Amid 70,000 state layoffs and recession, Argentina's Macri appoints a "Director of Rhetoric."
Official documentation emerged revealing that Argentine President Mauricio Macri, whose right-wing administration has presided over 70,000 public sector layoffs in a bid to "reduce spending," hired a General Director of Rhetoric earning a salary of 72,000 pesos ($5,000) - over four times the median monthly full-time wage in Argentina.
The appointment, signed by decree on May 19, was only published in the July 7 Official Bulletin. Critics have pointed out that the appointee, Julieta Herrero, lacks a college degree and other qualifications associated with a Class A post. The post itself, moreover, was created without congressional approval and may therefore be unconstitutional.
Herrero, 35, had minor clerical posts in the communications offices of both former President Néstor Kirchner and of Macri during his tenure as Mayor of Buenos Aires. Macri is known for being particularly reliant on speech writers and teleprompters, even employing "neck blowers" (sopla nucas) who stand behind him whispering responses on the few occasions in which he's taken questions from the press.
Macri has also come under fire for appointing, and for allowing his cabinet ministers to appoint, numerous close friends and relatives to Class A administrative posts - high-ranking executive branch positions typically paying 50,000 to 120,000 pesos a month (see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/111676969). Those laid off, who typically earned 8,000 to 10,000 pesos a month, are habitually demonized as "political appointees" at best and more frequently, "plum job holders" (gnocchi, in the Argentine vernacular), by Macri surrogates.
The layoffs were part of a broader, IMF-sponsored austerity package that has triggered a deep recession with least 100,000 private sector jobs lost since taking office in December. Agencies tasked with preventing financial wrongdoing and labor law abuses have seen particularly severe cutbacks.
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Macri's "neck blower" in action. Plenty of room in his "austerity" budget for them.