Rice U. expert available to discuss Sunday’s Argentina presidential election

EXPERT ALERT

Amy McCaig
713-348-6777
amym@rice.edu

Rice U. expert available to discuss Sunday’s Argentina presidential election

HOUSTON – (Oct. 25, 2019) – As Argentinians prepare to go to the polls this weekend to select a new president, Rice University’s Mark Jones, the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies and a professor in the Department of Political Science, is available to comment on what we can expect to unfold.

Mark Jones. Photo credit: Michael Stravato for Rice University’s Baker Institute.

Although six presidential candidates are running in the Oct. 27 election, only two are relevant, Jones wrote in an op-ed for The Hill: the ticket of Alberto Fernández and his vice presidential nominee, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and the ticket of President Mauricio Macri and Senator Miguel Pichetto.

“It is a near-foregone conclusion that Alberto Fernández will surpass the 45% threshold needed to win without a Nov. 24 runoff,” Jones wrote, adding that a majority of Argentinians feel that they are not better off than they were four years ago.

“Macri’s failure over the past four years to right the Argentine ship is yet another disappointment for a country that, while endowed with exceptional natural and human resources, has been enmeshed in a centurylong economic decline that seems to know no end,” Jones wrote.

If Fernández is elected, he will immediately be faced with an yearly inflation rate above 50%, a peso that has lost more than 300% of its value against the U.S. dollar over the past 18 months and an economy that will reduce by 3% this year — married with a stubborn structural primary fiscal deficit and an untenable burden of debt that includes more than $150 billion in debt payments that will come due during his four-year term, Jones wrote.

“Given the economic challenges facing the country, Fernández has his work cut out for him if he is going to restore growth and prosperity and thereby avoid a similar negative verdict from Argentine voters in 2023,” he concluded.

Jones regularly advises U.S. government institutions on economic and political affairs in Argentina and has conducted research on public policy issues in Latin America and Texas for numerous international, national and local organizations, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Texas Department of Agriculture and the city of Houston. He is a frequent commentator in local, state, national and international media on government, politics and public policy. To schedule an interview with Jones, contact him directly at 832-466-6535.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality high-definition and standard-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7. Rice also has a university backdrop, 1080p webcam, light kit and wireless mic for Skype interviews.

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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

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Related materials:

Jones’ bio: https://www.bakerinstitute.org/experts/mark-p-jones/

Follow Jones on Twitter @MarkPJonesTX.

Photo link: https://news2.rice.edu/files/2019/02/2018-09-10_MarkJones_1678-26sfik2.jpg

Photo credit: Michael Stravato for Rice University’s Baker Institute.

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