Nicolas Diana
07/01/2021 2:44 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 07/01/2021 2:44 PM
"As Nestor Kirchner said, we live on the periphery of the world and that costs us dearly. Our mission is to lower costs and make the river transportation system more efficient."
The phrase corresponds to José Beni, the controller of the General Ports Administration (AGP) who, based on the new decree of nationalization of the Hidrovía -published this Thursday- will manage, at least for a year, that key route for the country's exports .
The mention of the former president was made in a talk he gave at the Instituto Patria, Cristina Kirchner's ideological bunker, where
Beni appears as coordinator of the Transportation Commission
.
The event, organized via Zoom in August last year and in which Senator Oscar Parrilli also participated, had as a topic of discussion
"sovereign waters."
Beni, who was the central figure in the debate, took the opportunity to introduce the importance of the Hidrovía, which has now just passed under state control for at least a year.
"The management of the Hidrovía in the next 15 years, the seat of the ports and the change and renovation of the infrastructure, are the three debates that we have raised,"
he advanced to the militants who were listening.
The General Manager of Ports, José Beni, in a talk about the Hidrovía.
Beni's arrival at the AGP
had the backing of Cristina Kirchner, who has known him for years when he was a civil servant during his presidency.
Although they are several years apart -Beni is 51-, they know each other from the Río Gallegos Peronist militancy.
In fact, the official's father, Juan Carlos Beni, was a national senator for Santa Cruz and controller of Formosa.
Alicia Kirchner, who also knows him,
usually calls him "Josecito" when she comes across him.
"She has known him since he was a baby, for her he is always Josecito", they say in the Province of Santa Cruz.
A lawyer from Santa Cruz and with a long history in southern ports, his name was brought closer to President Alberto Fernández by Oscar Parrilli himself, according to sources linked to the Transportation portfolio.
Both Parrilli and Beni have an excellent relationship.
In fact, the AGP and Beni himself depend on the orbit of the Ministry of Transportation managed by the Massista
Alexis Guerrera,
whom he has known since he was in charge of the Argentine Railways, before he took over the area after
Mario's
death.
Meoni.
They have a good connection and from Transportation they highlight their experience in the river sector.
Beni has a good arrival in the unions since he was a member of the Association of the Management Personnel of Argentine Railways, General Administration of Argentine Ports and Ports (APDFA).
He also has good ties with Juan Carlos Schmid,
the general secretary of the Guild of Dredging and Beaconing.
They define Beni as a "
career technician, pragmatic" and assure that he knows the subject of rivers, seas and waterways.
In fact, he already had positions in the area.
He was legal advisor at the Undersecretary of Ports and Navigable Roads, had a stint at the Secretary of Transportation during Kirchnerism and in 2006 he was national director of Navigable Roads until 2012.
With the new decree signed by the President, Beni will be in charge of controlling the Hidrovía for one year, the 3,500-kilometer navigable area through which, according to specialists,
80 percent of Argentine foreign trade passes
,
which was in the hands of the Belgian company Jan de Nul together with its local partner Emepa.
The Hidrovía business is a millionaire and moves about 300 million dollars a year in the collection of tolls from the ships that move through the area.
In principle, during the year that Beni's control and administration over the Waterway lasts, an international tender will be prepared in which companies from the sector will participate for the maintenance and dredging of the rivers.
The decree establishes that this one-year period can be extended if the tender is not made.
And there the doubts of the businessmen of the sector, exporters and even farmers who use the Hidrovía arise to bring their products to the world.
An image of the Hidrovía that goes over the Parana River and Paraguay.
They suspect that the Government, with the impulse of Kirchnerism, wants to nationalize the Hidrovía to manage this millionaire business. In the Transportation offices they deny this version and assure that Beni is "aware" of the limitations of the State to take charge of such a task. "The maintenance of the river is a monumental public work that not many companies can carry out and even the Argentine ones do not have all the scaffolding to do it," they argue.
Along with the suspicions of businessmen in the sector, a group linked to Kirchnerism called "May 25" has been calling for the complete nationalization of the Hidrovía and came out to celebrate the decree this Thursday.
In that group appear, among others, the convicted former Minister of Economy Amado Boudou, the court judge Eugenio Zaffaroni, the trade unionist Pablo Moyano and the ultra K deputy Fernanda Vallejos militate the ultra K.
Sources close to Beni assure that he distances himself from that hard sector of Kirchnerism.
We will have to wait a year.