Gildo Insfrán

Gildo Insfrán
Governor of Formosa Province
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 10, 1995
Lieutenant Floro Bogado
Preceded by Vicente Joga
Personal details
Born January 19, 1951
Laguna Blanca (Formosa)
Political party Justicialist Party
Alma mater National University of the Northeast
Profession Veterinarian

Gildo Insfrán (born January 19, 1951) is an Argentine Justicialist Party (PJ) politician, who has been governor of Formosa Province since 1995.

Biography

Early life and career

Insfrán studies at the National University of the Northeast, where he earned a degree in veterinary science. He has two daughters with Teresa Baldus, Sofia and Gianninna. The couple also had a son, Gildo Miguel Insfrán, who committed suicide on August 5, 2003, at the age of seventeen; he shot himself in the right temple with a 9mm pistol. The motive for the suicide has never been publicly clarified.[1]

He was elected to the Provincial Legislature in 1983, and in 1987, he became Vice Governor of Formosa under Governor Vicente Joga, serving for two terms.

Governor

Insfrán succeded Joga as Governor of Formosa in 1995, with former Governor Floro Bogado elected Vice-Governor. Insfrán called a Constitutional Convention in 2003 in order to amend the Provincial Constitution, which had imposed term limits, to permit re-election for an indefinite number of terms. He held elections for the convention in July of that year; with 57% of he vote the PJ won 19 of 30 seats, and thus assured the amendment.[2] Joga, with whom Insfrán had fallen out, unsuccessfully appealed the changes before the the Supreme Court of Argentina.[3]

Insfrán was re-elected in 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011. Having been close to former President Carlos Menem, Insfrán later became close to President Néstor Kirchner, who defeated Menem in 2003 and was the leader of the Justicialist Party. Insfrán became a Kirchnerist politician early on; he was “the first governor to support Néstor Kirchner.” He remained a close ally of Kirchner's widow and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. “Behind the progressive discourse,” opposition Congressman Adrián Pérez has said, “Kirchner exercises his royal power” through such “authoritarian and conservative” figures as Insfrán.[4] President Cristina Kirchner, like her husband before her, is close to Insfrán and has showered him with “lavish government funds.”[3] This policy was formalized by Néstor Kirchner with the signing of the Historic Reparations Act in 2003.[5] Insfrán, for his part, named a major street in the city of Formosa Avenida Doctor Néstor Carlos Kirchner.[3]

Insfrán remained popular, reelected on each occasion with over 70% of the vote.[5][6][7] The economy grew strongly in Formosa -long Argentina's poorest province- during Insfrán's tenure, expanding by 70% during his first decade in power and creating over 5,600 new businesses (a 70% jump).[8] The provincial economy remained relatively strong in subsequent years, with private-sector employment growing by 7% in 2013 and retail sales in real terms by 13%.[9] Some of the most notable public works legacies under Insfrán include the construction of 132 new schools; 6,300 housing units; numerous aqueducts into the remote rural areas of the province; nine hospitals; 17 clinics;[10] the 680 kilometres (420 mi) Father Pacífico Scozzina Highway (National Route 81), which runs the length of the province;[11] the 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) Formosa Riverwalk; and the HAC Center for Radiotherapy among others.[5][10]

A 2012 report stated, however, that infant mortality in the province was 18 per thousand live births (compared to 11 in Argentina as a whole); the infant mortality rate in Formosa, while declining, remained the highest in Argentina. The same report stated that 20% of households had no refrigerators, 16% cooked with firewood or charcoal, and 74% had no computer. Merit Antonio Ferreyra, Insfrán's chief of staff, “owns the entire state and private health system,” including all of the ambulances in the province.[3] Two-thirds of the employed individuals in Formosa work for the state. Forty-one percent of households have no running water; 31% lack electricity.[12]

Allegations of corruption

Insfrán has been the target of accusations of corruption and self-enrichment, and has been severely criticized for having Formosa's Provincial Constitution revised in 2003 to allow him to be reelected indefinitely.[12]

On March 30, 2015, Carlos Rívolo, federal prosecutor in the Ciccone Case, also known as Boudougate, asked Judge Sebastian Casanello to investigate the participation of Insfrán as well as various other persons, including Vice President Amado Boudou, in a maneuver related to the restructuring of the public debt of the province of Formosa with the help of a shell company called The Old Fund.[13][14]

Drug trafficking

Formosa province has the highest density of narcotics per square meter in Argentina.[3] According to local lawyer Juan Davis, this problem has gone unchecked under Insfrán and has been a major source of revenue for the province. Police and security forces have been accused of colluding with traffickers by guarding airstrips at which planes carrying drugs have landed and been unloaded. Hugo Palma, a politician in rural Estanislao del Campo, had an airstrip on his property where 700 kilos of cocaine were seized from drug traffickers.[3]

Treatment of indigenous people

Formosa was scene of a November 2010 incident in which 400 police officers violently dispersed a demonstration carried out by the province's Toba Qom Indigenous community. The demonstrators had mounted a roadblock in protest at plans to build a university on traditional lands. The police also burned down the community’s temporary homes; at least one police officer and one member of the community were killed in the clashes. In the same province, the Indigenous Pilagá community of El Descanso continue their struggle for justice over development projects that were undertaken without consultation with the Indigenous peoples and that they claim affected their traditional territories. Amnesty International documented threats and intimidation against members of these communities and their lawyers.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Conmocionó la muerte del hijo de un gobernador" (in Spanish). 5 August 2003.
  2. ↑ "Formosa: los constituyentes aprobaron la reelección indefinida". La Nación. 1 July 2003.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 "El narco-feudal-kirchnerismo en Formosa". Plaza de Mayo. Aug 1, 2012.
  4. ↑ "En Formosa sólo se percibe corrupción, reelección indefinida y pobreza inducida". CompactoNEA. 19 April 2011.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Gildo Insfrán obtenía anoche un claro triunfo y logró la reelección". Diario El Comercial. 24 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "Es para Menem que lo mira por TV". Página/12. 27 September 1999.
  7. ↑ "Insfrán fue reelecto por cuarta vez". La Gaceta. 29 October 2007.
  8. ↑ "Formosa: La actividad económica provincial creció un 70 % en 10 años". DERP. 24 September 2008.
  9. ↑ "Actualidad Provincial". Gobierno de Formosa. 4 November 2014.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 "Insfrán y los logros por sectores". Siempre Formosa. 1 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Inauguraron obras en la Ruta Nacional Nº 81". Presidencia de la Nación. 13 March 2008.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Werner, Ruth (Dec 2, 2010). "Gildo Insfrán es kirchnerista y Formosa también es Argentina". PTS.
  13. ↑ "Pidieron la indagatoria de Amado Boudou y Gildo Insfrán por el contrato con Formosa". La Nacion. Mar 30, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Vandenbroele presentó un escrito y no respondió preguntas en el caso por el sospechoso contrato con Formosa". La Nacion. Apr 8, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Sacrificing Rights in the Name of Development". Amnesty International. August 2011.
Preceded by
Vicente Joga		 Governor of Formosa
1995–present 		Incumbent

External links