of Ferreyra

Cristian Favale, the main suspect in the murder of Mariano Ferreyra, an activist of the Workers’ Party (PO) shot dead during a demonstration on Wednesday, turned himself in yesterday after being fugitive for two days following the international arrest warrant issued against him and two other members of the Unión Ferroviaria railworkers’ union — one of them, shop steward Pablo Díaz, was arrested on Saturday.
Photos of Favale — an alleged member of the Defensa y Justicia second-division soccer club hooligan gang who was pointed by witnesses as one of the people who shot Ferreyra during the protest — posing with government officials and other pro-government figures had been found on his Facebook profile, but he denied any ties to the ruling party and stated he took the photographs because he is a “star-chaser.” The photos showed Favale with Economy Minister Amado Boudou, Education Minister Alberto Sileoni and journalist Sandra Russo. Favale, 37, stated he was innocent and claimed he could identify the shooter, who he claimed “had a tattoo of a clown in his right arm.”
Press reports yesterday quoted sources from the railworkers sector who said a man of similar features works as train guard at the Constitución station of the Roca railway line and linked him to the “Guardia Imperial” hooligan gang of Racing Club.

After turning himself in at the Penitentiary Service Unit No. 28 in the Buenos Aires city neighbourhood of Congreso, Favale was transferred to the Internal Affairs Division of the Federal Police. Favale’s lawyer Sergio D’Amico said his client “is willing to testify” in the case.
Roca railway line shop steward Pablo Díaz has also been arrested in the case, while another unionist remains fugitive.
Ferreyra, 23, was shot dead during a demonstration in support of outsourced workers from the Roca railway line. The left-wing activists were ambushed by a group of alleged railworkers’ union activists, killing Ferreyra and wounding three others. Elsa Rodríguez, one of the people wounded, remains hospitalized in critical condition after being shot in the head.
Several opposition figures had denounced ties between the government and the leadership of the Unión Ferroviaria union and voiced strong criticism against the ruling party for the incidents.
PRO Deputy Gabriela Michetti said the government “aims to keep away (from the incident) rather than resolving” the case, while former Health minister Graciela Ocaña warned that if President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner wants to find the “ideological authors” of the murder should “look around and behind her.”
Also, Radical Party chairman Ernesto Sanz warned that the photographs found in Favale’s facebook profile proved the government “recruits violent people” who “receives money from the state.”
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner herself downplayed the importance of the photos and defended Boudou and Sileoni via her Twitter account, where she expressed the photographs were “casual pictures” taken “at a public event” and did not prove any link between the government officials and the suspect.
Senator Miguel Ángel Pichetto, head of the ruling party caucus in the Upper House, also considered officials “many times take photographs with people they don’t even know” and claimed “that doesn’t mean absolutely anything.”
Pichetto said the opposition “intends to link the government to the situation” but insisted “there is no relation” between the government and Favale.

Railway union strikes over Díaz’s arrest

President condemns action measure

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner condemned the 12-hour strike which was held yesterday by Roca railway line workers to protest unionist Pablo Díaz’ arrest on Saturday. Díaz is suspected of being connected with the murder of Mariano Ferreyra — a Workers’ Party (PO) activist shot dead during a protest last week.
Fernández de Kirchner considered the measure to be “shameful” and urged “not to pressure the judiciary.”
“Strike at the Roca (railway line). A shame of the same dimension as those who refused to collaborate with the judiciary before being rehired,” posted the President on her Twitter account in reference to the alleged attitude of outsourced workers who demanded to be rehired in exchange to testify before the judge. “Let the judiciary work without pressures or extortions,” added the President.
The strike was announced by the Unión Ferroviaria railworkers’ union to protest Díaz’ arrest. He is accused of heading the group — allegedly formed by Unión Ferroviaria members — which ambushed and opened fired against the outsourced workers and left-wing demonstrators during Wednesday’s protest, killing Ferreyra and wounding two others, one of them a woman who remains in a critical condition in hospital.
The measure was lifted following the mandatory conciliation ruled by Labour Deputy-Minister Noemí Rial at midday yesterday.
Díaz is believed to have ties to  José Pedraza, the leader of the railway workers’ union, and was described by several press reports as the right hand man of Unión Ferroviaria Administration Secretary Carlos “El Gallego” Fernández.
The Workers’ Party released a statement yesterday condemning the strike at the Roca railway line, which they considered to be “a lock-out of the Unión Ferroviaria gang to cover up a crime.”
The PO accused the union of “managing labour relations at the railway line in representation of the government and the private companies, while they also own several of the outsourced companies.”
The party headed by left-wing leader Jorge Altamira claimed the strike “demands the release of the leader of the gangs from the union bureaucracy who has been arrested following a judiciary order — Pablo Díaz — and prevent the arrests of Juan Carlos ‘Gallego’ Fernández and José Pedraza.”
“The lock-out is also an extortion for the government to stop the judiciary’s investigation,” read the statement signed by Altamira and PO officials Néstor Pitrola and Marcelo Ramal, who demanded “trial, punishment and jail for the political masterminds and attackers of the murder of Mariano Ferreyra and the attempted murder against Elsa Rodríguez, Nelson Aguirre and Ariel Pintos” — the three other activists wounded in Wednesday’s incidents.
The Workers’ Party also demanded “the immediate reinstatement of sacked workers and permanent hiring of outsourced workers.”

Unionist arrested for Ferreyra’s murder

International warrant issued for main suspect, also railway union worker

Pablo Díaz, a shop steward of the Roca train line, was arrested last night in connection with the murder of Mariano Ferreyra, the 23-year-old activist of the Workers’ Party (PO), who was shot dead on Wednesday in the Buenos Aires City neighbourhood of Barracas following a demonstration at the Avellaneda railway station.
Court sources said Díaz was arrested in the Greater Buenos Aires locality of Adrogué. The sources said Díaz — who has ties to the leader of the railway workers union José Pedraza — is suspected of having headed the group that ambushed and shot the activists after the protest.
Sources said more arrests could be made in the next hours. Judge Susana López had ordered the arrest of three suspects, all of them members of the Unión Ferroviaria railworkers union, on Friday night.
The judge also issued an international arrest warrant for the main suspect, who was identified yesterday as Cristián Favale, an alleged hooligan gang member of the the second division soccer club Defensa y Justicia.
According to sources close to the investigation, Favale was pointed at by the witnesses who testified before the prosecutor that he was one of the people who shot Ferreyra during Wednesday’s protest. Sources said Favale was linked to the Unión Ferroviaria railway workers’ union after a series of raids conducted by the Border Guard at two houses in the Greater Buenos Aires district of Florencio Varela.

Photos of Favale posing with Economy Minister Amado Boudou and other pro-government figures such as Education Minister Alberto Sileoni and journalist Sandra Russo were found yesterday on the suspect’s page in the Facebook social network.
Judge López, in charge of the investigation, also ordered a 10-day period of court secrecy as requested by prosecutor Cristina Caamaño.
Meanwhile, Nelson Aguirre, one of the activists wounded during the incidents, confirmed yesterday he was unable to identify his aggressors in a series of images shown to him by the Judge late on Friday.
Ferreyra was shot dead during a demonstration of left-wing organizations in support of outsourced workers from the Roca railway line when they were confronted by a group of alleged railworkers’ union activists who ambushed them in the Buenos Aires city neighbourhood of Barracas. Two other people were wounded in the incident, including a woman who remains in hospital in critical condition.
Yesterday, Aguirre also criticized the work of the Federal Police during the incidents, as he claimed during a radio interview there were patrol cars and police trucks that “could have prevented the ambush.”
Also yesterday, dissident Peronist officials criticized the ruling party for accusing former president Eduardo Duhalde of being implicated in Ferreyra’s murder.
Several pro-government organizations linked Duhalde to the attack and compared the murder to the deaths of picket activists Maximiliano Kosteki and Darío Santillán in 2002, when Duhalde was in office.
Senator Hilda “Chiche” González de Duhalde, the wife of the former president, considered such comments as “miserable” and accused the pro-government sectors of “trying to take advantage of the death of a youngster.”
Dissident unionist Luis Barrionuevo, also a close ally of Duhalde, agreed with the latter’s wife and considered as “stupid” the statements linking the dissident Peronist leader to Ferreyra’s death.

Cabinet chief calls Cobos ‘immoral’

Aníbal Fernández tweets: Vice-President ‘clearly disloyal’ toward the government

The government continued its attacks against Vice-President Julio Cobos for his positive vote to the opposition-sponsored pension bill passed on Thursday, which established pensions at 82 percent of the minimum salary and was vetoed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who considered it “a bankruptcy law” for the state and called Cobos “a squatter” in his post.
Following criticism from several government officials during Thursday and Friday, Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández continued the criticism against the Vice-President yesterday via his Twitter account, where he questioned Cobos’ “clear disloyalty” toward the government and considered his attitude is “immoral.”
“What Cobos has been doing is immoral. Is not worthy of the post. A clear disloyalty. He embarrasses the institutions,” Fernández posted on his Twitter account yesterday.
“Insisting on something in particular, given his deeply-rooted misbehaviour, is trying to plough in the desert. But a petty quota of shame would be enough to understand him,” added the Cabinet chief.
In the early hours of Thursday, Cobos broke the tie of the pension bill vote in favour of the opposition. As several government officials had announced before the voting, President Fernández de Kirchner vetoed the law that same afternoon and accused the opposition of aiming to force the government into bankruptcy.
Cobos gave the closing speech at the IDEA business colloquium in Mar del Plata city on Friday — attended by several members of the opposition including Radical Party chairman Ernesto Sanz, Santa Fe Socialist Governor Hermes Binner and dissident Peronist Deputy Francisco de Narváez — where he defended his decision to vote in favour of the bill.

“We lost the opportunity to implement a great state policy for the pension system,” said Cobos, who had voted in opposition once before during the controversial government-sponsored export duties bill in 2007 and has detached himself from the government ever since.
Cobos considered Fernández de Kirchner “made a mistake” by deciding to veto the law and said he “would have preferred a law with more consensus and more votes.”
“I took my oath to be loyal to the Constitution,” said Cobos in reference to the accusations of “treason” made against him by the government. “And it establishes two articles to define a treason: to rise in arms against the nation or to delegate all the concentration of power in one of the branches of power,” he added.
However, Fernández contradicted Cobos’ explanation and said he should represent the government in the Upper House.
“I know that Cobos, the VP who betrays, is an engineer and not a lawyer, but he could as well get some advice on how not to speak  nonsense,” commented Fernández, who quoted Article 57 of the Constitution, saying “the Vice-President will be president of the Senate, he will not have a vote except in the case of a tie,” and added “he doesn’t have a voice either.”
“The VP is (a part of the) Executive branch (of power) and his salary is paid by the Treasury. Learn it, you don’t represent the Senate,” the Cabinet Chief posted on his twitter site in reference to Cobos’ statements saying “the Vice-President is responsible for other branches of power and eventually replaces the President in case of absence.”
Former Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández also criticized the Vice-President as he considered that “this thing of voting against the government creates a very conflictive situation.”
“It’s very difficult to understand Cobos’ stance because he is there to break the tie in favour of the government, given that it is a presidential system,” said the former government official, who claimed he has “affection” and “respect” for the Vice-President.
Radical Deputy Silvana Giúdici defended Cobos on her Twitter site: “Aníbal Fernández attacks Cobos because he does what corresponds. Cobos’ vote expresses the (will of the) people, he is loyal to his principles, NOT the government!”