Argentinean Finance Minister Quits
Economy Minister Jorge Remes Lenicov presented his resignation on Tuesday, touching off a new crisis over how to steer Argentina out of a deep downturn, an economy ministry official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of not being identified, said Remes Lenicov had presented his resignation amid rising challenges to his plan to rescue Argentina from a four-year recession. The independent Todo Noticias network also carried the report.
The development sparked renewed uncertainty about the government's ability to surmount the country's deepest downturn in decades and came on a day of small but raucous protests over the handling of the economy.
"We are out," said the Economy Ministry official, one of Remes Lenicov's team that was brought in after President Eduardo Duhalde took office on Jan. 2.
Government officials had no immediate confirmation of the report, but local reports said Duhalde had summoned his Cabinet for emergency meetings. Todo Noticias television network said a new economy minister was being sought.
The development came on a day when angry Argentines, upset over a banking freeze, took their protest to Congress to oppose a looming debate on a plan to give depositors their savings in bonds rather than cash.
The proposal to issue bonds, an idea chiefly developed by Remes Lenicov, has met with widespread criticism. Local reports speculated that challenges to that plan played a role in the upheaval in the government.
"Bonds no! Bonds no!" some 200 protesters chanted Tuesday outside Congress, raising banners insulting politicians and bankers whom many Argentines blame for the nearly five-month-old banking freeze that only allows limited cash withdrawals.
It was the second day of protests outside the legislature, after demonstrators insulted lawmakers as they left work Monday night, and it came amid rising worries about the future of Argentina's financial system.
All foreign exchange and banking transactions remain indefinitely halted until the government draws up an economic plan to stem the outflow of about $100 million a day from the banks. The withdrawals are a result of successful lawsuits filed by depositors and the steady drip of limited withdrawals.
The banking freeze was imposed on Dec. 1 by the government of former President Fernando de la Rua.
Those restrictions still remain and limit cash withdrawals to about $500 a month, but judges have consistently upheld the right of savers who have challenged the decision in the courts.
The Senate had been expected to begin debate on a bill that would oblige most of those who win lawsuits to accept government bonds, in lieu of cash, to withdraw the millions of dollars in trapped savings.
It remained uncertain if the latest crisis would delay that debate.
Some $60 million remain trapped in deposits because of the banking freeze. But opponents in Congress said they were reluctant to hastily endorse any such plan, demanding to see the details.
Scores of police cordoned off Congress behind iron barricades as other demonstrators clanged pots and pans and raised signs reading "politicians, liars!"