Patagonian governors endorsed Chubut for “not delivering” oil due to fall co-participation

The governors of the Patagonian provinces warned today that if the national government “does not deliver” to Chubut the $13.5 billion that it “illegally retained,” they will support the decision of President Ignacio Torres “not to hand over its oil and gas.” If the Ministry of Economy does not give Chubut its resources, then Chubut will not deliver its oil and gas,” said a harsh letter titled “The United Provinces of the South” that the Chubut governor published on his social network Twitter. He added: “To take away more than a third of a province’s share is a criminal action that pursues the deliberate objective of making its inhabitants suffer in order to force its government to adopt certain political decisions,” said in the statement.” It is not a rematch against the governor of Chubut. It is an affectation to more than 600,000 Chubutans who in this way see their right to education, health, security and development affected,” they remarked in the statement, in which they repudiate “categorically the attack that the national government is making on a sister province.” The statement is also signed by the governors of La Pampa (Sergio Ziliotto), Neuquén (Rolando Figueroa), Tierra del Fuego (Gustavo Melella), Santa Cruz (Claudio Vidal) and Río Negro (Alberto Weretilneck) who adhere to the words of the letter. In another passage of the text, the governors remarked that “the provinces are pre-existing to the Nation and deserve respect” and that “no one can subjugate or extort them with threats of restriction of public funds that belong to them in their own right.” “Governors are not employees of the National Executive Branch, nor are they subject to orders. Their mandates come from the people of their provinces and they have an obligation to defend their interests.” Pointed. The statement also criticizes that the national government “withheld the funds destined for the Public Transport Compensatory Fund” to different provinces such as Chubut and La Pampa, which are “resources from the fuel tax and have a specific allocation,” they said. While they assured: “Only a law could provide for another destination and yet they withheld,” they said. In this sense, the governors stressed that “for this reason the federal justice, at the request of an action promoted by the government of Chubut, decreed the illegality of the tax cut.”It is not a question of war, but of protecting transport users who have the same rights as the inhabitants of the AMBA.”Axel Kiciloff, from the Province of Buenos Aires, and Gerardo Zamora, from Santiago del Estero, also joined the complaint. “Our solidarity with the people of Chubut. All provinces are being subjected to this “extortion” and funding cuts. It is not, as Milei maintains, against the governors but against the people of the provinces,” the governor wrote.  They also did so from Juntos por el Cambio where the governors of that space expressed “their total backing and support” for Torres and added that “the National Government must comply with the Constitution and urgently send the co-participative resources that belong to the province. Not complying with the law and the agreements between the nation and the provinces does not affect the governors but the 50 million Argentines who live in the country’s 24 jurisdictions.”

Original source in Spanish