The pandemic is driving a wedge between Buenos Aires and the province of Mendoza. The tension is inspiring demands for autonomy more generally
Once again, a pandemic is driving a wedge between Mendoza and Buenos Aires. Covid-19 is surging in Argentina; the country is recording 35,000 new cases a day. The provincial government has defied President Alberto Fernández by keeping its schools open. It has imposed a looser curfew and was against extending Argentina’s lockdown beyond May 30th. The tension is inspiring demands for autonomy more generally. Some political activists even talk of independence from Argentina.
“The government just takes from us, it’s a disgrace,” says Luciano, a farmhand on a small vineyard in the province’s Uco valley, where Malbec, the soft red wine that helped make Mendoza famous, is produced. “We live by our work, we Mendocinos provide for ourselves,” remarks Cristina, a young mother checking French oak barrels in a nearby winery. Taxes on exports in particular are disliked. “That money, from our labour, should stay in Mendoza,” says Juan, a winemaker.
Per person, Mendoza gets the least funding from the central government of all of Argentina’s 23 provinces. Last spring José Manuel Ortega, a former investment banker and winemaker, paid for an opinion poll of Mendoza, Córdoba and Santa Fe, the country’s richest provinces, which are all home to opposition leaders. Two-fifths of respondents in Córdoba and a third in Mendoza said they would back seceding from Argentina. Another poll in April showed support rising.
One Mendocino legislator, José Luis Ramón, has proposed a plebiscite on independence when the province votes in mid-term elections later this year. A MendoExit movement, run by Hugo Laricchia, a pugnacious acupuncturist, has joined forces with the established regional Democratic party to present a new force in regional politics, called Éxito.
Whether all this will come to much is unclear. The constitution does not allow for secession, notes Anabel Sagasti, a senator of the ruling Peronist party. But in the Uco valley Raúl, a worker loading cases of Malbec for export, says he would vote for Éxito. “We can’t go it alone, but with others like Córdoba, we could.” His boss laughs at the idea. Not everybody will.
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