On July 17, 2008, Vice President Julio Cobos voted against mobile withholdings.
Months before, the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had sent to Congress the initiative that contemplated the implementation of a mobile system for withholdings on soybean, wheat and corn exports.
The official decision led to a massive protest by agricultural producers who were harmed throughout Argentina and was led by rural entities that would later form the so-called “Mesa de Liaison”.
The protest lasted 129 days and began as a result of Resolution 125, drafted in March 2008 by the then Minister of Economy, Martín Lousteau.
The government initiative sought to implement a calculation formula that established that if the price of soybeans increased, so did the tax applied to it.
The project had been approved in the Deputies, but when it reached the Senate there was a tie.
In a tense day, the final decision was in the hands of Julio Cobos, who almost nine months earlier had won the elections as Cristina Kirchner’s running mate.
It was there when the head of the Senate went down in history for some as a “hero” and for others as a “traitor” when he announced his “no positive” vote at 4:25 in the morning.
That was the end point of four months of intense protests in the interior of the country, with assemblies and roadblocks of agricultural producers, and massive mobilizations.
The following day, Alberto Fernández as Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers announced that, by decision of the president, the mobile retentions would be reversed.
The annulment was embodied in a decree that instructed the Minister of Economy to limit the validity of Resolution 125 and its complementary ones.
The failed initiative used the resignation of both Alberto Fernández and Martín Lousteau.
In this way, withholdings returned to 35 percent, as they were before 125.
On July 17, 2008, Vice President Julio Cobos voted against mobile withholdings.
The story is also news on Radio Perfil.
by Radio Profile
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