I have spent the last days of last year and the first days of 2025 reflecting on the effects of my preaching on issues relating to the South Atlantic.
Beginning in 1972 and continuing since 1976, I have written thousands of articles on these and other topics related to food; having published 29 books - the last one “El Saqueo” on July 2, 2024 - in addition to participating in hundreds of conferences, radio and television interviews. In the last ten years alone, I published 540 articles that were featured in national media and portals in all Argentine provinces. In addition, on Twitter and Facebook, I have disseminated more than ten thousand opinions on current topics in the specialty, adding the publications that are part of my blog ( cesarlerena.com.ar ) where the books and writings of the last five years can be found. This did not prevent me from participating in several working groups that defend national interests and sovereignty and, in some cases, from developing, with the collaboration of other prominent professionals, more than two dozen laws; many of them relevant, such as the National Law on Maritime Fishing (S-2259/14); the Law on Universal Access to Water (S-3657/14); the Solidarity Law on Access to Food Support (S-1677/15); the Law on Environmental Protection and Public Health in the use of Agrochemicals and their residues (S-3032/16); the National Law on Merchant Marine and River Fleet (No. 27,419); the National Law on the Naval Fishing Industry (No. 27,418) and others; being co-author of article 1 of Law 24,922 and author of the current Fishing Law of the Province of Buenos Aires (No. 11,477). Modestly, I have contributed to installing these issues in numerous media in Argentina from Jujuy to Tierra del Fuego and from Mendoza to Buenos Aires; highlighting the central role that this issue has in the population, industrial and labour settlement and in the sovereignty of the Nation and the autonomy of the coastal maritime provinces and the riverine provinces of the Paraná and the Río de la Plata.
The voiceless Argentines have taken their opinions to the networks and these reach readers like an avalanche and, although this is very healthy, reading them is practically impossible due to their volume, diversity and importance, not allowing for adequate reflection, in addition to the fact that the writings are usually reduced to denunciation or diagnosis - not always accurate and on accomplished facts - without putting into practice those well-known words of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) " Argentines , to things , to things! "
On the other hand, in the face of an authoritarian, vulgar and denationalizing government, there is a counterpart that repeats the same strategy that led it to failure, with the same referents who have already been incapable of formulating a unifying and innovative national plan. Bearers of a terrible image as shown by all the surveys.
I AM FULLY AWARE THAT THE EFFORT OF THE MENTIONED WORKS AND OF MANY OTHER COMMITTED AUTHORS IS INSUFFICIENT AND IS NOT ENOUGH TO REVERSE -IN THESE MATTERS- THE TREMENDOUS DECLINE OF POLITICS AND THE LACK OF A LEADERSHIP THAT EMBODIS A NATIONAL PROJECT AT THE SERVICE OF PRODUCTION, INDUSTRY, THE WELL-BEING OF ARGENTINES AND THAT SAFEGUARDS NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND SOVEREIGNTY.
I have never served as a commentator on reality and, despite having a clear political affiliation, this has not prevented me from questioning the actions of my own and others, which certainly, in the short-sightedness of some referents of medium political stature, they see as an attack on the sheepish verticalism that I despise.
I have a clear national strategy after so many years of business, trade union and public participation consulting, drawing on numerous intellectuals and the forces of labor linked to maritime, fishing and political activity. It is very possible that the tactics used to promote the actions - repeatedly promoted - have not been adequate in a world where economic support and the means are central to producing changes and where numerous actors resist, because of Macchiavello: " nothing is more difficult to carry out, nor of more doubtful success, nor more dangerous to manage, than to initiate a new order of things ."
Aware of this, and just a few years after becoming an octogenarian, during 2025 I will limit my weekly articles to extraordinary events only, just as - valuing and thanking the support provided by hundreds of journalists from different media - during this year I will not grant interviews. I hasten to say - to avoid suspicions - that I reject any policy that deviates from social justice, economic independence and political sovereignty and, as in horse-riding, you have to know how to hit the anvil and place the seven nails on the faces of the hoof, I will concentrate my actions on the following axes:
-The Resolution on Illegal Fishing in the South Atlantic.
-Criminal charges against Argentine companies and officials for illegal fishing in the Malvinas. The case of Spain.
-The recovery of the maritime territory and the fishing and oil resources of the sea of Buenos Aires, based on the foundations already explained in the book “El Saqueo”.
-Improvement of the National Plan to strengthen the Argentine Administration of the South Atlantic.
-The promotion of the new National Fisheries and Aquaculture Law that reforms Law 24,922.
Dr. Cesar Augusto Lerena
South Atlantic and Fisheries Expert – Former Secretary of State.
President of the Center for Latin American Fisheries Studies (CESPEL).
Web: cesarlerena.com.ar. January 15, 2025