The Foreign Ministry is involved in an internal movement that generates discomfort among many diplomats. A few days ago the new lists of promotions for ambassadors were announced.
As revealed exclusively by LPO, Diana Mondino put together the promotion list to favor PRO diplomats close to Jorge Faurie and much of the libertarian money that the ministry conducts. The Chancellor and her team worked around the clock to put together these new lists and promote promotions among her most loyal officials “displacing those who were already on the lists corresponding to the years 2021, 2022 and 2023.” From the San Martín Palace they told LPO that “there is no precedent for something like this.
Now, strong legal questions arose from the actions of the members of the so-called Qualifying Board that is responsible for putting together the promotion documents. As the Senate is the one that must decide on the promotions, a group of diplomats linked to Peronism have already made it known and the legal advisors of the Justicialista Party are working to present an appeal for protection in court against this board.
In the Chancellery they denounce that Mondino put together promotion lists by hand to favor the PRO
The criticism is heightened by several “immoral behaviors” such as that of Milei’s ambassador in Uruguay, Martín García Moritán, who had his wife included in the specifications, in an act of obvious nepotism. But the most serious, according to the diplomatic sources consulted by LPO, is that of the economic vice chancellor, Marcelo Cima, who was denounced in the Senate for obstructing the actions of justice in the face of investigations against him.
As the Senate is the one that must decide on the promotions, a group of diplomats linked to Peronism have already made it known and the legal advisors of the Justicialista Party are working to present an appeal for protection in court against this board.
As LPO announced, Cima has had a criminal case opened since 2020 for mistreatment of Belgian employees while he was ambassador in Brussels. They also found him making unauthorized trips to the United States to visit his daughter and accused him of having worked remotely from a country that was not the one assigned to him.
At the time, former Foreign Minister Felipe Solá made him return a few months after appointing him at the express request of the Internal Affairs authorities so as not to trigger a diplomatic conflict with the Belgian state that already had complaints about workplace violence against the staff of Belgian nationality who worked in the Argentine embassy.
With this framework, the information handled by diplomats close to Peronism is that four Foreign Ministry officials were called to testify as witnesses. These are Pedro Negueloaetcheverry, Constanza Crespo, Ramiro Velloso and Pablo Obregón, who would have been awarded illegally by Cima, who put them on the promotion list despite not having sufficient requirements.
According to sources, this was a strategy of Mondino’s right hand to pressure and change his statements and divert the judicial investigation.
Pedro Negueloaetcheverry, Constanza Crespo, Ramiro Velloso and Pablo Obregón, who would have been awarded illegally by Cima, who put them on the promotion list despite not having sufficient requirements. According to sources, this was a right-hand strategy of Mondino to pressure and change his statements and divert the judicial investigation.
According to the complaint that is in the Senate, what Cima did falls within the crime of bribery because he used a position of power to obtain favorable statements that would prevent him from delving deeper into the summary.
Marcelo Cima, the Kirchnerist who became Mondino’s right-hand man
The officials involved were also denounced for passive bribery. “Cima dedicated himself to rewarding others involved in this embarrassing file for which he should be expelled from the diplomatic career,” commented a diplomat who pushed the accusation against the official.
Along with the officials who were promoted, Cima appointed Pablo Grinspun (son of the former Minister of Economy) as Director of the Economic Center, who is also summoned to testify as a witness to these mismanagement. “The guy paid posts in the state through impunity,” says the source.
