Stories that caught our eye: June 13 to 20

 

D(EFUSED)-DAY FOR CFK

There was a massive march in support of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Plaza de Mayo last Wednesday (with estimates of its numbers ranging from the 40,000 of the City Police to a million according to the organisers) with its only speech a recorded message by the Partido Justicialista (PJ) chair now serving house arrest in her Constitución flat. The ex-president had originally been summoned to Comodoro Py courthouse to be notified formally of her sentence and her plan had been to present herself at the head of a huge multitude but the judges jumped the gun, informing her remote the day beforehand after some roads (such as the Buenos Aires-La Plata highway) were already being cut by her supporters during the weekend. The judges last Tuesday decided on house arrest despite the prosecutors Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola disputing the humanitarian need or the risk to her life despite the 2022 assassination attempt. Among the conditions of her house arrest, Cristina Kirchner was especially upset about her right to go out on her balcony being in doubt but on Thursday the judges cut her some slack there. Finally, former Public Works secretary José López and three other co-defendants of the ex-president in the Vialidad trial of the fraudulent allocation of Santa Cruz highway contracts turned themselves in on Tuesday to start serving time, also requesting house arrest.

 

VAHIDI REPUDIATED

Argentina’s government last Sunday expressed its “energetic repudiation” of naming Ahmad Vahidi as the new commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran as the suspected mastermind of the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre, which left 85 dead and over 300 injured, considering his appointment an “unacceptable provocation.” The communiqué went on to condemn the recent Iranian attacks against Israeli territory: “The President’s Office condemns the vile attack perpetrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the State of Israel via the massive launching of missiles and drones directed against the civilian population.”  Vahidi provisionally replaces Esmail Qaani, killed by an Israeli airstrike just before last weekend with Major-General Mohammad Pakpour lined up as his permanent successor. The government recalled that Vahidi had been the subject of an Interpol Red Notice since 2007.

 

DEPUTIES IN ISRAEL EVACUATED 

National deputies Damián Arabia (PRO) and Maximiliano Ferraro (Coalición Cívica) – both elected under the Juntos por el Cambio label – had to be driven out of Israel to Jordan via the Allenby frontier pass last Tuesday before flying back to Argentina. They had arrived in Israel on June 12 to join a Gay Pride March which had to be suspended due to the exchange of missile attacks between Israel and Iran. Before their return the deputies made statements strongly in favour of Israel, such as “You don’t negotiate with terrorism, you fight it.”

 

RUSSIAN SPIES?

In a press conference Wednesday, Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni confirmed the detention of two Russians on suspicion of espionage “in favour of the geopolitical interests of Russia” after being detected by SIDE intelligence agency. Adorni linked the two Russians – Lev Konstantinovich Andriashvili and his wife Irina Yakovenko – to the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, who commanded Russia’s mercenary paramilitary Wagner Group during the early stages of the war with Ukraine. Adorni also spoke of the creation of a Federal Department of Investigation within the Federal Police as an Argentine equivalent of the FBI against drug-trafficking, terrorism and organised crime, recruiting specialists in social psychology and computer science among others.

 

UNEMPLOYMENT PUSHES UP

Unemployment rose to 7.9 percent in the first quarter of this year or 1.8 million people, sharply up from the 6.4 percent of the previous quarter and interrupting the downward trend since mid-2024, the INDEC national statistics bureau announced last Thursday. 

 

JUAN MANUEL ABAL MEDINA 1945-2025

Juan Manuel Abal Medina Senior, a historic Peronist leader and one of the greatest confidants of Juan Domingo Perón, died last weekend at the age of 80 after a long struggle with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (EPOC, in its Spanish acronym). Born into an affluent family, he entered Peronist militancy via Catholic nationalism and as from 1972 he was secretary-general of the Justicialist Movement at the tender age of 27, playing a fundamental role in organising Perón’s return to Argentina from exile. A lawyer, journalist and politician, his name is invariably linked to the Montonero guerrillas via his brother Fernando (generally believed to be the terrorist who actually shot kidnapped ex-president Pedro Aramburu dead in 1970) but he never joined the armed struggle and was known within the movement as a moderate voice always seeking dialogue. The 1976 coup saw him flee to Mexico where he lived for almost half a century, working as a business advisor to telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim. But towards the end of his life he came home, returning to the news in 2022 with the publication of his book Conocer a Perón (Editorial Planeta), which became a minor bestseller. His son Juan Manuel Junior rose to become Cabinet chief during the Cristina Kirchner presidency and was an unsuccessful candidate for the City Legislature less than a month before his father’s death.

 

PUBLIC WORKS ON FRONTBURNER?

Provincial governors across the political spectrum have joined forces this month to press the Casa Rosada for the acceleration of the tenders for key public works, sending a delegation to raise the issue with Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos just before last weekend. The provinces are proposing that specific funding for infrastructure and housing projects (for example, from fuel taxation) be incorporated into government plans to alter federal revenue-sharing. La Pampa Governor Sergio Ziliotto, as the spokesperson for the delegation, pointed out that the paralysis of public works was having a grave fiscal impact with plunging provincial revenues, quite apart from the need to modernise infrastructure. Other members of the delegation were Governors Raúl Jalil (Catamarca), Ignacio Torres (Chubut), Claudio Vidal (Santa Cruz) and Córdoba Lieutenant-Governor Miryam Prunotto.

 

LA SALADA REOPENS

Two-thirds of the gigantic La Salada fair with over 30,000 vendors in Greater Buenos Aires reopened last Monday on condition that it respect its tax obligations, labour laws, clothing brands and other aspects of fair competition generally ignored in the past. The fair had been closed by court order since May 22 while the investigation into Jorge Castillo, known as the “King of La Salada,” proceeded on charges of tax evasion, money-laundering and the violation of brand protection.

 

AVIATION NEWS

Two important aviation news items. Firstly, China Eastern Airlines will be establishing the first and only air connection between China and Argentina as from December – two weekly flights between Shanghai and Buenos Aires with an Auckland stopover. These flights will also serve to restore direct air links between Argentina and New Zealand, interrupted since 2020 with the exit of Air New Zealand during the pandemic. Secondly, the low cost airline Flybondi (founded in 2016) now has a new owner with the Argentine businessman Leonardo Scaturicce, owner of the United States company COC Global Enterprise and close to President Javier Milei’s star spin doctor Santiago Caputo, buying up a majority shareholding in the airline and reassuring Flybondi’s 1,525 employees as to their job security. Scatturice was the focus of media attention last March when 15 suitcases from his private jet allegedly passed through the airport without being checked by Customs.

 

GLOBANT DOWNSIZES

Tech company Globant (founded in 2003 by Martín Migoya), whose share value has tumbled 56 percent so far this year, last weekend announced the closure of two of its 14 Argentine offices in Ushuaia and Resistencia as economically unviable while also announcing the opening of a new branch in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh. But Argentina remains one of the unicorn’s most important operations, employing over 5,000 people, a company spokesman said. Globant has been hit by a shrinking demand for its digital services, especially in its most important market, the United States, with the return of Donald Trump to the White Hose and the advance of artificial intelligence.

 

FIRST FEMALE AMCHAM BOSS

AmCham Argentina will be headed by a woman for the first time as its board of directors picked Mariana Schoua as its new president. AmCham boasts of grouping over 700 companies which between them contribute to 24 percent of the Argentine economy, 39 percent of its tax revenue, 35 percent of its imports and 45 percent of its exports, as well as accounting for over 420,000 direct jobs and four million indirect. 

 

LIFE FOR UMMA’S KILLERS

A Lomas de Zamora court last Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment three of the five men accused of slaying Umma Aguilera, the daughter of a bodyguard of Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, early in 2024. Umma was leaving her house with her parents Eduardo Aguilera and María Eugenia Rodríguez (both Federal Police officers) when they were attacked by gunfire from a gang seeking to rob their car with the nine-year-old girl receiving a fatal bullet to her head. A fourth defendant was sentenced to five years in prison as a secondary participant while the fifth will be tried separately in a juvenile court since he was 17 at the time.

 

MARADONA TRIAL, TAKE TWO

Three new judges have been confirmed to resume the trial of eight health professionals to ascertain their responsibility for the 2020 death of football superstar Diego Maradona, derailed when it emerged that judge Julieta Makintach was simultaneously shooting a documentary, while the question of whether that magistrate has a future on the bench will be defined as from next Tuesday when her impeachment for malfeasance will begin.

 

UBA IN TOP 100

The University of Buenos Aires (UBA) is the only Latin American university among the world’s top 100, according to the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) 2025 rankings released last Wednesday, while falling 13 places to the 84th position.