Four years before the biggest fight of the Kirchnerist cycle, when he confronted the agricultural producers based on Resolution 125 that ended with the "no positive" vote of
Julio Cleto Cobos
in the Senate,
Néstor Kirchner
had not served a year as President of the Nation and visited
Expoagro
: spontaneous applause, lemoncello toasts and
the promise of lowering taxes on agricultural exports
.
Néstor Carlos Kirchner took over as president on May 25, 2003 and less than a year later, on March 19, 2004, almost 20 years ago, he visited the most important exhibition in the field: Expoagro.
Organized in Baradero, now it is in San Nicolás, the former president arrived at the site after noon.
He landed in the presidential helicopter at 1:40 p.m. that Friday.
Surrounded by people, for almost two hours he walked and listened to rural producers.
The
Clarín
chronicle reports that between kisses, greetings and shaking hands, the former president expressed his recognition of the agroindustrial sector for its contribution to economic reactivation and said:
"This is the beginning of Argentina's takeoff
. "
Kirchner rejected the car that the organizers of the event offered him and walked about twenty blocks through the internal streets of the property, which was bustling with people.
The former president arrived with his former Chief of Staff, Alberto Fernández, and the former Minister of Federal Planning, Julio De Vido.
The former governor of Buenos Aires, Felipe Solá, was already there;
and the former Secretary of Agriculture, Miguel Campos.
"
Kirchner received shouts of encouragement, cheers and even some spontaneous applause. There were also some complaints, mainly about export withholdings. But for those cases the President had an answer: 'We have to
look for global solutions to the crisis. To the extent that we Argentines improve, the withholdings will go down
,' he promised,"
the journalistic chronicle reported.
On a tumultuous tour, Kirchner headed towards the Zanello stand, a tractor factory in Las Varillas (Córdoba) and took the classic photo at the controls of a tractor.
The Zanello firm went bankrupt in the 90s and was recovered by its workers, so there was speculation at the time if it was not a gesture by the former president.
The day that Néstor Kirchner visited Expoagro and promised a reduction in withholdings "to the extent that we Argentines improve."
In turn, Alberto Fernández, who four years later would resign after Julio Cobos' no positive vote, expressed his surprise at the magnitude of the exhibition: "It is without a doubt a fundamental tool for Argentine development."
One of the highlights of Néstor Kichner's meeting with rural producers was when he ran into Juan Ucelli, from the Pork Producers Associations.
Ucelli stood in front of him with a small ten-day-old piglet in his arms and said: "Mr. President, 100% Argentine pork. Remember that on Monday we started negotiating with Brazil for imports."
Kirchner smiled and pointed his thumb towards the sky.
Later, before returning to Buenos Aires, he raised a glass of lemoncello that had been offered to him to toast the future of the sector.
It was Néstor Kirchner's only visit to Expoagro, at that time under the name Feriagro.
A year later, Felipe Solá, as governor of Buenos Aires, visited the exhibition again.
The Kirchner Government refused to move the withholdings and Solá suggested - for the first time - to apply a system of mobile withholdings so that the tax fluctuates depending on the profitability of the different products.
The day that Néstor Kirchner visited Expoagro and promised a reduction in withholdings "to the extent that we Argentines improve."
The proposal was only carried out four years later, when Martín Lousteau was Cristina Kirchner's Minister of Economy and triggered rural protests.
For 2006, the Government visit was led by the former Minister of Federal Planning, Julio De Vido, who promised infrastructure works and guaranteed the provision of gas and electricity to the countryside.
A few days before the start of the exhibition, Néstor Kirchner had stopped meat exports for 180 days.
In 2007, an election year, the government was attended by Vice President Daniel Scioli, the Governor of Buenos Aires, Felipe Solá, and the Minister of Economy, Felisa Miceli.
This year Cristina Kirchner won the elections and became president of Argentina for the first time.
Months later, the crisis broke out with the countryside, originating in resolution 125 and triggering the "no positive" vote of the vice president as head of the Senate, which reversed the measure of the Ministry of Economy on withholdings on agricultural exports.