LA PLATA.- The government of Axel Kicillof is not sitting idly by. This Thursday, the State Attorney of the province of Buenos Aires filed a motion before Federal Court No. 4 of La Plata demanding that the national executive, led by Javier Milei, respond within ten days whether it approves or not a pre-agreed credit with the World Bank for $270 million. The destination of those funds: sanitation works for polluting effluents in the Río de la Plata basin.
The judicial request comes after the meeting Milei held in Olivos with the World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Susana Cordeiro Guerra. Also present at that conclave was Economy Minister Luis Caputo, to whom the demand for a national guarantee so that the province can take on debt is directed. But the response never came.
“To date, more than a year and a half after the first request, the national state has not responded to such requirements,” the State Attorney denounced in the court filing. The Buenos Aires government submitted the original request in 2024, and the governor reiterated it in April and May of this year. Absolute silence from the Nation.
Meanwhile, ten other provinces did obtain the approvals that Buenos Aires is demanding. According to Buenos Aires Infrastructure Minister Gabriel Katopodis, Salta, Entre Ríos, Jujuy, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Neuquén, Chaco, Río Negro, Mendoza, and Misiones have already received the green light for international credits. The approvals granted by national decree total $180 million for drinking water, infrastructure, logistics, production, and urban development works.
The credit that Buenos Aires has pre-agreed with the World Bank is for $270 million, an amount that exceeds the total approvals granted to the other ten provinces combined. The project aims at the treatment and final disposal of sewage from La Plata, Berisso, and Ensenada, and includes an advanced primary treatment plant in Berisso, an underground outfall pipe, a subfluvial outfall, and a diffuser. The work would benefit more than one million people in the three districts.
But it is not the only project stalled by the lack of a national guarantee. Also paralyzed is a sustainable development program for the San Francisco and Las Piedras streams water basin, covering the municipalities of Almirante Brown, Avellaneda, Florencio Varela, Presidente Perón, and Quilmes. Added to that are the construction of an aqueduct in San Martín, the widening of the Salado River channel, the adaptation of the Areco River channel, and the construction of the Autovía 6. All key projects for the most populous province in the country, with 17 million inhabitants.
Buenos Aires’ debt amounts to $10.98 billion, of which 79% is denominated in foreign currency and 21% in national currency. Kicillof restructured the debt in 2021, and today 53.4% of maturities are long-term, 36% medium-term (until 2030), and the remaining 10% mature between this year and next July. For 2025, total scheduled services amount to $2.545 billion.
The Buenos Aires Legislature authorized Kicillof to take on debt of up to $3 billion this year, but most will go to cover existing debt services. The Río de la Plata sanitation project, worth $270 million, cannot be undertaken without international financing. That is why the governor has taken the claim to court. The ball is in Milei’s court.
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