Civil Society, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ARGENTINA: Civil Society Keeps Eye on First Lady’s Tours

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Apr 24 2007 (IPS) - A non-governmental organisation in Argentina is monitoring the trips made by Senator Cristina Fernández, President Néstor Kirchner’s wife, who travels with a large entourage and an appointments schedule worthy of a head of state.

Two and a half months ago, the Fundación Poder Ciudadano (Citizen Power Foundation) asked the government to provide information on who accompanied the first lady to France in February, their positions, the working agenda, and the daily accommodation costs for each member of the delegation.

The Foundation, part of the Transparency International network, is dedicated to promoting citizen participation and fighting corruption. Its request relied on a 2003 presidential decree which authorises any citizen to ask the executive branch for information.

“We heard of the trip through the media, and there were reports of very high accommodation costs, so we decided to ask for information,” Pablo Secchi, of the Foundation’s area of action with politicians, told IPS.

The request was made on Feb. 9 to the office of the presidency, which sent Senator Fernández as its representative to the signing ceremony of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearance, held in Paris on Feb. 6.

Kirchner’s wife, a potential presidential candidate for this year’s Argentine elections, met with French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, then interior minister and governing party presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, and socialist candidate Ségolène Royal.

According to the media, Fernández, whose ratings in the polls suggest she could succeed Kirchner, travelled with a large contingent of officials including the presidential spokesman, and stayed at the luxurious Le Meurice hotel in Paris.

Buenos Aires newspapers said that a room at Le Meurice, located next to the Place de la Concorde and with views over the Jardins des Tuileries, costs between 615 and 1,615 euros (between 835 and 2,200 dollars) a night, and no official denial of this information was issued.

The government has kept mum. After the 10 working days established by the decree for the executive branch to hand over the information requested, it asked for an extension. But when the new deadline was up there was still no answer.

In late March, Poder Ciudadano took the next step in the procedure, by appealing to the Anti-Corruption Office in the Justice Ministry, which now has the case file.

“The decree on access to information is one of the most widely used tools for monitoring the administration, and usually we get a high level of response, but in this case we still have no news,” Secchi said.

The Foundation reported the non-fulfilment of the decree’s provisions to the Anti-Corruption Office, and took it to mean, in practice, “a refusal to provide the public information requested.”

The Anti-Corruption Office has now launched an internal inquiry to find out why no reply was given. Meanwhile, Fernández has continued to travel – to Ecuador, Venezuela and Mexico – and Poder Ciudadano is monitoring her trips closely.

On every trip, the senator meets with academics, members of the business community and top government figures. “Her appointment schedule is that of a head of state,” the Argentine ambassador to Mexico, Jorge Yoma, acknowledged prior to the official start of her visit on Monday.

Fernández spoke about Argentina and its relations with the rest of Latin America at the Colegio de México, a prestigious higher education institute in the social sciences and humanities, and also spoke to about a hundred members of the Mexican business community. On Wednesday she will meet with President Felipe Calderón.

“We are looking into the various trips that the senator has already taken this year, and those she is planning to the United States and Spain, and if necessary we can also ask for information on all of these,” Secchi said.

Maria Julia Georgelli, of the information access area of the Civil Rights Association (ADC), told IPS that “Poder Ciudadano does very good work. It has an impact, and it contributes to educating citizens about monitoring public affairs.”

Georgelli said that the decree on access to information provides for reporting to the Anti-Corruption Office if there is no official reply, or if the reply is not precise, and for an investigation to be carried out.

“In most cases a phone call or an informal request from the Anti-Corruption Office to the section involved is enough for the information to be handed over. Taking recourse to legal action is seldom necessary,” she said.

However, there has already been one case of a journalist who did not get a reply from the Interior Ministry to his request for information about expenditure of public funds, who initiated legal action in the federal courts.

A draft law on access to public information was presented in 2001, and spent several years being debated in both houses of Congress until it lost active status in early 2006.

Senator Fernández was one of the main critics of the failed draft law, which had been drawn up with broad participation of civil society organisations. She wanted private companies to be obliged to disclose information as well.

To make up for this failure, the president decreed in 2003 that the executive branch must supply information requested, but this did not include Congress, the judicial branch nor the office of the public prosecutor, as the draft law did.

The decree is frequently used, but civil society organisations that monitor state governance maintain that it is a weak, limited and defective instrument.