Miguel Ángel Pichetto: «In recent years, 3 million poor Venezuelans have entered Argentina»

The deputy of Encuentro Federal , Miguel Ángel Pichetto , sparked controversy with his statements on immigration in Argentina, linking it to cultural and demographic changes that, according to him, transformed the identity of the country. During an interview with María O'Donnell and Ernesto Tenembaum, the former senator questioned the lack of a planned immigration policy and lamented the supposed "latinization" of society.

"In recent years, three million poor Venezuelans have arrived. At first, professionals came, then all the poor came. And Bolivians, Peruvians, they are all here," said Pichetto, assuring that the concentration of immigrants in the Buenos Aires suburbs has created a "serious" structural problem for the country.

According to the legislator, the absence of a population development strategy led to an uncontrolled situation. "You should have had an intelligent migration policy, of population development in Patagonia, so that the people who came would come to work and not come to the Buenos Aires suburbs, where everything exploded. Half of the people from Buenos Aires are foreigners . They are concentrated there," he said.

In an attempt to illustrate what he considers a cultural transformation in Argentina, Pichetto referred to Andean music. “Did you see the charanguito that is going away? That music from the north has nothing to do with Argentina,” he said, differentiating it from traditional folklore. When asked if this genre was not part of the country’s diversity, he reaffirmed his position: “Folklore has nothing to do with the charanguito, it has nothing to do with it.”

The manager also recalled his childhood and compared it to the current situation. "I lived in Argentina, my family was a humble family from Banfield, but my father had in his head that his son had to study and had to go to university. That world no longer exists," he lamented.