As Ivanka Trump visits, U.S. OKs $400 million Argentina highway investment
Source: Reuters
As Ivanka Trump visits, U.S. OKs $400 million Argentina highway investment
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The United States has approved a $400 million highway investment in Argentina as President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump visits the South American nation on a wider tour of the region.
Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, is on a Latin American trip that includes visits to Colombia and Argentina’s remote northern province of Jujuy, after which she will leave for neighboring country Paraguay.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. government’s development finance body, said its directors had approved the financing to expand and upgrade an 876-km (544-mile) toll road stretching from Buenos Aires to the Chilean border to the west of the country.
“Safe highways and road networks that support commerce are critical to creating a healthier economy for the people of Argentina,” OPIC acting President and Chief Executive David Bohigian said in a statement.
The announcement was made in Jujuy where the U.S. delegation led by Ivanka Trump met with Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie and Minister of Transportation Guillermo Dietrich.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-argentina/as-ivanka-trump-visits-u-s-oks-400-million-argentina-highway-investment-idUSKCN1VQ2PQ
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This smells like rotten fish all the way.
Okay, so we can assume that there is a desire to soak the people of Argentina for tolls. Notice it is a toll road 
Then, we have a deteriorating infrastructure here, (it is very critical in many places) that gets what was it, a -D rating? Then we have a growing crisis of affordable housing with more and more Americans going homeless. Then we have a ridiculous fence that we don't need. Then we have the attempts to gut SNAP when food prices are increasing and people are having a hard enough time as it is, even with SNAP.
Okay, so what's up here? I have nothing against helping other countries, but I don't know about the priorities here and who is going to benefit from the "investment". In fact, I have never heard of OPIC before and had no idea we had a "development finance body" and that term is news to me and WTF and how did that happen and why no investment here? And who is it that gets the return on the investment if this is using taxpayer dollars to finance it?
Gosh, it's like a dimensional shift sometimes into an alternate realty. Excuse my ignorance on this one. Can't keep up.
Whew!
Trump's old pal, President Mauricio Macri - who's already facing two major scandals involving self-dealing at the toll booth:
Pumping up his own stock price with toll hikes, and then dumping the stock before his 'Macrisis' hit; and a "settlement" involving $500 million in Argentine taxpayer funds, for said firm.
Cheeto must be impressed.
"C'mon, Mauricio! Let me have some of that action!"
The toll troubles started in 1991, when Menem authorized Argentina's first tollways - and then privatized the service (as concessions).
Like most other privatizations, it was touted as a way to attract foreign capital and spur investment in the country's antiquated infrastructure.
It did attract foreign investment (which the Macri family joined as 7% shareholders in the AuSol toll operator) - but the hundreds of millions generated by tolls (used 730 million times annually in 2018) have not found their way into road investment.
There have been new freeways built since '91, sure - but they were largely taxpayer-funded (or by way of foreign loans).
Under Macri, tolls have risen from an average of 13 pesos to 70 pesos - nearly doubling average wage increases.
Macri sold his 7% share in 2017, after AuSol stock rose by 400%.
That's a great graphic, in a creepy way. One might wonder if Macri is "connected" to those rude people from Italy.
