In the Casa Rosada they hope to have the three missionary votes in the Senate to approve the Bases law. Carlos Omar Arce and Sonia Elizabeth Rojas Decut, both from the Frente Renovador de la Concordia (FRC), a party that responds to the governor and the Macrista Enrique Goerling Lara, are preparing to approve the law when it is discussed in the premises.
The governor himself, with a dialogue-oriented message, called for “not to get in the way of the Government” and asked to “swing with intelligence.” He said it this May 1, when he opened the legislative sessions. There Hugo Passalacqua expressed his support for the Bases law: “If there is no consensus, it must be created.” He is the same governor who denies teachers and health care workers a salary increase that covers, at least, basic needs. They have been fighting for a salary increase for months.
Those who do not have to fight for salary increases are the senators. In the midst of a social crisis, with high rates of poverty and indigence, they had the luxury of increasing their income. The salary difference with teaching is abysmal: a senator earns 8 million pesos a monthwhile one A graduate teacher earns a basic salary of only 74,900 pesos and earns between 235,000 and 280,000 pesos on hand.
The difference between the privileges of some and the shortcomings of others is not only expressed in their monthly income, but also in the number of hours they work.
While in the Senate it only met five times during the 2024 period. (February 23, March 1, March 14, April 18 and May 15), teachers, due to low income, must work double shifts. They spend more than 8 hours in front of the classroom and then, when they get home, they must prepare the classes and pedagogical materials, correct notebooks, talk to parents and a long etcetera. In addition, they hold festivals, raffles and other activities to raise funds to repair the school, buy chalk (yes, they don’t even provide that) or directly to contribute to the glass of milk because what the State provides is not enough for all students.
The differences in working conditions are also abysmal. While senators travel by plane for free (because they have paid travel expenses), they have 12 to 15 advisors and they travel in high-end cars, the workers, on the other hand, must spend at least between 1,600 and 1,800 pesos a day on bus tickets to travel from one location to another. . Some have offices with all the comforts, the others often do not even have, like their students, bathrooms enabled for their use. Thus we could continue with the differences between the privileges of one and the deprivations of others.
Who are the Misiones senators preparing to vote on the Bases law?
Carlos Omar Arce
He has been a senator of the Nation since 2023 for the Renewal Front of Social Concord. From 2019 to 2023 he was vice governor of the Province of Misiones. From 2016 to 2019 he was president of the Misiones Social Welfare Institute (IPS).
In 2019, Arce was denounced for having signed retirement privileges for the hierarchical staff of the State’s social work. Luis “Coco” Gómez, Hugo Irala, Guido Barreyro, were some of the beneficiaries of this resolution signed by Arce. That was not the only complaint that the current senator had. The social work staff revealed that due to the debt that the social work maintained with suppliers, they did not have laboratory supplies, leaving members without minimum coverage. In addition to the delays in accessing a medical benefit due to the delay in payment by the IPS.
As lieutenant governor, in various public events he used a speech in support of education and teaching. In 2022 he said: “Education in Misiones is not public or private, it is universal and we work to contain the educational community.” He said it when he presided over the delivery of furniture to Private Institutions in various locations in the province. While public schools have been falling apart for years and do not have basic teaching materials.
On February 21, 2024, as a senator of the Nation, he participated in the press conference on federal educational and technological leadership and innovation. There he said: “I thank the teacher for the daily effort, commitment and love they have for their profession.” On the other hand, he expressed that “Misiones planted a root, being a beacon in the nation in regards to education and innovation and I take this opportunity to thank and highlight the work of each missionary teacher who, as my co-worker says, It is the most beautiful and commendable profession.” However, many teachers with whom he spoke The Daily Left denies his statements. Leandro, a primary and secondary school teacher, told us: “At this time there is no chalk or registration in schools, which is an important document because if something happens to a student, it must be recorded whether or not they came to school. The amounts for the school cafeteria are 220 pesos per day per student. With that money it is not enough to give them breakfast and lunch. They are fed for a few days, and then parents, teachers and the community are asked to collaborate.”
As a senator, Arce presented two projects that have nothing to do with the needs of the majority. In one, it requests that the trajectory of the “Formula nut and all sports” program in the province of Misiones be declared of interest. The other is for the seventh cycle of classical guitar concerts of the Más Vida Foundation to be declared of interest, to be held in Posadas and provincial towns. He has 15 advisors, with salaries ranging from 700 thousand to one and a half million, and six months after taking office, he only presented two declarations of interest. Of course, he is ready to raise his hand in favor of the Bases law when it is discussed in the Senate.
Enrique Martin Goerling Lara
He has been a senator of the Nation for the Province of Misiones since 2023. He joined the Together for Change list. During Macri’s administration he was executive director of the Yacyretá Binational Entity. During his administration, the great blackout occurred that left the country without electricity for 15 hours.
The senator’s income is not at all clear. According to provincial and national media reports, she lied in his sworn statements. The representative of the PRO missionary said he had a total assets of more than $65 million in assets. The amount allocated to the properties and vehicles he owns is ridiculous. But discrepancies also appear between the sworn statements presented on February 22, 2024, five months after the one presented in February 2023.
What are the differences between both? The “disappearance” of an apartment with a garage in Punta del Este (Maldonado, Uruguay) purchased with a loan on September 1, 2016, for which he said he had paid 4.1 million pesos. That property was not declared as sold or transferred to third parties.
The privileges of the caste also extend to being able to forge tax documents when they cannot certify where that income comes from, or directly to evade taxes.
Sonia Elizabeth Rojas Decut
He belongs to the Renewal Front of La Concordia Social. As a candidate for senator in Pyata Magazine, she stated that “I remain very focused and I have an obsession with getting into a kind of coalition that tends to in-service teacher training plans, also of excellence, because I believe that it is the key to everything, the key of quality education is teacher training.” However, as a senator she has done nothing to make this truly effective. He did not present a single project that contributes to improving educational quality in Misiones. Much less did he urge an increase in the educational budget to solve the serious building problems that missionary schools are going through.
In the province they have former senators who live a life of infinite privileges. Like Maurice Closs, the “renovating radical” who was governor and then senator of the Frente de Todos became the richest man in Congress, declaring a net worth of 1,140 million pesos. Starting with 20 properties and 2,200 hectares of fields, which, since they are accounted for at “tax value”, are not useful to measure his true fortune. But his biggest business is in the shares he has in various companies: Petrovalle (fuels), Rutas del Mercosur SAT (cargo), Citrus de Misiones SA (fruit) as well as “livestock, herbal and forestry businesses.”
This is part of the caste that enriches itself at the expense of passing laws against working people. This is why The PTS in the Left Front has proposed for more than a decade that each legislator, Executive official, judge and other public officials receive an income equivalent to that of a worker. The only possible alternative to attack the privileges they always enjoy, no matter who governs.
