Latest news of Buenos Aires Times

Facundo Astudillo Castro

UN demands ‘exhaustive’ probe into 22-year-old’s disappearance

Yesterdat 13:48 Facundo Astudillo Castro was last seen on April 30 after being stopped by police in Buenos Aires Province for breaching Covid-19 lockdown. UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances demands ‘all possible hypotheses’ be considered, as family alleges officers may have been involved in their relative’s disappearance.

BLOOMBERG

World drinks less coffee while office workers stay home

Yesterdat 12:52 Global coffee consumption is set to fall this year for the first time since 2011. In a work-from-home world, hitting the local cafe for a daily caffeine fix has become a ritual of the now-forgotten past.

TRAVEL & TOURISM

Iguazú Falls reopen to local residents after 100-day Covid-19 closure

12-07-2020 09:18 For now, only 200 visitors a day, divided into four groups of 50 individuals, will be able to enter the Iguazú National Park. Only residents of Puerto Iguazú, whose population is 45,000, will be allowed to apply for tickets for now.

Global pandemic

Video calls, separate bedrooms: Bolsonaro’s first week with Covid-19

12-07-2020 08:35 Brazilian leader announced that he had been infected with the new coronavirus on Tuesday and is using it to publicly extol hydroxychloroquine, the unproven malaria drug that he’s been promoting as a treatment for Covid-19.

INTERVIEW / PERIODISMO PURO

Mario Ishii: 'By late August we’ll be where we were in 2001'

11-07-2020 09:01 Mario Ishii, the mayor of José C. Paz, discusses the impact of the coronavirus crisis on one of the poorest districts in Greater Buenos Aires. The social situation, he warns, could be about to explode.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

DEBT RESTRUCTURING

‘Final’ offer on table as debt talks enter critical stage

11-07-2020 08:54 Argentina formalises latest debt bond swap proposal, filing offer with SEC and extending deadline to August 4.

POLARISATION AT WHAT PRICE?

Argentina: Great at failing miserably at democracy

11-07-2020 08:19 What level of tolerance to dissent are we willing to accept? And at which point does the discussion about who thinks what shut out the underlying debates we should be having?

by Agustino Fontevecchia

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

The arguing never stops

11-07-2020 08:13 The arguing will never go away. At times it pauses briefly when the public is hit by unsettling news on the coronavirus front, but then, in no time at all, the bickering begins once more.

by Martín Gambarotta

POLARISATION & POLITICS

So much for unity: La grieta returns with a vengeance

11-07-2020 07:42 Tensions between government and opposition soar in week Argentina celebrated Independence Day.

Human rights

Survivors mark 25th anniversary of Srebrenica massacre

11-07-2020 06:46 Bosnians commemorate 25 years since more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims perished in 10 days of slaughter, after Srebrenica was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces during the closing months of the country's 1992-1995 fratricidal war.

#9J: Día de la Independencia

Anti-government protesters rally against quarantine on 9 de Julio

10-07-2020 02:18 Opposition supporters descended on the Obelisk in downtown Buenos Aires on Thursday, staging a protest in defence of freedom and against the coronavirus lockdown. Event marred by outbreak of violence, as demonstrators attack TV van from pro-government news channel C5N.

Global pandemic

Bolivian leader Áñez, Venezuela's Cabello test positive for Covid-19

09-07-2020 22:41 Bolivia's interim president Jeanine Áñez announced Thursday that she has tested positive for coronavirus. Venezuela's Constitutional Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, widely considered the second-most powerful person in the country, also contracts virus.

DEBT RESTRUCTURING

Guzmán rules out changes to offer, but creditors say proposal 'falls short'

09-07-2020 02:37 Economy Minister Martín Guzmán rules out further changes to government's debt restructuring offer as offer wins support from IMF and some G20 finance ministers. Large creditors, however, aren't impressed.

BLOOMBERG

Malbec bonds beat defaulted Argentine peers on investor hope

09-07-2020 02:26 A glimmer of hope is lurking within Argentina’s default-ravaged debt landscape: Bonds sold by Mendoza, the Andean-bordering province famed for exports of full-bodied Malbec wine.

DEBT RESTRUCTURING

Favourable initial reaction to Argentina's new debt swap offer

08-07-2020 16:58 Two investment funds, Gramercy and Fintech Advisory, express approval for Argentina's new debt restructuring offer. Creditors entering the swap stand to obtain 53.5 cents for every dollar loaned as against 39 cents in the first offer rejected by most creditors. 

TECHNOLOGY

Argentina holds talks with Huawei over adoption of 5G technology

08-07-2020 15:29 Government holds talks with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei as it explores options for the adoption of advanced 5G technology.

Global pandemic

Ignoring outrage, Trump makes good on WHO pullout

08-07-2020 00:09 In late May, Trump said that China exerted "total control" over the WHO and accused the UN body of failing to implement reforms.

Global pandemic

Latin America & Caribbean surpasses three million Covid-19 cases

07-07-2020 23:58 The region is the current epicentre of the global pandemic, with 3,023,813 cases and nearly 140,000 deaths – almost half of them in Brazil, the hardest hit country in the world after the United States.

Global pandemic

Brazil President Bolsonaro confirms he has tested positive for Covid-19

07-07-2020 12:36 “I’m perfectly well,” Bolsonaro told CNN Brasil in a live interview, after announcing he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Coronavirus pandemic

Argentina registers record 75 deaths from Covid-19 in one day

07-07-2020 02:43 More than 80,000 people have now been infected with Covid-19 in Argentina. To date,1,582 fatalities have been recorded. 

BLOOMBERG - OPINION

Mohamed A. El-Erian: Argentina's debt proposal deserves support

07-07-2020 01:35 It would be in neither side's long-term interest to allow the theoretical best to be the enemy of the attainable good – what is now on the table warrants support by both Argentina and its creditors.

BLOOMBERG

Argentina’s ‘last’ debt offer extends proposal to August 4

05-07-2020 22:45 The proposal seeks to reduce creditor losses on the bonds’ principal, increase coupons and shorten bond maturities, according to a release published Sunday evening.

FOOTBALL

Epic Italia ‘90 continues to live long in the memory

04-07-2020 09:35 If Italia '90 was a grainy Fellini masterpiece, complex, tense and unafraid to lay bare humanity at its ugliest and, therefore, most real, four years later football had already crossed the line into pure Disney fantasy.

by Dan Edwards

GLOBAL PANDEMIC

Uruguay rides out Covid threat without imposing a lockdown

04-07-2020 09:30 "Freedom with responsibility" has been the name of the game in Argentina’s small neighbour – the country has less than 1,000 registered cases and less than 30 deaths.

DEBT RESTRUCTURING

Casa Rosada dismisses rumours of Guzman’s departure

04-07-2020 09:06 BlackRock, other creditors, big businessmen and ministers are questioning the economy minister’s approach to debt restructuring talks, but Guzmán retains the confidence of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Anxiety and anguish in Buenos Aires as lockdown returns

04-07-2020 08:57 The Buenos Aires metropolitan area returned to a strict quarantine this week and many citizens are growing increasingly uncomfortable.

EDITORIAL

Is isolation the best expression of independence?

04-07-2020 08:32 The pandemic is a curious ally of ultra-nationalism, feeding the notion that Covid-19 will destroy globalisation and the private sector in a world dictating a self-sufficiency of which very few countries can even dream.

FISCAL PARADISE?

Uruguay’s new tax residence rules spark interest among Argentines

04-07-2020 08:24 Seeking to attract immigrants with high purchasing-power, Uruguay has relaxed its fiscal residence requirements – triggering a rush of consultations from Argentines.

MERCOSUR’S VIRTUAL SUMMIT

Mercosur vows unity in face of pandemic, as Macron cools on trade deal

04-07-2020 07:49 President Alberto Fernández calls for unity in face of the coronavirus pandemic during virtual summit, as reports in France suggest Emmanuel Macron has gone cold on Mercosur-EU trade deal.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION

¿Qué pasa entre Alberto y Cristina?

04-07-2020 07:41 Pressure is growing on President Fernández to found his own ‘Albertismo’ movement, while Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sets the pace for both, with infighting channelled through their officials and allies – a tussle most recently exposed by the move on Vicentín.

Coronavirus pandemic

Cold, windswept and frozen, Buenos Aires returns to isolation

03-07-2020 03:37 On a chilly winter Wednesday, a lonesome Buenos Aires reverted to the first and most restrictive phase of the quarantine, in a renewed bid to halt the advance of Covid-19.

FOOTBALL & CORONAVIRUS

Metegol humano: How to play football during the pandemic

02-07-2020 23:12 Football-starved locals have found a way to play while social distancing – dubbed 'metegol humano,' the system designed for the coronavirus pandemic involves dividing the field with white chalk into 12 rectangles and restricting each player to a defined space.

BOLIVIAN POLITICAL CRISIS

Exiled Morales pulling Bolivia's political strings as polls loom

02-07-2020 03:04 Though he remains banned from running in September's election and facing arrest if he returns, Bolivia's first indigenous president is masterminding opposition to right-wing interim leader Jeanine Añez.

ILLEGAL ESPIONAGE CLAIMS

22 arrests in illegal espionage probe, including ex-Macri official

02-07-2020 02:47 Susana Martinengo, co-ordinator of presidential documentation during the 2015-2019 Macri presidency, and 21 others detained on charges of illegal espionage against various political leaders.

Global pandemic

Latin America, Caribbean may see virus deaths quadruple: experts

01-07-2020 17:39 Pan American Health Organisation warns virus death toll in Latin America and the Caribbean could top 400,000 by October without stricter public health measures.

BRAZIL UNDER BOLSONARO

Brazil's new education minister resigns over CV 'lies'

01-07-2020 09:15 Carlos Alberto Decotelli, the first black person to be appointed to the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, resigns only five days after he was appointed amid accusations that he lied over his academic record.

Coronavirus in Patagonia

Bariloche covered in snow but stripped of tourists, thanks to Covid-19

30-06-2020 17:37 Snow has fallen in Bariloche, but the streets and slopes are quiet in the famed tourist destination. Local businesses estimate that losses this month alone will be around 3.6 billion pesos (about US$48 million). 

DEBT RESTRUCTURING

Argentina's creditors urge officials to move ahead on debt talks

30-06-2020 15:10 Creditors groups call for progress on talks, saying the "lack of serious engagement from the Argentine authorities is deeply concerning."

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Argentina's economy tanked in April as virus hit home

30-06-2020 12:33 Construction was the worst hit industry, plummeting 86.4%, with hotels and restaurants not far behind (down 85.6%). Manufacturing, down 34.4%, and business, which lost 27%, were also hard hit.

Coronavirus pandemic

Argentina records highest daily death toll yet from Covid-19

30-06-2020 00:23 Forty-eight people died from Covid-19 in Argentina over the last 24 hours, Health Ministry officials said Monday, lifting the total number of fatalities to 1,280.