Ignacio Ortelli
06/12/2020 - 13:20
- Clarín.com
- Politics
The expropriation -or not- of Vicentin and the possibility of tightening the quarantine in the AMBA due to the growth of coronavirus cases hogged the official's agenda on Thursday night. Alberto Fernández was reviewing the latest data brought to him by the Minister of the Interior, Eduardo "Wado" de Pedro ; over Catamarca and La Rioja, the provinces he chose to visit at the end of the week. Until the voice of Sergio Berni impacted hard in the Quinta de Olivos and in the Buenos Aires Government: "In security matters we are alone," bellowed the provincial minister, reaffirming that "he does not" have the support of his national partner, Sabina Frederic .
The message was quickly replicated and surprised, by the time it was delivered, to even high-ranking officials from both districts, but again publicly rekindled an inmate who is long-standing and had only been overlapped by the advance of the coronavirus.
It is a dispute in which, curiously, the President and Governor Axel Kicillof reluctantly got involved during the summer and had managed to contain only half, only outwards: the tension between the two ministers never dissipated.
Why is Berni now aiming so hard against Frederic? The last hours explain his explosion. The minister arrived this Thursday to the "Loose Animals" program after spending a good part of his day attending to a complaint from residents of the town of Villa Madero, in La Matanza, where on Wednesday a fumigator was left in the middle of the crossfire between drug gangs . "This seemed like Sinaloa", was the crude opinion of the surgeon and former military man, who arrived very early and left the place late at night. It was yet another episode of a growing wave of insecurity that plagues the Conurbano.
In this context, the Secretary of Security, Eduardo Villalba, appeared publicly, denying that Berni had asked the Nation for the presence of gendarmes, when the provincial official had warned throughout the afternoon that his district needed support with the sending of troops and technology by the Nation.
" They have not asked us yet for gendarmes, " answered number 2 of Frederic, while Berni continued on the main news channels talking about the deficiencies of the Province. "We will have to sit down. There are tables raised since the beginning of the year and there we are going to evaluate what we have in that district, where we have it and see if it is necessary to add personnel. We do things based on planning," Villalba returned, avoiding the controversial, in dialogue with Radio Rivadavia.
Sergio Berni and Sabina Frederic, at a meeting they held in La Plata, in February. That time, Governor Axel Kicillof interceded with Alberto Fernández for an agreement. (Photo: PBA press)
Berni, who said he felt "resigned" by the lack of support from the Nation, unilaterally ordered the installation of a new detachment bordering the Ricchieri Highway, in which a tactical unit of 100 troops will work. He muttered angrily and noted Villalba's response. In their environment, where they warn that they do not know "how many gendarmes are in the Province and where they are", they explained that it was received as "a provocation" , since - they maintain - in the Unified Command (NdeR: the table to which Villalba alluded ) that was drawn up in January, after the first crossing, "there was no progress either."
So when the journalist Luis Novaresio asked him if he received support from Frederic, Berni did not shut up: " I have no support from the Ministry of National Security . Nothing."
However, warned of the resounding support that the President gave to Frederic in the face of each of his questions, Berni made it clear that he thinks that the decision exceeds the minister. "It does not matter that we are all from the same party. It is the will of the Government not to attend a province that is in a deep security crisis and that does not have the human and technological material to face it."
Beyond Berni's statements, in the Province they maintain that it was not a planned claim by the governor , who since he warned the conflict last December, balances and chooses not to confront with the Nation, but also not to disallow his official, with whom in recent months he achieved a higher level of understanding than many predicted at the start of management .
The review is worth it: it was Cristina Kirchner who advised the governor of the landing of his secretary of Security until December 2015. But Kicillof, over the months, knew how to value that election: "When you chose Berni, you know that it comes with his ability to work and also with that personality, "they agreed in the Province before this new conflict.
Frederic, meanwhile, is silent. Advised by her friend and Chief of Staff, Cecilia Rodríguez, who was Berni's minister in the Nation, she announced to her collaborators that she is not going to answer. "Let him fight alone. Security policy is not to walk with a gun in hand, but to manage," he grumbled.
In any case, Gelly and Obes (headquarters of the national ministry) rejected that they have not seen each other since March, when the quarantine was imposed, as stated by Berni . "They were together on May 20, at a meeting in Olivos," they said. And, instead, they questioned that Berni went "to a single meeting of the Interior Council": "He came to the first meeting in Tucumán and then sent lower-ranking officials."
As for the troops that Berni claims, they stressed the need to evaluate each shipment, based on the priorities and needs of all the districts. "The federal forces in total have 90 thousand troops; the Buenos Aires Police alone has 100,000," they explained. "At the time that Berni was hitting us on television, we were supervising an operation in Moreno, to take care of the residents of Buenos Aires," they completed.
Berni, who on more than one occasion challenged the leadership of Alberto F. and said that in the ruling party "the only one leading is Cristina Kirchner", he was not much concerned by the possible reproach of Kicillof , or the anger they sent him from the Presidency after the new crossing with Frederic.
To his collaborators who asked him why his public pronouncement and the possibility that it could lead to his departure, he repeated a phrase he said in America: "To those who look the other way and want to hide the dirt under the carpet, reality will wear them. "
PDL