Blog post

June 21, 2006 [LINK]

Garcia meets with Toledo

President-elect Alan Garcia met with outgoing head of state Alejandro Toledo today. "The meeting was strictly private, and at the end there were no statements to the press." It is assumed that Garcia made clear his annoyance with the controversial end-of-term ambassadorial appointments by Toledo, which one would assume to be political payoffs. Garcia's wife Pilar Nores criticized outgoing First Lady Eliane Karp (who is more or less estranged from Toledo, from what I can tell) for taking an expensive trip to Europe just before the Toledo government comes to an end. See La Republica (in Spanish). It was almost certainly Garcia's first visit to the Palacio de Gobierno since his term as president ended 16 years ago. Does he anticipate making those fiery speeches to huge, enthusiastic crowds like in the old days, or will he concede the role of young populist upstart to Hugo Chavez?

Garcia was supposed to meet with runner-up candidate Ollanta Humala, but the bitter electoral adversaries have not been able to work out an appropriate agenda or setting.

Kirchner visits Spain

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner arrived in Madrid, where he hopes to reach agreements with Spain that will result in more investment in Argentina. Today he met with King Juan Carlos, and tomorrow he is expected to meet Prime Minister Zapatero.