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In the coming months, Mendoza will receive the last installments of the 1,023 million dollars to finance what was going to be Portezuelo del Viento. This represents a great opportunity.
In a very complicated year for the public accounts of the provinces, and in the midst of the confusion generated by the relationship of the national government with the governors, Mendoza will receive in the coming months the last three installments that complete the 1,023 million dollars to finance what It was going to be, and will not be, Portezuelo del Viento. In a critical and uncertain context, a great opportunity looms, which requires a deep debate.
The natural question is the destination of that money that arrives as compensation for the damages caused by the Industrial Promotion regime. There are many of us who wonder what the provincial government will do with the funds. Of course, there are pressures and interests of all kinds. The proposal of this column is frank and simple: transcend the fight focused exclusively on the budgetary sphere and focus on the coming decades of the province.
Because what we have before us is, above all, an opportunity for the future: we must look to the south to develop the province. Industrial promotion, whose tax regime seriously harmed Mendoza in economic, productive and social terms, hit the southern departments especially hard. The numbers are eloquent: San Rafael, General Alvear and Malargüe went from explaining 45% of the Gross Geographic Product to barely 20%.
From the objective data and, above all, from the reality that those of us who work, produce and invest in Mendoza see daily, three very solid arguments emerge for Portezuelo funds to come, as planned from the beginning, to the southern province. .
The first has to do with acquired rights. In 2010, the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce filed an appeal to prevent the continuity of the Industrial Promotion, citing the loss of jobs and the stagnation that this measure caused based on regional inequality and unfair competition. This judicial action was key for the Nation to agree to compensate Mendoza, after years of unfulfilled promises. We have then, when we look back, a legitimacy of origin, more so if I say that this legitimacy understands us and commits the entire south and gives us rights, not privileges, but always above the politics that wants to monopolize according to its opinion or need. the destination of the funds. Today more than ever, reality rules.
Then, the common sense argument. The 2006 agreement established that the Nation finance the entirety of Portezuelo del Viento (the hydroelectric civil works, the layout of the routes and the relocation of Las Loicas). Alberto Fernández, in 2022, ruled against Mendoza and in favor of La Pampa, in fact signing the death certificate of the so-called work of the century. If the purpose was, through this historic investment in Malargüe, to promote the south to correct the imbalances caused by Industrial Promotion, it is logical that the money would reach this region. Otherwise, it would be a double punishment for an area that has already suffered too much.
Finally, the most important argument of all: the future. It is essential to channel this debate that is, without a doubt, decisive for the next generations of Mendoza. The strongest opportunities for Mendozas development are in the south. The transfer from the Río Grande to the Atuel (which would allow twice as many hectares to be irrigated), is one more river for Mendoza, the Hierro Indio mine, Potasio Río Colorado, the Mendoza language of Vaca Muerta, etc. The potential and mining tradition of Malargüe, the Paso Las Leñas Bioceanic Corridor, one more step to Chile for Mendoza, tourism, industry, agriculture, livestock... and the list could go on for several more paragraphs.
Reducing this issue to the economic-budgetary level is a huge mistake. The debate must be purged of current miseries to implement a state policy that deploys, with intelligence and sustainability, the potential of the province. Never before have we had such a concrete opportunity to overcome the old divisions of our internal geography, and generate the conditions to face a new stage of harmonious growth.
To advance in this sense, it is necessary to overcome the merely reparative vision, which inevitably brings resentment and prejudice, with a cooperative vision of the future. It is not about privileging one region over another, nor about collecting past debts. We are talking about taking advantage of the comparative advantages of a region to benefit the entire group. This is the most intelligent concept regarding Mendoza as an integrated and thriving province. |
