AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH BUENOS AIRES VICE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUENOS AIRES 002268

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AR
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH BUENOS AIRES VICE
MAYOR-ELECT MICHETTI

Classified By: AMBASSADOR E. ANTHONY WAYNE FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) Ambassador Wayne met with Buenos Aires City Vice
Mayor-elect Gabriela Michetti to discuss incoming Mayor
Mauricio Macri's key policy priorities and challenges. She
noted that increasing city revenue is a top priority, as the
city's budget deficit makes it difficult to invest in public
infrastructure. Michetti said the main challenges for Macri
would be restoring public confidence in government
institutions, administering Buenos Aires city well, and
building the Propuesta Nacional party (PRO) as a new national
alternative to Kirchnerismo. She asserted that Argentina
needs to redefine its Dirty War-centric discourse on human
rights to one of social inclusion. She asserted that Macri
wants to have a good working relationship with the Casa
Rosada, but that the Kirchner administration is already
making that prospect difficult.

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PRO: Building Institutions, not Macrismo
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2. (C) Ambassador Wayne met November 23 with Vice
Mayor-elect Gabriela Michetti to discuss incoming Mayor
Mauricio Macri's key priorities and challenges for Buenos
Aires city (BA). Michetti stated that Macri's first priority
is to increase BA's annual budget in order to make the
necessary investment in infrastructure, including schools.
She explained that BA has an annual budget of 13 billion
pesos (approximately US $4.15 billion),which mostly goes to
salaries and other current expenditures, so Macri was asking
the city legislature to authorize an additional 1.6 billion
peso (approximately $500 million) for investment purposes.
She asserted that the Propuesta Nacional (PRO) party has a
strong commitment to serving the public, and that its key
challenge is restoring public confidence in goverment
institutions. The party's second key challenge is to govern
Buenos Aires well, while simultaneously building the party as
a new national alternative political force. Michetti stated
that Macri's goal is to develop institutions -- not a cult of
personality -- and is thus delegating authority to a variety
of people. As an example, she noted that constitutionally
the Vice-Mayor's role was limited to acting only when the
Mayor was not in the city, but that Macri was going to
delegate some responsibilities to her. She asserted that
Argentina needs to break with the model of patronage
politics, where the national government buys off NGOs, social
protesters ("piqueteros"),and labor unions in order to avoid
social conflict. Instead, Argentina needs a government that
is accountable to its people and delivers concrete results.

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Need to Expand Human Rights Dialogue
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3. (C) Turning to a discussion of human rights, Michetti
lamented that Argentina's 1976-83 "Dirty War" had monopolized
public discourse on human rights. She hopes to delicately
broaden Argentine civil society's concept of human rights to
include social inclusion. She stated that her generation
came of age under democracy, and while remembering
Argentina's turbulent past is important, investing in the
protection and advancement of human rights in the future is
more important. For example, she notes that the city's
budget for Memory projects stands at 60 million pesos, while
the budget only allocates 6 million pesos for projects to
improve accessibility and social inclusion of the
handicapped. In addition, the city of Buenos Aires has lost
decision-making authority over 17 hectares and 35 buildings
currently occupied by the quasi-independent Museum of Memory
and other human rights organizations, housed in the former
Naval Mechanics School (ESMA). (Note: The ESMA was a
notorious detention center where up to 5,000 civilians were
tortured and killed during the Dirty War.) She argued that
this land would be the perfect place to conduct a number of
pilot projects with an expanded human rights agenda, such as
a model school of social inclusion, that would not only be
handicapped-accessible, but also have a program to give
children of low-income families access to high-level sports
training. The Ambassador agreed that social inclusion of all
people is important and told Michetti that the U.S. Embassy
is supporting many international and local NGOs such as the
Special Olympics and PH 15 which offers cameras and
photography training to children of modest means.

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Transparency and Housing are Key Priorities...
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4. (C) Another key priority for the Macri administration is
improving public access to information and improving
transparency in public procurement, Michetti stated,
suggesting that U.S. technical assistance in this area would
be greatly appreciated. Another priority is dealing with the
problem of the "villas de miseria" (slums). She stated that
Macri intends to urbanize all of the villas, transforming
them into dignified, if modest, neighborhoods with schools
and other public services.

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...But Recognition of Villa 31 Presents Early Challenge,
Signals Tough Road Ahead with the Casa Rosada
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5. (C) The exception, however is Villa 31, which the Macri
government has deemed impossible to incorporate into the
city. When asked whether the Macri administration intends to
implement the recently announced decision of outgoing mayor
Jorge Telerman that Buenos Aires city was going to
incorporate Villa 31, she said that this would be very
difficult to do and that the likely outcome is relocating the
inhabitants to another area of town. While insisting that
Macri wants to have a positive working relationship with the
Casa Rosada, Michetti characterized the decision to
incorporate Villa 31 as sabotage by the Kirchner
administration to create immediate conflict for Macri before
even taking office.

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Macri to Develop Relationships with Big City Mayors and
Public-Private Sector Partnerships
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6. (C) Michetti noted that Macri is interested in
developing relationships with other mayors of large cities
around the world, such as New York Mayor Bloomberg. The
Ambassador noted that he had talked to Macri by phone about
his upcoming travel to New York City to meet with Mayor
Bloomberg, and that the Embassy is helping to coordinate
future meetings for BA Minister of Justice and
Security-designate Guillermo Montenegro with law enforcement
agencies in the New York area. Michetti also noted the
importance of cultivating private-public partnerships to
promote Buenos Aires as a tourism and investment destination,
particularly in time to celebrate Argentina's 2010
bicentennial. The Ambassador closed the meeting by offering
Embassy cooperation in setting up digital video conferences
on topics of mutual interest.

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COMMENT
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7. (C) A charming and thoughtful interlocutor, Michetti's
vision for responsible government that delivers concrete
results to the public is refreshing. Her thoughts on
broadening Argentine society's idea of a pro-human rights
agenda will be difficult in a country that is still haunted
by its Dirty War past, but is what the country needs to move
beyond the politics of division towards policies of
inclusion. It will be an uphill battle for the Macri team,
if Kirchner political machinations to pit the residents of
Villa 31 against Macri so early in his tenure as mayor is the
first of many to come. End Comment.

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BIO
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8. (C) Gabriella Michetti will take office as Vice Mayor of
Buenos Aires on December 10. Previously, she served as
President of the PRO bloc in the Buenos Aires City
legislature where she championed legislation on issues such
as public access to information, special education programs
for the disabled, assistance programs for troubled children,
adolescents, and domestic violence victims, and the
prohibition of sexual exploitation of children. A devout
Catholic, Michetti has been very critical of bills promoting
sexual education and the legalization of abortion. Michetti
took a leading role in the PRO-offensive against former Mayor
Anibal Ibarra after the December 2004 Cromagnon nightclub
tragedy. Michetti is the niece of former Radical President
Arturo Illia, but she does not have a long partisan history.
Michetti has also served as a private consultant to both the
UN Development Program, the Inter-American Development Bank,
and as Director of International Commercial Negotiations at
the Ministry of Economy. She has a Masters in Regional
Integration and has studied university management in Canada

and international commercial conflict resolution in Geneva.
She has worked as a trade lawyer defending Argentine clients
before the WTO and in bilateral trade disputes with the U.S.
and was a professor for 15 years at several universities in
Argentina. She has actively worked with literacy and
Catholic social ministry groups. Michetti is 41 and has one
son. She was paralyzed in an auto accident and uses a
wheelchair.
WAYNE