Sabino Vaca Narvaja: the “Argenchino” ambassador

Sabino Vaca Narvaja is happy because he is going to meet Lionel Messi. It will be this June 15 in Beijing, when a friendly against Australia is played. And in that match, it will be the Argentine ambassador to China who will kick off with his Australian counterpart.

Vaca Narvaja sleeps between 4 and 5 hours a day because there is an 11-hour difference between Buenos Aires and Beijing and most of the time he is contacted in the morning from Argentina, he is already at home in his pajamas. It has two advantages: dinner time is at 6 in the afternoon -5 AM in Argentina-, so work commitments do not interrupt family life, and, on the other hand, the ambassador’s residence is in the back behind the embassy, ​​meaning that if you have to go get something from the office you can do it in slippers.

Sabino was born in Córdoba, but from a very young age he led a nomadic life. He lived in Cuba, where his parents, Fernando Vaca Narvaja and María Josefa Flemming, took refuge during the last military dictatorship and sent him to the famous Montoneros nursery, the place where Argentine militants living in Havana sent their children. children. Then they moved to Mexico and at the end of the ’80s they returned to Argentina, where they lived first in Rosario and then in Liniers. The image that is published on these pages of the former boss of Montoneros with his son in the tire shop where they worked together is from that last period.

His political militancy began in youth groups, one called the Frente de Juventudes Políticas and later another known as the Generation for National Emancipation (GEN). Before being ambassador, he worked as a teacher at the University of Lanús and director of International Relations for the Senate between 2011 and 2015, during the administration of Amado Boudou. Before that, he had had a brief stint at the Foreign Ministry during the efforts of Rafael Bielsa and Jorge Taiana.

Mission. He arrived in China as a commercial attache and then became an ambassador when Luis María Kreckler was brought back to the country. In the final stage of his term as ambassador – since he must return to Argentina on December 9 – Sabino had to organize the most important visit to China by the Argentine government in recent years. The President did not travel, but the Economy Minister and Deputy Máximo Kirchner did. In an interview with the C5N channel, he also praised the presence of Cecilia Moreau, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, as the highest representative at the government level for the Chinese, because she is the third in the line of presidential succession. Beijing diplomacy organized a meeting with the third in line to power in China. So they were even.

As a finishing touch, last night Sabino had organized a farewell party for the Argentine entourage with all the embassy officials. The scheduled time was at 7:00 p.m., but Massa was delayed in the last meeting and arrived three hours later. By that time they were already at the sweet table, but, as the minister saw that they have a grill at the embassy, ​​they had to improvise a barbecue with the meat that Sabino kept in the fridge. Late but fun.

One of the points that Sabino made clear on that visit is that Argentina is underrepresented in China. Because it only has four consulates with fifteen employees and nine civil servants, while other countries that have equal or less commercial importance have a greater structure, such as the case of Spain, which has six consulates. Of the country’s main partners, the United States has seven consulates and Brazil ten. Another aspect is trade fairs, where Argentina was present in very few in China compared to others in the United States.

Vaca Narvaja bets on the export potential of minerals in Argentina and compares it with Chile. In 2022, the trans-Andean country exported minerals for 65 billion dollars, while Argentina in the same period exported 3 billion. “And the mountain range is the same on both sides,” he says.

That same phrase used Cristina Kirchner when she referred to the issue at the University of Río Negro. Sabino has a family relationship with the Kirchner family, because he was Florencia Kirchner’s brother-in-law when she was in a relationship with her brother Camilo Vaca Narvaja. And he is the uncle of Helena, Cristina’s granddaughter.

For his return to Argentina, he already plans to return to academic activity, although the ties he established with China will last over time. There will be no shortage of those who knock on his door asking him to build a bridge with Shanghai to export to the Asian giant. He already warned that he did not intend to open that door because it was not appropriate for a former diplomat. Although he has an advantage: he is improving his Mandarin.

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