National, City Gov'ts continue spat over subway control

In the midst of the six-day-long subway strike in Buenos Aires City, both the City administration and the National government remained at loggerheads over who’s responsible for the city’s subways, exchanging in a set of piquant accusations.

Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri accused the National Government of encouraging the strike, putting down Interior and Transport Minister Florencio Randazzo labelling him “a poor bloke who keeps repeating what they send him to say.”

Earlier this morning, Macri reiterated the need for investment to be made in the city’s subway system and underlined that until funds were found, his administration would not take control of the underground train lines.

“I cannot take control of the subway in these conditions.

“I can’t very well tell people, ‘we are going to take control of the subways and to do so, close kindergartens,’” the City government official stated in a morning press interview.

The statements came shortly after the City Mayor suggested the national authorities allow him to “go to the BID (Interamerican Development Bank) and take out a 30-year loan to cover all of the work that is needed and start from there.”

Furthermore, Macri pungently echoed recent declarations made to the press by his administration's Deputy-Mayor María Eugenia Vidal by stating: “We just don’t have the means to finance this.”