Stories that caught our eye: December 20 to 24

MILEI AND MERCOSUR

Addressing last weekend’s Mercosur summit in the Brazilian city of de Foz de Iguazú just across the border, President Javier Milei affirmed that the regional trade bloc “needs an institutional and integral reform” while maintaining: “Flexibility is an asset, not a threat.” Accompanied by his Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, Milei reproached Mercosur for having “no common market, no free circulation and no macroecnomic coordination” while not being “sufficiently open to the world” but instead “an oversized and inefficient bureaucracy.” He further insisted: “Integration must be at the service of free trade, not bureaucracy," describing the free-trade agreement with the European Union postponed until January after decades of negotiations as a missed opportunity. Moving onto the fight against organised crime and drug-trafficking, Milei was quick to call Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro a “narco-terrorist” while hailing United States actions against him, calling for the release of Border Guard Nahuel Gallo and congratulating opposition leader María Corina Machado for her Nobel Peace Prize. Also congratulating “my great friend” Chilean president-elect José Antonio Kast on his runoff triumph and highlighting Bolivia’s incorporation into Mercosur, Milei thanked the bloc for its support of Argentina’s Malvinas sovereignty claims. The summit’s conclusions included a special statement not only reaffirming Argentine sovereignty but also rejecting “unilateral measures” linked to the exploration or exploitation of natural resources in the disputed area.

MILEI BACK HOME

Upon his return from the Mercosur summit, President Javier Milei told a Sunday night interview that he would not veto the 2026 Budget if approved by the Senate while making it clear that the Executive Branch would be making the necessary adjustments to uphold a zero deficit. The next evening he headed an asado barbecue for his Cabinet at the Olivos presidential residence, clad in his YPF overalls, to draw a balance of the outgoing year and to begin charting the agenda for the New Year, starting with the final negotiations for the 2026 Budget, which was due to enter the Senate yesterday – these negotiations are to be spearheaded by presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei and Economy Minister Luis Caputo. The event was attended by all nine ministers (three of them new) headed by Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni and also by some other important figures such as Karina Milei, Senator Patricia Bullrich and deputy Luis Petri (both ex-ministers), top spin doctor Santiago Caputo, Congress Speaker Martín Menem and Legal & Technical Secretary María Ibarzábal Murphy. Milei hosted a similar huddle at the end of 2024 to display an image of unity and political continuity. Milei gifted those in attendance a 1976 book by US economist Walter Block called Defending the Undefendable. Earlier on Monday Milei confirmed that he would be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos (a Swiss Alpine gathering of 3,000 members of the global elite) next month for the third year running. His speech has yet to be written but it is anticipated that it will be an intensified version of last year’s diatribe defending economic liberalism and blasting woke ideology.

CFK’S APPENDICITIS

Ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was rushed to Otamendi Hospital from her house arrest last weekend after complaining of severe abdominal pains diagnosed as “appendicitis, with localised peritonitis,” resulting in an operation. No complications were reported and appendicitis normally permits a rapid recovery if detected in time. Several Peronist leaders thronged to the hospital to inquire after her health, including Quilmes Mayor Mayra Mendoza. Previous health scares of Cristina Kirchner include removal of a tumour in her thyroid gland in 2012 and of a subdural haematoma the following year, both while president, and a hysterectomy in 2021, when vice-president. This was her first outing from confinement in her Constitución flat in more than six months.

PARTY TIME IN IGUAZÚ

The government has authorised private parties (or “micro-events” in the official jargon) of not more than 60 people in Iguazú National Park for the “exceptional and experimental” period of a year, whereupon a report on the experience must be submitted. Not more than two parties are to be permitted daily within normal hours and they may not interfere with the circulation of other tourists. Partygoers must clean up everything after them with plastic receptacles prohibited and nor are drones or amplified music permitted. The authorities underline that this initiative does not modify the conservationist objectives of the park.

FLU ALERT

ANLIS (Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud) at the Malbrán Institute have confirmed the detection of three cases of influenza A (H3N2) corresponding to a new strain. The patients are two adolescents in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz and a child in this city. No complications are reported in any of these cases but this disease is considered infectious with a great clinical severity than previous strains of influenza A (H3N2). Anybody presenting respiratory symptoms compatible with a viral infection should consult the local health system, it is recommended, especially if they belong to risk groups.