The mega ministry of Human Capital has become a headache for the Government of Javier Milei. The Argentine president merged four ministries of the previous Government into that portfolio—Education, Labor, Social Development and Culture—and added the National Social Security Administration (Anses). He appointed a person who had no previous experience in public management to head this giant: journalist Sandra Pettovello, 55 years old. Six months later, the ministry is reeling, hit by scandals, a dozen resignations of senior officials and increasingly harsh criticism of its head. But Pettovello maintains for now the only support she needs, that of Milei. “She is the best minister in history,” the far-right president defended her this Tuesday. “I’m not going to hand her over,” he warned a day before, in response to calls for resignation coming from the opposition.
The Army began to hastily distribute part of the more than five million kilos of food that were stored in two official warehouses. The Government, which had initially refused to distribute them under the argument that it was reserving them for “emergencies”, gave in to the evidence that many of them were about to expire. Pettovello then fired the Secretary of Children, Adolescents and Family, Pablo de la Torre, and reported him to Justice. He accuses him of not having notified the expiration dates and, also, of alleged lack of transparency in hiring employees through an international organization.
Milei and Pettovello maintain an open war against the social movements that manage a large part of the free soup kitchens that for years received food from the State. He accuses them of having set up “a modern slavery system” and of extorting aid from the poor. In turn, social leaders say that the Government is allowing food to expire in a critical social context, in which more than five million people are hungry. The tension between the parties ended this Tuesday with shouting in the courts.
In search of alternative distribution channels, the far-right Government partnered with the controversial doctor Abel Albino and his NGO, the Conin Foundation, to coordinate the distribution among the most vulnerable population of some 450,000 kilos of powdered milk stored in state warehouses. Albino is remembered for his statements against abortion and sexual education during the legislative debate over the voluntary interruption of pregnancy law. “The prophylactic does not protect against anything. “The AIDS virus passes through porcelain,” the pediatrician said at that time, false information that was widely repudiated.
The Executive has not reported how it will distribute this basic good to the communities furthest from Buenos Aires. Although about a third of the Argentine population lives between the capital and its metropolitan area, enormous pockets of poverty are concentrated in the north. According to the latest official data, at the end of 2023 in the urban areas of the province of Chaco, 65% of the population was poor, while in those of Santiago del Estero it was 53%, values well above the average of 42 % national. In Resistencia, the capital of Chaco, a single headquarters of the Conin Foundation is registered. Provincial opposition politicians doubt that the NGO has the logistical capacity to get it to their territory on time and regret that they have not asked for help with the distribution.
“Unmanageable”
Former president Cristina Kirchner is among the most critical voices of the opposition. “Instead of blaming the ‘Kirchnerists’, review your ideas and decisions about creating an unmanageable mega Ministry and entrusting it to a person with no management experience in the multiple disciplines it covers,” Kirchner told Milei through the social networks. Opposition legislators have tried, so far without success, to have Pettovello appear before Congress to explain his management.
The food scandal is the most serious that has hit Capital Humano so far, but not the only one. Pettovello got off to a bad start. His first Chief of Staff, Fabián Perechodnik, had such a fleeting time in the ministry that he had not even been officially appointed when his departure was announced. It was the initial short circuit of a list that expands week by week. In the last five days, five senior officials were expelled, including that of the aforementioned secretary Pablo de la Torre.
In March, the Argentine president demanded the head of his first Secretary of Labor, Omar Yasín, considering him responsible for the increase in salaries in the Executive. Although the decree bore his signature, Milei said it was a mistake and ordered its suppression.
In April it was education’s turn. The Government’s refusal to increase the budget of public universities under its slogan of “there is no money” was challenged with one of the largest demonstrations in the history of democracy. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in all the cities of the country to defend the free public university.
Milei had to back down and transfer the funds necessary to guarantee its operation, although the battle remains open. This Tuesday, a 48-hour strike began in all public universities to demand salary improvements. The unions denounce that teachers’ salaries have lost 40% against inflation; those of legislators, on the other hand, beat the CPI. Despite Milei’s anti-caste speech, the deputies have just agreed to a salary increase of 80% and the senators doubled it a few weeks ago.
The conflict with the world of culture, another of the ministries under the orbit of Human Capital, has similar overtones. In April, Milei ordered the closure of the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (Incaa), as he had done before with the official news agency Télam and the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (Inadi), among other organizations. state management. The decision has left
Argentine film production on the brink of paralysis, but a short-term solution is not in sight. Milei maintains that cinema is a loss-making industry that is financed by people’s taxes; The filmmakers, on the other hand, defend that Incaa is an autonomous entity that finances itself. In the center of the fight, once again, Pettovello. Milei has nothing but praise for her and the opposition, only criticism.
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