Argentines Celebrate Macri’s Election Defeat, with Fernández Win Felt All over the Region

Oct. 28, 2019 (EIRNS)—Even before official returns were in by 9:00 p.m., Argentine time, Oct. 27 (00:00 UTC, Oct. 28), hundreds of thousands of citizens had taken to the streets around the country, especially in the capital of Buenos Aires, to celebrate the defeat of neoliberal President Mauricio Macri, who has spent the last four years plunging this once-prosperous nation into unprecedented economic and social crisis, under the tutelage of the International Monetary Fund.

The Front for All (Frente por Todos) ticket of Alberto Fernández and running mate and former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, won 48.1% of the vote, and Macri’s Together for Change (Juntos por el Cambio) ticket garnered 40.4%. Since Alberto Fernández won more than 45% of the vote, no runoff is required.

That this wasn’t simply an Argentine issue, was reflected in the fact that Chilean flags were seen being held among the crowd filling many streets around the Front for All headquarters. EIR Ibero-American intelligence has received messages today not only from joyful Argentines, but also from Bolivians and Ecuadoreans.

By contrast, a worried Bloomberg reported today that Alberto Fernández will travel to Mexico next week to meet with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and that Fernández has congratulated Bolivian President Evo Morales on his recent electoral victory—being disputed, of course, by London and Washington’s regime-change fanatics. Last week, according to veteran Clarín correspondent Marcelo Bonelli, the U.S. State Department sent a message to Fernández, warning that unless he stuck with the regime-change line against Venezuela and also kept Argentina in the Lima Group (Fernández had already announced that he would pull out), he could expect no help from the Trump Administration.

Fernández vowed to fight to restore industry, privilege labor, and production, healthcare, public education, science and technology.

But no one is under any illusions as to the enormity of the task that lies ahead in order to deal with Macri’s horrific legacy, including an unpayable foreign debt exceeding $300 billion, $100 billion of which Macri contracted over the past four years. In remarks last night, Vice President-elect Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called on all Argentines, regardless of political persuasion, to back Alberto Fernández, who will have “ahead of him the immense task, the immense responsibility ... [requiring] an unimaginable effort” to confront the “painful reality” of the destruction wrought by the previous, defeated government. She also boldly urged Macri to fulfill his constitutional responsibility, until he leaves office on Dec. 10, to “take all measures you should take to alleviate the dramatic situation of the country’s finances. This is your responsibility.... So please, Mr. President, exercise that responsibility.”