With middle-class dissatisfaction growing and her modus operandi becoming better understood, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is finding the crucial challenge of controlling the political narrative in Argentina increasingly difficult, and she may not be able to pin the blame for her country’s woes on outside forces for much longer. That’s a key part of the strategy that has proved so effective for more than a decade of Kirchner administrations, beginning with the late Nestor Kirchner and continuing with his widow, the current president.
Every few days, Fernandez faces a new controversy, and each time she responds by singling out an enemy, preferably a foreign one, for attack. The storyline of “the world against Argentina,” however, is no longer resonating the way it once did, particularly because this time the people of Argentina have some of the same complaints that outsiders have raised.
Most recently, on Feb. 1, the International Monetary Fund officially censured Argentina for manipulating economic statistics, especially those related to inflation. Argentina could end up getting thrown out of the IMF -- something that has only happened to one other country in the fund’s history -- for lying about its economy.