BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – Images of a former Argentine official in handcuffs after getting nabbed in the middle of the night trying to stash millions of dollars in a convent have thrown the country’s political opposition into disarray, buying time for the new president to apply difficult austerity measures.
Mauricio Macri took office in December promising to revive Latin America’s No. 3 economy after years of free-spending populism under his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez.
Food and home heating costs have skyrocketed since Macri devalued the currency and reduced energy subsidies. Thousands of protesters took to the streets this week, banging pots and pans in the first “cacerolazo” against his policies.
But Fernandez, a sworn Macri enemy who could run against him in 2019, has been unable to capitalize on the discontent.
She was embarrassed last month when her former secretary of public works Jose Lopez was arrested after throwing bags filled with almost $9 million over the walls of a convent in a Buenos Aires suburb.
Lopez started hurling the cash into the Our Lady of Fatima convent at 3 am when the elderly nuns inside were slow to answer the door. Prosecutors are probing long-standing links between Fernandez administration officials and the convent.
Lopez has been charged with money laundering and for bringing an unlicensed automatic rifle to the convent.