Cristina Kirchner: “You just have to have fear of God and a little bit of me”

Buenos Aires, September 6, 2012
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President Cristina Kirchner gave a strong speech in which she referred to the delay of the works in Acumar, agency responsible for cleaning up the Riachuelo.

“You just have to have fear of God and a little bit of me; at least the officials who depend on me. They are my responsibility, every one of the officials for whom I signed the decrees. Hereby solemnly notified to all Executive Branch agencies and satellite autarky: when situations of this nature happen they have to contact me to see what is happening,” the president said in apparent reference to the civil servants in charge of managing Acumar.

She added: “What bothers me more is that things are not done or they are done wrong. No official should be fear or make excuses. If something of this nature happens, they come and tell me. And let me evaluate myself if it is important or not. I never liked to make decisions for me. Let me value my situations. It’s the least I deserve for that official, either the Acumar, Public Works and the Environment”.

Cristina also said the Ministry of Tourism numbers show that “20.2% more Argentineans could travel abroad” than the same month last year. According to the president, the limits on the dollar purchase are another “urban myth” by the illegal chain of discouragement (in reference to Clarin group).

But Cristina added, “The illegal chain has discouraged date: Dec. 7. Part of this media hype is about this December 7 commencing upon the divestiture”.

Moreover, the president referred to Techint CEO Paolo Rocca, “It seems that there is a greater obstacle to labor competitiveness and it’s me that I’m here.”

And in a clear reference to the statements of Rocca who said that in 2017 Argentina will be a totally different country than now, Cristina asked, “What have thought in 2017 that will become competitive?” And suggested that in this perspective the wages of workers could be cut.