Juan Cabandié exposes in the Senate for the management of the fires in Corrientes, amid criticism from the opposition and the ruling party itself

“It seems to me that you have arrived late, minister”warned to Juan Cabandie the senator for Corrientes Eduardo Vischi (Together for Change). It was after being surprised by the “level” of knowledge and information that Cabandié presented before the Commission of the Upper House on the situation in Corrientes. “When you talk about the levels of responsibility, I am surprised considering the levels of knowledge that you had. It would have been important for it to attend to the hectares of the Iberá Park, which are under national jurisdiction”, continued Vischi.Eduardo Vischi, senator for Corrientes (Together for Change) CaptureMinutes before, Cabandié had pointed out that the Ministry offered assistance in January and that the province responded twelve days later. “On January 23, we offered the province air assets and personnel, and the first order from the province arrived on February 4,” the minister said.“You and your team do not give us security”concluded Senator Vischi, to point out that the national response could have been better if the National Fire Plan continued under the purview of the Ministry of Security. After detailing with the deputy minister Sergio Federovsky the general investments of the Ministry and the purchases for the National Fire Management Plan, Juan Cabandié pointed to the urgency of the situation in Corrientes. At that point he detailed from the purchase and contracting of hydrant planes to the aid received from other countries, such as the 70 military brigade members who arrived from Bolivia to assist in the control of the fire in Corrientes: “Nothing is superfluous in this tragic context. At this time there is nothing left. The Iberá Wetlands are at stake, the Iberá Park is at stake”, he said. Juan Cabandie He alluded to the relationship between the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the provinces. He avoided explicitly pointing to the Corrientes government and the rest of the provincial and municipal administrations, but hinted that, on more than one occasion, the national portfolio had a more proactive attitude than the local leaders. “It has happened to us on more than one occasion that we have asked [a las provincias] that they demand of us. We have information and we communicate with the provinces to tell them: ‘they have fire, we are ready, we have human resources, we have air resources’”, he affirmed. Juan Cabandié speaks in the Senate about the management of the fires in Corrientes“We did not come to blame, we came to report the objective data”, he completed, after pointing out that climate change “forces us to review practices” at all levels of government. “If we do not modify practices, we are going to continue planting exotics above the Esteros, we are going to continue lighting fires. If we are not aware, the problems will continue to exist”, he added, to insist that he was not “blaming” anyone. During his presentation before the Senate for the fires in Corrientes, Juan Cabandié rejected that during his administration the National Fire Management Plan had been “dismantled”. And he did so by pointing out the plan’s budget increase and, above all, the drop in its funds during the Cambiemos government. Thus, he showed filmstrips to point out that in 2015 the plan had allocated funds for 430 million pesos, which fell from the arrival of Mauricio Macri to power until reaching 196 million in 2019. He then highlighted that in 2020 the Plan’s budget had risen to 2,500 million pesos. However, the minister also seemed to share responsibilities within the government that he is part of, noting that Environment has only managed the National Fire Management Plan for 14 months. “We spent all of 2020 without a budget, because it was in the hands of Security. Only in 2021 did we begin to administer the National Fire Management Plan”he warned.The Environment Commission of the Senate, with the participation of the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation, Juan CabandiéHernán Zenteno – LA NACIONAfter highlighting the need to approve the wetlands law and the projects to create new national parks, the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Juan Cabandiepointed to the context of drought in which the fires in Corrientes are produced and their intentional nature.“95% of fires are caused by human action. Mostly intentionally”, warned the minister. “It is never good to generalize, but it is never good to deny and this happens. I don’t want to get into controversy, but this exists, ”he continued.Minister Juan Cabandié at the Meeting of the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission of the SenateHernán Zenteno – LA NACIONAccess to the Illia Hall where the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Juan Cabandié, will be presented, is prohibited for the press by “the protocol” of the pandemic. The official, who recently traveled to the coastal province for the first time last Friday, will appear at the Environment Commission to report on what has been done in the framework of the fires that have already consumed more than 800,000 hectares in the region, with losses multimillionaires and in the midst of strong clashes with the local government, of opposition sign. This noon it was learned that the president Alberto Fernandez will travel to the area on Friday.The Environment Commission of the Senate, with the participation of the Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation, Juan CabandiéHernán Zenteno – LA NACIONGladys Gutiérrez (Together for Change) and Antonio Rodas (Front of All) head the Environment and Development Commission and they moderate the interventions of the senators. The president of the Committee on Environment and Development, Gladys González (Pro-Buenos Aires) opened the meeting and announced the entry of the minister to the Illia Hall of Congress, but Cabandié did not appear. Yes, his team of collaborators did, headed by Deputy Minister Sergio Federovisky. Cabandié appeared ten minutes later. The minister finally appeared almost 20 minutes later, accompanied by the head of the ruling bloc, Jose Mayansso it is estimated that he was meeting with the senator from Formosa and with the Mendoza Anabel Fernandez Sagastione of the swords Cristina Kirchner in the upper house. Cabandié attends the upper house accompanied by his second in command, Sergio Federovisky, a man from Sergio Massa’s ranks. From the area they trust that it can be shown “how did it work” and that “help was offered to Corrientes since January”, but that, they insist, the provincial government “just replied on February 4”. While there are also those who believe that part of the luck or continuity of Cabandié in the portfolio will be “tied” to what happens today.In any case, nobody expects changes in the immediate. “If at any time there is a change, it is clear that it will not be now”, reported a source from Casa Rosada. While others agreed that, despite Cabandié’s loss of support in the ruling party, “its continuity is not at stake”, as an official with an office in Balcarce 50 maintained. The support that Cabandié has at this time is concentrated almost exclusively on Fernández. The sources add that “with Cristina she has a very affectionate relationship”, although no one dares to say whether or not there was a show of support from the vice president since the crisis broke out.Gustavo Valdés and Juan CabandiéTwitterIn the last few hours it was announced that the Government will allocate $300 million to the province to “strengthen the acquisition of equipment for the provincial brigades and meet the logistical demands of the operation.” The shipment was agreed yesterday in a meeting between Cabandié and the governor, Gustavo Valdés, which seemed to mark a truce amid the escalation of tension between the two leaders. The sum was added to the transfer of $350 million to Corrientes to assist the province, based on the $200 million that the Alberto Fernández administration had sent on February 8. “There were political, communication and coordination failures so that everything happened in this way, beyond the ecological disaster, ”they maintain in the Government. “Only in the last few days has the information begun to be centralized and more information about what is being done, but the reality is that there was a lack of a political table that could decide what was happening in an integral way”, they add. On this basis of what they say “is being done” is where, some, trust that Cabandié can spend his stop in the Senate. I followed the latest news and behind the scenes of the statement by the Minister of the Environment in the Senate by the fires in Corrientes.