VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1665/01 3401203
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 051203Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2640
INFO RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001665 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR WHA/BSC AND OES/ENV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV SENV KCOR AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: ENVIRONMENT SECRETARY EXITS GOVERNMENT 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Controversial Environment Secretary Romina 
Picolotti resigned on December 2, reportedly at the request 
of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK).  Picolotti 
is replaced by Homero Maximo Bibiloni, an environmental 
attorney.  Presidency sources quoted in the press stated that 
"waste, bad management and environmental blunders" prompted 
CFK to ask Picolotti to resign.  Picolotti is being 
investigated for mishandling of funds.  Appointed in 2006 by 
then-President Nestor Kirchner, she gained fame with her 
spirited opposition to the installation of a giant paper 
mill, Botnia, on the Uruguayan side of a shared river.  This 
year, she became estranged from CFK when a bill she had 
pushed through Congress to protect glaciers in the south of 
the country was vetoed by CFK, allegedly to protect mining 
interests.  Picolotti's patron was ex-Chief of Cabinet 
Alberto Fernandez, and her star apparently began to decline 
with his departure last August.  It appears she was 
increasingly being perceived by new Cabinet Chief Sergio 
Massa as a liability for the government.  End Summary. 
 
Opposition to CFK's veto of law to protect glaciers 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) Persistent rumors of Picolotti's impending 
resignation had swirled over the past couple of weeks, as 
news spread of her pique at CFK's veto of a law she had 
shepherded through Congress to protect endangered glaciers in 
Patagonia.  Picolotti was criticized at the time for having 
drafted and pushed this law without consulting with the local 
governors of the affected provinces or GOA Secretary of 
Mining Jorge Mayoral.  Powerful gold mining and oil interests 
would have been affected by the law, which the governors 
strongly opposed.  Casa Rosada officials, including 
Fernandez's replacement as Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa and his 
staff, collaborated with these forces to deliver CFK's veto. 
Picolotti reacted strongly to the veto, threatening to 
resign.  Her vocal opposition to the veto was also reported 
in the press to have upset ex-President Nestor Kirchner. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Argentine media offered very different explanations 
for her departure, including the malfeasance investigation, 
Picolotti's displeasure with the presidential veto of her 
glaciers protection legislation, and supposed Kirchner 
unhappiness with her handling of the Botnia protests.  While 
one newspaper insisted that Picolotti was removed due to her 
failure to clean up the long-polluted Riachuelo River, the 
Director of the World Bank, which is funding the Riachuelo 
clean-up project, discounted this version.  A close confident 
of Picolotti in the Environment Secretariat told us that her 
relationship with the Presidency, and in particular with new 
Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa, had been deteriorating for some 
time, to the point where there were "irreconciliable 
differences" regarding "key elements of environmental 
policy", and it was "better to go."  Graciela Gerola, 
President of the Environmental Protection Agency of the City 
of Buenos Aires, agreed that Massa saw Picolotti as a 
liability from the very start and was determined to "get her 
out."  Gerola added that Picolotti had not been a good 
appointment as Environment Secretary.  She thought that 
Picolotti was too young and inexperienced for the position, 
with "fundamentalist" environmental views and no management 
background to speak of. 
 
Gained fame in paper mill dispute 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Picolotti was appointed as Environment Secretary in 
2006 and soon gained fame for her spirited opposition to the 
construction by Finnish company Botnia of a giant paper mill 
on the Uruguayan side of a shared river.  Picolotti 
demonstrated along with the Argentine protestors who were 
blocking the bridge between Argentina and Uruguay and 
publicly pledged her support to their fight.  Her husband 
also entered the fray when he revealed that some of the most 
extreme environmental protestors were suggesting that the 
Botnia plant be bombed. 
 
Investigated for misappropriation of funds 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) Picolotti's abrasive style and less than transparent 
handling of the Secretariat have come under increasing fire. 
She is being investigated for mishandling of public funds 
through the contracting of personal friends, use of private 
jets and unjustified purchases of real estate.  The 
investigation is also looking into use of over $200,000 of 
public funds that were paid to consulting companies belonging 
to close personal friends. 
New Secretary: environmental lawyer Homero Bibiloni 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) CFK's Chief of Cabinet Sergio Massa named Homero 
Bibiloni as Picolotti's replacement.  Bibiloni is an 
attorney, professor and expert in environmental law.  His 
main challenge will be to handle the $780 million World Bank 
loan aimed at cleaning up the Riachuelo, a polluted river 
that crosses Buenos Aires and has become an open sewer for 
domestic and industrial waste.  The World Bank loan will be 
used in Buenos Aires and in several municipalities along the 
Riachuelo in the Province of Buenos Aires.  City of Buenos 
Aires EPA Chief Gerola told us that she had an excellent 
opinion of incoming Secretary Bibiloni, whom she 
characterized as a "first-class appointment" of someone who 
knows the issues. 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment:  We tend to agree with the critical reviews 
of Picolotti's performance.  She was not a particularly 
friendly or helpful interlocutor with this Mission.  We will 
engage Bibiloni quickly to try to develop a more productive 
relationship with him. 
KELLY