04-02-2016: Latin American Weekly Report

It is crunch time for Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri. Halfway through the traditional honeymoon period of 100 days Macri has made some bold gambits, but now some tough negotiations lie ahead at home and abroad. His government held two days of talks with ‘holdout’ creditors in the US to whom it plans to present a proposal later this week. Removing this obstacle to accessing international capital markets again is an economic imperative but any deal that is struck must be politically palatable. This is because at home the government will have to sell it to moderate factions of the opposition Partido Justicialista (PJ, Peronists) in the federal congress. At the same time the government is trying to hold its own against some of the toughest negotiators of all – national trade unions – in salary talks.