Miguel Peirano named new Argentina economy minister

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - Argentina's Industry Secretary Miguel Peirano was appointed Economy Minister to replace Felisa Miceli, who resigned amid a corruption scandal, a top government official said.

Miceli announced her resignation through her spokesman earlier Monday, after a prosecutor demanded an investigation into 64,000 dollars in cash found last month in her office lavatory.

"Peirano is a young man with an important background," President Nestor Kirchner's chief of staff Alberto Fernandez told reporters.
"As an industrial economist, he will manage the economy under existing rules," he added.

Peirano, 40, will officially take over the Economy Ministry on Tuesday.

An economist by profession, Peirano first joined the government under president Eduardo Duhalde (2002-2003) and was promoted to industry secretary in December 2005.

From 1993 to 2004, he also headed the economy department of the Industrial Union of Argentina, and from 2004-2005 he was first vice president of the Foreign Trade and Investment Bank.

Peirano's appointment was announced after Kirchner and Miceli met for an hour behind closed doors to discuss her resignation.

Peirano told reporters that Kirchner accepted Miceli's resignation after she reasoned it was better to defend herself from the charges as a private citizen.

A federal prosecutor on Monday called for an investigation into corruption allegations involving 64,000 dollars in cash found stashed in Miceli's office lavatory during a routine search of ministry premises on June 5.

Despite Miceli's explanation that the money was for a down payment for a house, the prosecutor said he had "gathered enough evidence" supporting the suspicion Miceli "failed to abide by her duties as a public official."

He also said the minister was suspected of destroying public documents and of a cover up.

Miceli, 53, is the first member of Kirchner's cabinet to be smeared by corruption allegations.

After a newspaper broke the story of Miceli's stashed cash on June 24, opposition politicians demanded that she be sacked.

They accused Miceli of having accepted one or more bribes, of destroying documents and of giving false testimony, and they threatened to seek the Supreme Court's intervention if the government failed to file charges against her.

Miceli earlier this month denied any wrongdoing and explained that the money, partly hers and partly her businessman brother's, was a down payment for a house. Real estate agents in Argentina regularly demand cash for such transactions.

She said she hid the money in her office bathroom for safekeeping and accused her political enemies of a "ruthless" smear campaign against her.

Miceli said she believes the controversy has been trumped up to influence the October 28, 2007 presidential election in which Kirchner's wife is a candidate she is launching her campaign on Thursday.