Natasha Niebieskikwiat
11/08/2020 17:30
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 11/08/2020 17:30
A little over two months had passed since
Barack Obama's
visit
to Argentina in March 2016. It was a trip that marked a new dawn in ties with Washington and the then newly assumed government of
Mauricio Macri.
And it was historic because it also turned the page on the clashes between the government of Cristina Kirchner and the Democratic administration.
It was on that road already paid that a little publicized trip took place at that time.
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden
, the then second lady and now future first lady, came to Argentina in mid-June of that year.
He came with one of his sisters on a private trip.
The US embassy announced that trip to Buenos Aires and Tucumán
focused the trip on the education of girls and the empowerment of women.
At that time, it was she who asked to have her agenda reloaded with her favorite topics: gender politics and education issues, they were also pillars of her public interventions during the last electoral campaign that elevated her husband, Joseph Robinette Joe Biden jr.
President of the United States.
Jill Biden in Buenos Aires in 2016.
Today, 69 years old, Jill has a master's and doctorate and has taught English and education classes her entire life, including for kids with disabilities.
As
Clarín
anticipated
in an article published last August about the Bidens' relationship in Argentina, Jill already had references from this country and the Democrats were in their last year of government.
That trip to Argentina was part of others he made in Latin America
as part of his farewell.
However, there were some ties.
The Bidens, especially James and Hunter - Joe's brother and son - had had some businesses in Argentina where, in addition, through investment funds they had some degree of approach and advice to the creditors of the debt of this country, such
as the from the Gramercy Fund.
On the one hand, there was the direct relationship between former ambassador Noah Mamet and Obama, which paved the way for the former president's visit.
And on the other,
the relationship between Hunter Biden and Gabriel Sánchez Zinny,
who at that time led the National Institute of Technological Education (INET) and was later appointed Minister of Education in Buenos Aires.
Otherwise everything remained the same within an institutional lane.
On June 23, 2016, Jill Biden met with the now former first lady, Juliana Awada.
It was
at Quinta de Olivos
and later they visited the Chispitas Child Development Center in Villa Zagala (in the San Martín district).
During her time in Argentina, Jill Biden was also in Tuciumán.
On that trip, Jill visited the INET, escorted by Sánz Zinny and
met with Soledad Acuña, Minister of Education of the city of Buenos Aires,
in a meeting that had more than 200 teachers and tertiary managers, who discussed the importance to develop opportunities in higher education.
Jill also held meetings with the then Minister of Education of the Nation, Esteban Bullrich and together they launched a scholarship program for educational exchanges for teachers between both countries.
By then, the Americans reaffirmed the launch of a package of new educational exchanges between Argentina and the United States.
The then always smiling second lady held open book meetings with children and
traveled to San Miguel de Tucumán with Mamet
.
Governor Juan Manzur was waiting for her there, and in addition to visiting the little house of Independence, she spoke to some 1,500 teachers from Tucumán, at the Mercedes Sosa theater.
PB
Look also
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