BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AA) –
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner shuffled key posts in her administration Tuesday, a move aimed at regaining control over the secret service and appeasing political veterans ahead of the 2015 presidential election.
She appointed her general secretary, Oscar Parrilli, to run the Secret Service, and brought back to her fold Alfredo Fernandez, a former chief of Cabinet, to replace Parrilli.
The shift comes after the resignation of Hector Icazuriaga as head of the Secret Service, presidential spokesman Alfredo Scocimarro said in a televised press conference.
Icazuriaga and his deputy, Francisco Larcher, resigned earlier Tuesday without explanation.
This was the first major change in the government since October, when the president replaced the central bank president following a plunge in the exchange rate on the black market.
Fernandez de Kirchner faces increasing pressure for alleged corruption within her government, with the vice president facing a criminal trial for falsifying public documents and forgery. At the same time, a contracting economy, rising unemployment and 40 percent inflation has reduced her popularity with a year left in office.
The sour economy also is weakening her support within Peronism, a political movement of which her center-left Front for Victory party is a major faction.
“The changes came as a surprise,” said Carlos Germano, a political analyst at Carlos Germano y Asociados, a consultant firm in Buenos Aires. “But there were indications that she wasn’t pleased with Icazuriaga and Larcher.”
Germano said the former Secret Service bosses made a major blunder last year when they failed to predict that Sergio Massa, one of the president’s former Cabinet chiefs, would run for national congressman in Buenos Aires province during the midterm elections.
Without the intelligence to prepare for the election, the president’s candidate lost by a wide margin in the country’s biggest province, costing her political weight in Peronism.
Worse for her, Massa emerged from the victory with a platform from which to run for president in October 2015, posing a threat to Fernandez de Kirchner’s yet-to-be-declared candidate.
“The error made it so that the president lost all her confidence in the head of the Secret Service,” Germano said.
With Parrilli, she is putting a man of confidence in charge of the Secret Service ahead of the election.
Parrilli is a veteran politician who worked for Nestor Kirchner, the president’s late husband and predecessor, in 1998 when Kirchner was governor of Santa Cruz. Parrilli went on to work as a general secretary during both spouses’ presidencies.
The return of Anibal Fernandez, who left the administration to become a senator in 2011, is a seen as a move to rekindle favor among staunch Peronist leaders, Germano said.
“Anibal Fernandez is an all-terrain politician, who is good at resolving conflicts, and is good in front of the microphone,” Germano said.
Maybe more importantly, his appointment sends a message to Peronist heavyweights that the president is slowing the rise of La Campora, a militant youth movement.
Fernandez de Kirchner promoted La Campora, run by her son, Maximo, after winning a second four-year term in 2011, and its climb has gained it key posts, including Axel Kicillof as economy minister.
La Campora also has gained dozens of lower positions with influence, such as running state companies, including the national airline. But critics have lashed out at the movement, saying it’s goal is to profit from power, not to make the social changes that will help the poor that the group espouses.
“The rise of La Campora has become a major worry in Peronism,” Germano said. “The return of Anibal Fernandez will bring a political balance back to the administration.”
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