The Economist Federico Sturzenegger He was born 57 years ago in Rufino, Santa Fe, grew up in Gonnet, on the outskirts of La Plata, studied at school and public university and later received his doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Son of a member of the National Academy of Economic Sciences of radical origin, Adolfo Sturzenegger, Federico was vice minister of Economy in the government of Fernando de la Rúa in the megacrisis of 2001, then he joined the PRO, presided over Banco Ciudad, was a deputy and He later headed the Central Bank under Mauricio Macri between 2015 and his removal after the 2018 devaluation. Now He is the main author of the decree of necessity and urgency (DNU) and the omnibus law with which Javier Milei intends to deregulate and liberalize the Argentine economy to take a turn from state intervention to the “bath of liberalism,” in the words of the MIT doctor.
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Although it appeared on screen even on the national network where the president announced the DNU, has no position in the State. On his own website, he says that he is a plenary professor at the University of San Andrés and also teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and at the HEC Paris business institute. Furthermore, in 2018 he founded with Gonzalo Lisarrague —owner of an investment manager in Uruguay, Taicua— and financing from the Canadian David Thomson the Latus View office, which is dedicated to companies in the region with the potential for global expansion, especially in the segments AgTech and Fintech, that is, technology applied to agriculture and finance.
With the advice of a group of young lawyers, Sturzenegger During the last year, he analyzed all the laws that in his opinion impede the functioning of the free market, according to one of the main studies of the City of Buenos Aires, that is, of large companies. “Not all of these lawyers were satisfied with the final result,” they add. “They had little experience in administrative law and that was noticeable in the drafts because they did not pass a minimum constitutionality check. Afterwards there were several hands of lawyers from large law firms, but not the law firms themselves because it would be at odds with ethics in the practice of the profession and with registration. But there were individual professionals from specific firms, such as Sergio Arbeleche, from Bruchou & Funes de Rioja, or Roberto Silva, from Marval, O’Farrell & Mairal,” comments the lawyer consulted.
Arbeleche—from the study founded by the president of the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), Daniel Funes de Rioja—advised on the Large Investment Incentive Regime included in the omnibus law, but in the end he did not end up as Secretary of Mining, as was speculated. until Milei negotiated an alliance with the governor of Salta, Gustavo Sáenz, and placed Flavia Royón, former Secretary of Energy of Sergio Massa, in that portfolio. The hand of Arbeleche, former advisor to the Argentine Chamber of Mining Entrepreneurs (CAEM), is also seen in the surgical changes that the project applies to the glacier protection law for the benefit of these businessmen.
Meanwhile, Silva, who advised on financial laws, ended up as president of the National Securities Commission (CNV). He was an advisor to the banks ABN AMRO, Comafi, Supervielle, ICBC, BST, Valores – that of Juan Nápoli, former candidate for senator of La Libertad Avanza -, Itaú, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Nuevo Banco de Santa Fe , Galicia, Hipotecario and La Caixa and the companies Atanor, Massuh, among others.
Sturzenegger publicly mentioned two lawyers. One is the Secretary of Energy, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, who before occupying this position was a consultant on the matter in Spain, also in a law firm there, Cremades & Calvo Sotelo. Rodríguez Chirillo previously worked at the Spanish electricity company Iberdrola. The other mentioned is Jorge Muratorio, partner at Estudio O’Farrell. Muratorio worked for Edenor and the Spanish companies Naturgy (gas), Telefónica and Autopistas del Sol, the concessionaire of the Abertis group in the Northern access that is in litigation with the State after the controversial contractual renewal in the government of Mauricio Macri. He also served to defend the interests of Ford, Farmacity, Medicus and Grupo Concesionario del Oeste, the Abertis concessionaire in the Western access.
“Rodolfo Barra took the final control“, refers in a study by the City to the attorney general of the Treasury, with a long career in administrative litigation law. Under the economical point of view Lucas Llach also advised, who had supported Sturzenegger during his time at the Central Bank. The final texts also underwent the final monitoring of the legal and technical secretary of the Presidency, Javier Herrera Bravo, who had been number two in that portfolio in the Macri administration. “Before that, there were many hands, but a digression that the companies’ studies intervened,” they try to deny in those around Sturzenegger. They also mention a lawyer named Marcelo Julián Hernández.
Sturzenegger began his law review work thinking about an eventual government of Patricia Bullrich. When she lost in the first round and after 48 hours she agreed with Milei and Macri, the former president of the Central made himself available to the libertarian. In the City studies they comment that at first he was also advised by Chilean economists close to Andrés Velasco, former Minister of Finance of Michelle Bachelet, from a family exiled during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and current dean of the London School of Public Policy. School of Economics.
Sturzenegger, Velasco and another colleague, Filipe Campante, wrote a book together in 2021 titled ‘Advanced Macroeconomics’. In the Pinochet regime, the Chicago Boys who ran the economy created a Brick as a guide to their neoliberal reforms, similar to the DNU leaflet and the omnibus law that Sturzenegger proudly presented. Velasco is anti-Pinochetista, but neoliberal like many other Chilean center-left economists. In any case, it is not clear that those around him were satisfied with Sturzenegger’s work, both because of the supposed lack of gratitude to his Chilean colleagues and because of the incorporation into the reforms of ideas more linked to particular businesses, such as public limited companies. of football that Macri promoted, according to corporate lawyers.
The DNU and the bill were also nourished by the contributions made to Sturzenegger by some business chambers related to his liberal thinking. “We gathered what had been observed in different forums and conferences for years that we could not continue as we were,” comments a lawyer who is a member of the Institute for Business Development of Argentina (IDEA). “Federico had been meeting with cameras for months, he was very serious, he wanted to understand each person’s problems,” adds the informant.
AR/JJD
2023-12-31 06:52:30
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