Stories that caught our eye: May 17 to 24

MILEI ADORNS CAPITAL

Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni last Sunday delivered a triumph of immense symbolic value to President Javier Milei, who celebrated by saying that he would “paint the country purple.” Beyond all expectations La Libertad Avanza‘s 30.1 percent almost doubled the PRO vote, leaving City Mayor Jorge Macri’s local government in tatters, while also snatching victory from opinion poll frontrunner Leandro Santoro, the Peronist hope who finished three points behind. Adorni clinched 11 of the 30 seats at stake, Santoro 10 and PRO five with three seats for former two-term City mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and the last seat going to the left. Perhaps the most alarming aspect of the election was a record low turnout of 53.2 percent although a fake news video using Artificial Intelligence to show ex-president Mauricio Macri withdrawing the PRO list and urging a vote for Adorni, distributed by libertarian trolls, was widely deplored. Last Wednesday Adorni confirmed that he would be taking up his City seat come December, though doubts had re-emerged by the following day.

CRACKDOWN ON STRIKES

The Javier Milei government has further limited the right to strike by expanding the list of activities considered essential in emergency decree 340/2025 issued last Wednesday, obliging such activities to guarantee that services function a minimum of between 50 and 75 percent in the event of union conflict. The following services were listed as essential: healthcare and hospitals, the transport and distribution of medicine and hospital supplies, pharmaceutical services, the production, transport, distribution and marketing of drinking water, gas, other fuels and electricity, telecommunications including Internet and satellite communications, air and port traffic including dredging and tugboats among other aspects, Customs and immigration services as well as all linked to foreign trade, child care and education at kindergarten, primary, secondary and special schooling levels, the maritime and waterway transport of goods and persons along with the ancillary and offshore services. The previous list of essential services was limited to hospitals, the production and distribution of drinking water and electricity, telephone services and air traffic control. The emergency decree was signed by President Milei and all eight of his ministers.

CRYPTOGATE SELF-ACQUITTAL?

The government last Tuesday eliminated the Unidad de Tareas de Investigación (UTI), created by President Javier Milei to probe the charges surrounding the “diffusion” of the ’$LIBRA’  cryptocurrency last February. Decree 332/2025, published in the Official Gazette early Tuesday and signed by President Milei and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona, read: “The government considers that with the information compiled and remitted to the Public Prosecutors the Unit has carried out the task entrusted by Decree 114/25.” Last February 14 the memecoin was promoted by President Milei via his personal social networks, causing multi-million losses to people investing in the digital currency after its rapid collapse. Many of those people charged that the episode was a rug-pull whereby the creators of a cryptocurrency withdraw abruptly, taking with them the funds invested. There is a class-action lawsuit in the United States accusing Milei of a “deceitful promotion” or at the very least “negligence.” The President created UTI on February 19. Despite its closure, the criminal investigation continues under the Public Prosecutors.

NEW DEAL FOR TIERRA DEL FUEGO

The government has created a simplified régime to encourage the purchase of products manufactured in Tierra del Fuego by consumers elsewhere in the country, via Decree 334/2025 published last Tuesday in the Official Gazette, intended as partial compensation for dismantling the protectionism favouring the local electronics industry earlier this month. Under the new rules, the products aided by a relaxation of Customs requirements and cutting red tape will have to be sold online. The move failed to head off a general strike in Tierra del Fuego the following day to protest the potential destruction of its electronics assembly industry by fuller exposure to foreign competition. 

CHINESE BEEF PACT

The Institute for the Promotion of Argentina Beef (IPCVA in its Spanish acronym) last Monday signed at a Chinese trade fair a strategic agreement with the platform JD.COM, China’s biggest prívate-sector and e-commerce company with almost 600 million users which occupies 47th place in the list of the world’s 500 biggest companies. Last year Argentine beef exports to China were US$3.672 billion (74 percent of the worldwide total), helping the sector to claim 6th place among sales abroad. 

ALBERTO REBUFFED

Ex-president Alberto Fernández suffered two setbacks last week in the ongoing charges of gender violence against his ex-partner Fabiola Yañez when his bid to take federal judge Julián Ercolini off the case on the grounds of "manifest hostility against his person" was again turned down by the City Federal Appeals Court, which also ruled evidence from his mobile telephone and a tablet to be valid. This evidence includes messages via WhatsApp and Telegram between the former presidential couple as well as his then mother-in-law. Fernández had requested their destruction. The same sources also contain evidence in the Seguros insurance fraud case against the ex-president being tried by federal judge Sebastián Casanello. The challenge against  Ercolini’s impartiality stems from that judge being part of a trip to the estancia of the British billionaire Joe Lewis in Lago Escondido, which was aggressively investigated by the Alberto Fernández administration.

BERNI SEEKS ACQUITTAL

Sergio Berni, Deputy Security minister at the time of the mysterious death of federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman in January 2015, on Thursday requested acquittal on charges of having contaminated what is suspected of being a crime scene with his muddy boots. Berni stated that court officials were already there when he arrived amid a "chaotic scenario" with the crime scene the responsibility of prosecutor Viviana Fein (who has since retired), not his. The case is being tried by federal judge Julián Ercolini with Eduardo Taiano as the prosecutor.

HORRIFIC CRIMES

A Villa Crespo housewife stabbed her husband and her two sons aged 15 and 12 to death before killing herself last Tuesday night with the four bodies being found by the family’s domestic help the next morning. Previously the city of Rosario was aghast last Monday when a local police non-commissioned officer shot his eight-month pregnant partner aged 21 in the head with his regulation firearm. The woman had to be submitted to an urgent cesarean section and remains in delicate condition but fortunately the baby was born healthy. The policeman, aged 22, claims it was an accident.

UWC CELEBRATES IN STYLE

The University Women’s Club held an event for its 90th anniversary last Tuesday with former Buenos Aires Herald editor Robert Cox (possibly the only person present to predate the UWC) as a guest of honour. Guests were free to mingle and sustain or revive old friendships accompanied by first-class nibbles and a well-stocked bar but there were two speeches – by this year’s UWCBA president Amy Marshall and Lydia Barraza covering Public Affairs at the United States Embassy here – and an extended musical interlude with no less than six numbers. The Merry Widow (“Lippen Schweigen”) was followed by some Puccini - 2. ‘Quando me'n vo’ from La Boheme and the ultra-famous ‘Nessun dorma’ aria from Turandot – with ‘Con te partirò’ and ‘O Sole Mio’ leading up to the ‘Libiamo’ toast from Verdi’s La Traviata, the occasion for the singers to clink champagne glasses with the guests one by one. Ana Sampedro was the soprano and Fermín Prieto (especially vocal with ‘Nessun Dorma’) was the tenor with pianist Pablo Manzanelli substituting very competently for an orchestra.

ANOTHER TITLE FOR CUTI

Argentina's feisty national team centre-back Cristian 'Cuti' Romero continued his impressive runs in cup competitions this week, winning a fifth consecutive final as his Tottenham Hotspur side defeated Manchester United 1-0 in the Europa League final.