by The national government displacement this Wednesday at authorities of the Superintendency of Health Services. These are Enrique Rodríguez Chiantore and Nicolás Striglio, who had arrived at the beginning of Javier Milei’s management. Gabriel Oriolo and Claudio Stivelman will take their places.
The change was made one day after the CGT strike, which implies a message to union leaders. The thing is that the Superintendency, which manages a million-dollar fund of funds needed by union social works, is in charge of carrying out the deregulation of the health system promoted by Javier Milei.
The curious thing is that neither the Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, nor the Ministry of Labor, headed by Omar Yasín, in charge of the formal link with the CGT, were warned of the changes. “This was decided by the President and the Chief of Staff (Nicolás Posse) directly, not even (the Minister of Health, Mario) Russo,” a well-informed source assured this newspaper.
The Ministry of Health, which was initially going to be a secretariat, was one of the sectors with the most suspense in the appointment of authorities. Finally, hours before Milei’s inauguration at the Casa Rosada, the names were defined. And Chiantore had taken over as head of the Superintendence of Health Services, a man from Patricia Bullrich and with experience in public service, secondary to Striglio.
Less than two months later, however, both were laid off.
From the Health area, they limited themselves to indicating Clarion because the changes respond to the fact that there were “differences in criteria” and the discontent of the Casa Rosada because “no progress was being made in the objectives that had been set by the Executive Branch” for the organization, which regulates all the actors involved in the Health sector (prepaid, social works).
However, he is behind the political issue and the fight with the CGT: while Rodríguez Chiantore, who had served as Chief of Staff of Jorge Lemus during the Presidency of Mauricio Macri; and Striglio, who during Alberto Fernández’s management had played a role in Super and was promoted to general manager by Milei, were not objected to by the union leadership, especially by José Luis Lingieri (Sanitary Works).
The opinion of the popes was not a minor matter. It is worth reviewing: in December, before the labor union called a strike and in the midst of the crusade against the picketers, the Casa Rosada had a positive view of the unions. So much so that Milei himself privately highlighted that unionists were “not” part of Argentina’s problem and that, unlike other political sectors, “they do see it.”
Consequently, the abrupt turn in that relationship may well explain the changes. Those who know the close link between the unions and the Health area remember, with some malice, that Rodríguez Chiantore already experienced a similar situation during the Cambiemos government: Macri asked him to resign in the middle of the second national strike carried out by the CGT, in December 2017.
On the other hand, Oriolo and Stivelman are viewed with more distrust: the former was appointed until last month as process and operations manager of the prepaid OSDE.
Without mentioning details of the companies in which they are combined, in its presentation report of Oriolo, the Government stated that he is 57 years old, has a degree in Business Administration and has a long history in the pension and insurance sector. He was also in charge of the areas of Processes and Systems, medical benefits and Strategic Development.
Stivelman, for his part, is a doctor with 42 years of experience. In the last 36 years, in addition, they have combined social security functions and management of social works: strictly speaking, he was manager of the Institute of Social Work of the Armed Forces
