Stories that caught our eye: May 9 to 16

A CITY VOTES

There will be elections in the Federal Capital tomorrow to fill 30 seats in the 60-seat City Legislature. Voters may choose between 17 slates. The veda electoral curfew works against more being said at this point but President Javier Milei finds the election sufficiently important to give it priority over attending the inauguration of Pope Leon XIV, following tomorrow’s voting from his Hotel Libertador bunker with his sister, presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei. Ministers Gerardo Werthein (Foreign Affairs) and Sandra Pettovello (Human Capital) will represent Argentina in Rome instead. The veda also inhibits this space from giving the closing speeches of the candidates at their closing rallies but on the sidelines of the libertarian finale there were complaints from militants about not being paid a promised 25,000 pesos for security and other services. Last and perhaps least, television personality Mirtha Legrand outed her preference last Monday but we will not enter into further details for fear of disenfranchising the 98-year-old legend for “voto cantado.”

ELECTORAL NEWS ELSEWHERE

Midterm elections at legislative level in the provinces of Chaco, Jujuy, Salta and San Luis last Sunday had the common denominator of victory going to the list accompanying their provincial governments in all four cases with significant gains for the national ruling party La Libertad Avanza in the first three. The Buenos Aires provincial legislature last Monday afternoon rescheduled the electoral calendar to set a July 19 deadline for submitting lists of candidates prior to the provincial midterms on September 7. The ballots must be presented by August 8.

INFLATION PULLED BACK

Despite a partial exit from cepo currency and capital controls in that month, inflation slowed down to 2.8 percent in April and an annual rate of 47.3 percent (11.6 percent so far this year), the INDEC national statistics bureau reported last Wednesday afternoon. This marks a significant retreat from 3.7 percent in March. The main culprits – Restaurants and hotels (4.1 percent) and Recreation and culture (four percent) – came in the service sector while the key ítem of food and beverages was around average at 2.9 percent. Core inflation, excluding seasonal (1.9 percent) and regulated (1.8 percent) prices, stood at 3.2 percent.

CHEAPER MOBILES

Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni (also a major candidate in tomorrow’s elections) announced the elimination of import duties of 16 percent on mobile telephones in a move also aimed at reducing their contraband and theft. The import duties are to be halved once the corresponding decree is promulgated and then completely removed on January 15, 2026. The excise on imported mobile telephones, televisions and air conditioners is to be halved from 19 to 9.5 percent, the latter the current rate for those produced in Tierra del Fuego, which will not be eliminated. Adorni blasted the current local prices for mobile telephones doubling those in Brazil and the United States as "ridiculous," estimating that the tax relief would lower the prices of imported electronic products by at least 30 percent. The move also honoured President Javier Milei’s campaign promise to reduce taxes once the fiscal surplus had been consolidated, claiming that the burden had already been lowered by the equivalent of two percentage points of Gross Domestic Product and urging the province to follow the national government’s example. Tierra del Fuego Governor  Gustavo Melella reacted negatively to the announcements, the elimination of import duties and the reduction of excise as a "very harsh blow" to the industry of his province in dialogue with Clarín. Tierra del Fuego’s electronics industry accounts for some 8,500 direct jobs or 15 percent of provincial employment in over 20 assembly plants.

IMMIGRANTS BEWARE

Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni’s daily press conference last Wednesday (with no questions permitted) centred on tightening immigration policies via “severer” requirements for requesting permanent residence and citizenship (no further details), as well as enabling foreigners to be charged fees for health and education services since the free provision of the former costs the country an annual 114 billion pesos, he said. Adorni further assured that any immigrant convicted of any crime would be expelled. The last two decades had seen 1.7 million irregular immigrants, he complained. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich was seated in the front row during the announcements.

LIFTING THE MATTRESS

President Javier Milei last Tuesday spoke on his favourite subject, the economy, saying the government was working on making its norms more flexible so that anybody "taking out their dollars from under the mattress" for use would be guaranteed against any future investigation, "a true libertarian revolution." He then went on to say that "those taking their money out of the country are not criminals, they’re heroes," before concluding: "There will come a time when there are so many dollars in relation to pesos that we will be able to shut down the Central Bank any time we feel like it."

MILEI SUES JOURNALISTS

Just before last weekend President Javier Milei sued the journalists Carlos Pagni, Viviana Canosa and Ari Lijalad for “slander.” Pagni, the best-known of the trio, is accused of “insidiously” comparing Milei to Adolf Hitler, a charge which has fallen to federal judge Daniel Rafecas. In an editorial during his Monday television programme Odisea Argentina on April 28, Pagni had pointed out that Milei had reached the presidency with a minority of the electorate like Hitler in Germany.

NAZI FILES FOUND

Nazi material (mostly propaganda) dating back to 1941 has recently been discovered in the archives of the Supreme Court, it was revealed just before last weekend, while judicial officials were transferring documentation for a future Supreme Court museum. The material sent by the German Embassy in Tokyo had arrived on June 20, 1941 aboard the Japanese freighter Nan-a-Maru, prompting the intervention of the then Foreign Minister Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú and the scrutiny of the Special Commission to Investigate Anti-Argentine Activities with federal judge Miguel Jantus finally ordering their confiscation, remaining unmoved until this year.

BAHIA BLANCA TRAGEDY 

Bahía Blanca courts last Monday confirmed that the DNA on the remains found on April 26 belonged to Delfina Hecker, the 18-month baby who went missing after the storm which hit Bahía Blanca on March 7, thus bringing the death toll up to 18 from the downpour of over 400 millimetres (16 inches). Delfina’s five-year-old sister Pilar had already been found dead from drowning on April 6 but the parents survived the catastrophe.

PHARMA SCANDAL

ANMAT, the Argentine equivalent for the Food & Drug Administration, last Tuesday halted nationwide the production and sales of the compañy HLB Pharma Group SA and its lab Laboratorios Ramallo on the grounds of “grave and reiterated irregularities” related to its medicament "Fentanilo HLB" (fentanyl) causing 18 patients to fall ill with pneumonia, half of them in serious condition. The next day a nationwide alert against the HLB fentanyl went out to all hospitals as the Italian Hospital started investigating the deaths of nine patients while on Thursday there was a court raid on the company’s San Isidro lab and a Rosario pharmacy selling the drug. During the Covid-19 pandemic HLB Pharma Group had participated in the distribution of the Russian vaccine Sputnik, Clarín newspaper reported, while the firm has also been investigated for overpricing medical supplies to PAMI, the healthcare scheme for pensioners.

COPITO COPPED

While still facing trial for the attempt to assassinate then-vice-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in September 2022, Fernando Sabag Montiel was sentenced last Tuesday in a summary proceeding to a prison term of 51 months for the possession and distribution of kiddie porn, uploading videos showing rapes of the underaged onto the social network Instagram on at least three occasions.

HOOLIGANS BARRED

The government will supply a list of some 15,000 football fans identified as barras brava hooligans to the government of the United States, the venue of next month’s FIFA World Cup of Clubs where Boca Juniors and River Plate will be representing Argentina among the 32 teams, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced on Monday as she handed a “symbolic” list to the US Embassy’s chargé d’affaires Abigail Dressel. Those on the final list stand not to be admitted to the United States, visa or no visa. 

TWIST IN MARADONA TRIAL

There was a court raid last Wednesday on Medidom, the company taking charge of the medical home care of football superstar Diego Armando Maradona during his last days in late 2020, only to find that it had ceased to exist at its Palermo address of Güemes 4243 since that year. Medidom had been outsourced by the prepaid health scheme Swiss Medical to take care of Maradona.