But when Néstor Kirchner replaced the Supreme Court judges with others he liked better, tried military men but not terrorists, fiercely criticized the independent media and rewarded with generous official advertisement those that praised his administration, and selected his own relatives for highly compensated offices, the Argentine citizens interpreted that what distinguished him from previous presidents were words rather than acts. These days, a scandal regarding service hiring has been made public which presents the features we Argentine people know so well: mark-ups, private companies, public works, state officials and the shadow of several million dollars over details, as if the episode was not cloudy enough.

A big corruption case was all the Kirchner administration was missing in order to appear as purely Peronist, in case someone still had any doubts. The case has reached the court and the newspapers front page. The Argentine branch of Skanska, a Swedish-capital company and the world leader civil engineering firm, bid for the construction of compression plants for the enlargement of a gas pipeline with marked-up prices. Once fiscal evasion through forfeited invoicing had been detected, the company admitted in court to having paid bribes for over 13 million dollars.

The Ente Nacional Regulador de Gas (the national entity that regulates gas) supposed to oversee the works, responds to the Minister of Planning, Julio De Vido, one of the President’s unconditional allies. That is the direct and undeniable link, as established in court, between the irregularities and the activities of some public officials.

The question is, what did Néstor Kirchner do? The answer is, the same all his predecessors did before him: deny the facts, aim at the judge investigating the case and try to remove him from it, first with an (unsuccessful) impeachment, and then by (successfully) taking away the most delicate aspects of the case. And, to top it off, Chief of Staff Alberto Fernández —who worked closely together with former Minister of Finance Cavallo in the 90s and is now one of Kirchner’s men— recently said, “If there is someone involved, we will dismiss them before they are convicted in court”, so that it is very clear how important the republican system, its power checks and balances and the independence of the judiciary are for the Peronist Party. They appoint, try and punish. They do it all. Skanska has already announced that it is leaving the country and it does not intend to take part in any other local projects. Meanwhile, it has just been made public that foreign direct investment has dropped 4% in Argentina compared to its level last year.

Now that the presidential elections are close, it might be expected that citizens take these events into account. There have been many of this sort before, but that does not mean they are not the cause of the institutional decadence in our country.

* María Zaldívar is a TV journalist from Argentina and Bachelor of Political Science (UCA, Catholic University of Argentina).

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