The escalation of tension between the governor of Chubut, Ignacio Torres, and the National Executive reaches Justice.
The Patagonian province will present a lawsuit this Monday to
demand that the 13.5 billion withheld be replaced
and is also analyzing
criminally denouncing the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo.
Meanwhile, the Patagonian leaders met again this Saturday, in support of Torres, and to design
a joint action plan.
The Chubut native insists on the threat that if there is no response from the Government by Wednesday he will cut off the supply of gas and oil.
"The judicial action before the Federal Justice is already in place, to demand the cessation of the illegal detention of the funds and that what was detained from us be replaced,"
the vice minister of Chubut, lawyer Gustavo Menna, assured
Clarín .
This is a self-satisfying measure - different from the precautionary measure - but it also requires an urgent solution.
Furthermore, they do not rule out filing a criminal complaint against Caputo for the Government's actions.
"We are analyzing it," Menna confirmed.
Chubut had already gone to court to complain about the removal of transportation subsidies and this Thursday the Federal Court of Rawson ruled in its favor and ordered it to reverse.
There is now
speculation that there will be a flood of court appearances.
Governor Torres, for his part, had threatened, along with the rest of the Patagonian governors, to suspend, as of Wednesday, the delivery of gas and oil if the Executive did not retract.
This Saturday, late in the afternoon, Torres held a zoom with the leaders Gustavo Melella (Tierra del Fuego), Sergio Ziliotto (La Pampa), Claudio Vidal (Santa Cruz), Rolando Figueroa (Neuquén), and Alberto Weretilneck (Río Negro).
They decided to hold a joint press conference on Monday or Tuesday to "deny" the Government's "distortions."
They are also evaluating legislative actions in Congress.
For this, they activated the group of 24 leaders - where they are all - to work out what measures they can carry out if Milei decides to move forward on co-participation or federal rights.
"And if there are no answers until Wednesday, they are evaluating a gas and oil supply cut for the first time in history," they confided to Clarín.
"It was an excellent meeting.
The Patagonian bloc is consolidated and Chubut's position is shared. An attempt to bring any governor to his knees will not be allowed. There was not yet a definition but alternatives and concrete actions will continue to be evaluated to carry it forward together," they pointed out from the circle of one of the leaders who participated.
The origin of the conflict dates back to the government of Alberto Fernández who, in times of pandemic, created this trust fund through which the Nation granted money to the provinces based on 1% annually updateable by the reference stabilization coefficient (CER), which is basically due to inflation.
The Massista governor Mariano Arcioni took on debt but without the ability to meet the maturities, he requested on different occasions that payment be deferred and the debt accumulated.
From the Executive, Caputo pointed out that the government of Chubut "did not present any request for cancellation of the debt" and that "according to the terms of the loan, the installments are automatically deducted from the shared resources."
But close to Torres, who, like Milei, took office in December, explained that due to the peak of inflation in the last three months it was impossible for them to cancel the debt without affecting the services of the provincial State and that that is why they asked to refinance the installments. December and January but they had no response.
In turn, in December the Chubut Legislature had authorized the province to issue debt guaranteed by royalties.
Last Thursday, they asked the Government to pay the debt with resources obtained from the issuance of those securities.
It is something that
the Central Bank has to endorse
.
But they didn't have a response either.
"There are two options.
Either there is total incompetence and they do not know how to process files or they do it because they want to have the province grabbed by them and suffocated
," says a man from the Patagonian government.
According to them, the Province's budget is made up of one third of its own resources, another third of co-participation funds and another third of what is obtained from royalties.
Meanwhile, the media crossovers continued.
Deputy José Luis Espert stated that not only does the Nation have to adjust, but that "the time has come for politics to adjust as well" and Torres responded.
"In just 78 days, we cut more than 3,500 gnocchi, we arrested a corrupt union member, we intervened in the pension organization that was full of jobs and we moved forward with the largest fiscal austerity plan in the history of the Province. All this, without the support of the Nation. And now, they illegally take away our participation."