{"id":2464,"date":"2016-11-20T16:01:45","date_gmt":"2016-11-20T16:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2464"},"modified":"2016-11-20T16:01:45","modified_gmt":"2016-11-20T16:01:45","slug":"the-missing-link-of-business-between-buenos-aires-and-caracas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/the-missing-link-of-business-between-buenos-aires-and-caracas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Missing Link of Business between Buenos Aires and Caracas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mysterious, \r\nquiet, and ambitious;\" little is known about him, how he operated. He hardly \r\ntalked with the media when he was with Julio De Vido, the powerful and \r\ncontroversial Minister of Planning of the governments of N\u00e9stor Kirchner and his \r\nwidow, Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner, who also became the business ambassador \r\nof Buenos Aires in Caracas. Even though he is the right hand \u2014the agenda, the \r\nears, an even the treasurer of insulin, as a newspaper from La Plata says\u2014 of \r\nMinister De Vido, and was promoted from personal advisor to the Ceremonial \r\nDirector, with duties that are virtually the same as those of a Secretary of \r\nState, Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olazagasti is almost a ghost, which few speak of because they \r\nknow little or out of fear, or in other cases, for considering him a \"marginal \r\ncharacter\" within the Kirchner government and a traitor. Although on the \r\nsidelines, apart and in the background, Olazagasti was the one who managed to \r\ntake certain businessmen from his country to negotiate with the Bolivarian \r\nGovernment in his multiple trips to Caracas. Tango and salsa that mixed in the \r\nVenezuela-Argentina trust and that were music for his pocket and a change in the \r\nrhythm of life of this entrepreneur of Basque origin.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Villa \r\nLugano is the second largest neighborhood in the city of Buenos Aires, a sort of \r\n23 de Enero<\/I> in Buenos Aires -as the politically active working-class \r\nneighborhood of Caracas-, a Peronist bastion of the Federal Capital. This was \r\nthe place that saw in 1974 the birth of the son of \"El Vasco Olazagasti,\" a \r\nhistorical leader of the Justicialism. The father was a friend of Julio De Vido, \r\nnow a national deputy, with whom he was in a local party headquarters. \"He comes \r\nfrom a very low social level. Even in 2002, before N\u00e9stor Kirchner came to \r\npower, he asked for work to Argentine businessmen because he was just starting \r\nout and he was a very humble guy,\" says journalist Francisco Olivera, of La \r\nNaci\u00f3n<\/I> newspaper, and author, together with Diego Cabot, of the book \u201cHablen \r\ncon Julio\u201d (2011).<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"
Jose Mar\u00eda Olazagasti - Photo: Courtesy of www.perfil.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Jos\u00e9 \r\nMar\u00eda, \"chubby, short and low profile,\" as described by another Argentine \r\njournalist, in 2006 began to be active in Commitment K, a group to support the \r\nreelection of N\u00e9stor Kirchner. But the melody changed for him before, when Julio \r\nDe Vido called him to be his personal advisor after he was appointed as Minister \r\nof Planning in 2003. Then, they would start their trips to \r\nVenezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n

Tango<\/h2>\n\n\n

Olazagasti \r\nwas promoted from a minor position, as advisor, secretary, to Ministry \r\nCeremonial Director. His position was not assigned in the Official Gazette. \r\nHence, there is no obligation to declare his personal assets and earnings to the \r\nAnticorruption Bureau (thus, he could be released now from any conviction from \r\njustice). His position corresponds to a category C of the Administrative \r\nProfession System, based on the labor scale of Argentina, for which he should \r\ncharge between 3,000 and 4,000 (198-264 US dollars). However, the man from Villa \r\nLugano seems to have managed to develop and make ends meet. In a 2010 report \r\nfrom La Naci\u00f3n<\/I> newspaper says that at that time, he lived in Villa Nueva \r\ndel Tigre country (closed neighborhood), \"it is not the most exclusive, but it \r\nis a high cost for a category C employer\", highlights the press release. It also \r\nrefers to the monthly fee of a school in the private neighborhood of Nordelta \r\n\"the monthly fee of which is no less than 2500 pesos (or around 165 dollars).\" \r\nThese are places in the delta of the Paran\u00e1 River that since its flows into R\u00edo \r\nde la Plata, near Buenos Aires, it has become a suburb of well-to-do classes in \r\nthe Argentine capital.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

\"He \r\nis discreet, but eats at fine places, drives nice cars, he is guarded. He is \r\nlike a secretary, but more than a secretary. He is someone next to a minister, \r\nbut with much power,\" says Rodrigo Alegre, a journalist of Channel 13 in Buenos \r\nAires.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

How \r\ncould he do it from a position as secretary? \"He had links with the public work. \r\nHe went from being a secretary to having a lot of power, influencing politics \r\nand getting involved in business. He was in charge of the papers, De Vido\u2019s \r\nagenda, the meeting with businessmen,\" says Alegre. He became the minister's \r\nmain operator and, with the international trips, he began negotiating as a \r\nSecretary of State and closing agreements with Venezuela, Ecuador or Algeria. \r\nAlthough, all the consulted sources agree, he did not sign anything, he did not \r\ndeclare anything, so his track can only be guessed from the visits he made, for \r\nexample, to the Venezuelan capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t

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