By Michael Soltys, Senior Editor of Buenos Aires Herald.

The resignation of Transport Secretary Ricardo Jaime is the first concrete example of the Cabinet changes presidentially denied on Monday although hardly enough to reflect the scale of last weekend’s electoral rejection. Until more ousters follow, it is too early to say whether the changes will reach policy — given the accumulation of legal cases against him (his private jet, the 2004 Southern Winds cocaine-trafficking scandal), it is a moot point whether Jaime would have gone even if the government had won Sunday’s elections (as indeed President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner claims it did) and he may even have been telling the truth when he spoke of “strictly personal” reasons.

But even so, Jaime’s departure was not the only one in the air on Tuesday and nor is it likely to be the last. As soon as Jaime’s exit was verified, Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno was immediately mentioned and if his continuity was eventually confirmed, this was largely because the Kirchners do not want resignations to become pandemic and resist removing their henchmen under pressure. But the days of Moreno’s price controls (especially the infamous manipulation of INDEC statistics bureau’s inflation data) could be numbered. Deputy Patricia Vaca Narvaja has been tipped to replace Moreno but why not simply scrap a post which does not exist elsewhere in the world (where the portfolio covers trade as a whole or foreign trade) and which has plenty of scope for harm but little for good? The changes could reach ministerial level with the ineffectual Economy Minister Carlos Fernández (even if Moreno and Jaime have bulked larger than most ministers) — Banco Nación and Central Bank Presidents Mercedes Marcó del Pont and Martín Redrado, AFIP tax chief Ricardo Echegaray and ANSeS social security administration head Amado Boudou are among those named as successor. Lastly, it is widely forecast that Cabinet Chief Sergio Massa will be relieved — perhaps by Néstor Kirchner himself.

The only replacement for now is Juan Pablo Schiavi as the new Transport Secretary — a veritable Vicar of Bray who has been a disciple of Father Carlos Mujica, Carlos “Chacho” Alvarez, City Mayors Carlos Grosso, Jorge Telerman and Mauricio Macri (as his 2003 campaign manager) in his time and now Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido. Jaime’s extravagant policies including billions in subsidies (four million pesos a day for renationalized Aerolíneas Argentinas alone), not to mention the “bullet train,” remain up in the air but are vulnerable to the need to control public spending now that the elections are over.