05/10/2023 – 21:32
On August 29, Argentine newspapers reported the conversation that took place the day before between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the country’s Economy Minister, Sergio Massa, at the Palácio do Planalto. Peronist candidate to succeed Alberto Fernández, Massa was in Brazil, on the 28th, to arrange another loan, worth US$600 million, with the aim of financing exports.
Lula told the minister, according to the candidate, that he would send people from his team to Argentina, with the aim of helping him in the campaign “to stop the right”. The elections in Argentina are scheduled for the 22nd.
The person who told reporters about the dialogue with the president was Massa himself. In private conversations, Itamaraty diplomats complained about the leak.
“A genius, Lula. He promised that he would help us beat (Javier) Milei”, said the Argentine Economy Minister to his companions, during the flight back to Buenos Aires, according to a report published in the newspaper La Nationon August 29, signed by Jaime Rosemberg.
“How would that help materialize? Participants at the meeting, in which ’80 percent politics and 20 percent economics’ were discussed (…) confirmed that Lula offered Massa “our people” in terms of communication ‘to prevent the right from winning and us going back forty years’, in obvious reference to the libertarian candidate Javier Milei”, wrote the journalist.
When citing his campaign last year with former president Jair Bolsonaro, candidate for re-election, Lula stated: “Milei is crazy, worse than Bolsonaro.” The president also noted that it was necessary to make every effort for Massa’s victory. “We have to beat him for Mercosur to continue,” said the PT member, according to the La Nation.
“Following strictly the request of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is increasingly concerned about the outcome of the Argentine presidential election, strategists linked to the PT who arrived in Buenos Aires after the Simultaneous and Mandatory Open Primaries (Paso), held on 13 August, to reinforce the team of the Peronist candidate Sergio Massa, Minister of Economy in the government of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, are racing against time to prevent the victory of the extreme right in the country”, says an excerpt from the report, signed by Janaína Figueiredo, newspaper correspondent in Buenos Aires.
Marketer Sidônio Pereira, responsible for Lula’s TV programs last year, was invited to work on Massa’s campaign, but did not accept because he considered time was short. The information was revealed by The globe and confirmed by Estadão. The PT’s press office says that the party “did not indicate or mediate anyone’s actions in political campaigns in other countries”.
Still on August 29th, the Argentine newspaper Page 12 brought reports of the conversation between Lula and Massa at Planalto, told by the candidate himself.
“Do what you have to do, but win,” said the president, according to the Argentine Economy Minister. “Stop collecting dollars and collecting votes. You have to win for the integrity of Mercosur. It is your responsibility to win”, added Lula, according to the report from Page 12signed by Melisa Molina, under the title “Everything that Lula said to Massa”
O Page 12 It also describes how the conversation went between Lula and the candidate supported by the president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, about one of the loans from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).
“In another central moment of the conversation between the Argentine and Brazilian delegations, they spoke, of course, of the agreement they had reached with CAF, which will guarantee the US$600 million agreement to finance exports from Brazil to Argentina. ‘President, after nine months, we found the solution to a problem,’ Massa told him,” according to Página 12.
Two different loans
The loan mentioned is not the same as the US$1 billion loan made by CAF to Argentina and revealed by Estadão. The financing of US$ 1 billion, approved by 20 of the 21 CAF member countries – with Peru voting against – was granted so that Argentina, with no dollars in the market, could receive a portion of US$ 7.5 billion from the Fund International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Lula government announced, on August 28, that cooperation between Banco do Brasil, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and CAF could guarantee an export agreement to the neighboring country.
“The initiative still needs approval from the CAF management council, which will meet on September 14th”, highlighted a text published on the government’s official website that day. The loan did not come to fruition, however, because, according to the Ministry of Finance, neither Argentina nor CAF presented a structured proposal.
Lula’s meeting with Massa was also attended by the Argentine ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli; the secretaries of Industry, José Ignacio de Mendiguren; of Agriculture, Juan José Bahillo, and of Energy, Flavia Royón. On the Brazilian side were the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad; former chancellor Celso Amorim, Lula’s special advisor, and Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, as well as a representative from Banco do Brasil.
According to reports from the Argentine delegation, Celso Amorim was “crazy” about Milei’s rise and the possible victory of the far-right candidate in the October 22nd elections.
“Amorim also spoke on the phone, at the location, with Roberto Lavagna, the former Minister of Economy who Lula praised during the meeting,” reported La Nación. “The conversation also revolved around the desirability of paying ‘more attention’ to the Arab world”, said an excerpt from the report, highlighting that on September 14th there would be a meeting of the CAF board, in Madrid, where the incorporation of new countries.
The newspaper also highlighted that the concern with the libertarian phenomenon represented by Milei did not suddenly appear in Lula’s head.
“Two years ago, in a meeting that (Daniel) Scioli had with him at his home, the Brazilian became interested and asked the ambassador to send him a speech by Milei”, reported the publication. “I told him that I was studying these phenomena in the region and in the world and that I was concerned about the great change in societies in recent times.” Still according to La Nacion, Lula told Scioli: “We must not deny the appearance of these characters, but rather, understand them.”
When contacted, the Presidency’s Social Communication Secretariat (Secom) did not confirm the content of the conversation between Lula and Massa. Estadão found that the president did not want to record a video for the Argentine Economy Minister’s campaign that day.
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