Stories that caught our eye: November 22 to 29

 

ALBERTO IN COURT FOR INSURANCE CASE

Amid tight security ex-president Alberto Fernández made his first courtroom appearance since leaving office last Wednesday morning in response to a summons concerning his presumed fraudulent administration of state insurance. He refused to answer the questions of the prosecutor Carlos Rívolo or federal judge Julián Ercolini, according to court sources, only responding to his lawyer Mariana Barbitta. Favoured broker Héctor Martínez Sosa and his wife María Cantero, who was the private secretary of Fernández during his presidency, are among the co-defendants. Fernández also faces a court case for gender violence against former first lady Fabiola Yáñez.

 

PONTIFICATING PEACE

Last Monday Pope Francis headed the Vatican ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Beagle Channel Peace Treaty, signed in 1984 thanks to the intervention of John Paul II, managing to turn a blind eye to the absence of Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein to accompany his Chilean colleague Alberto van Klaveren. The pontiff hailed the treaty as “a model to imitate” in a world in conflict, alluding to Ukraine and Palestine, while criticising the hypocrisy of countries which talk peace but sell arms.

 

STINTED CONGRATS

Uruguayan president-elect Yamandú Orsi of the leftist Frente Amplio coalition was impersonally congratulated by the Foreign Ministry for his run-off victory last Sunday rather than by his future Mercosur colleague President Javier Milei directly. Orsi defeated the incumbent centre-right coalition’s candidate Álvaro Delgado by 49.84 to 45.87 percent of the vote in a high turnout of around 90 percent.

 

DIPLOMATIC DISPLACEMENTS

The diplomatic purge announced last week by the new Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein when he took office came partially into effect last week when both Ambassador to Spain Roberto Bosch (the successor of Ricardo Alfonsín) and the consul in New York, Pablo Piñeiro Aramburu, were given their marching orders. Bosch suffered from the continual conflict between Milei and Spanish socialist premier Pedro Sánchez while Piñeiro Aramburu reportedly ran into trouble after holding a lavish Halloween party. The latter will be replaced by Gerardo Díaz Bartolomé, the Ministry’s Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy director who is said to be close to certain Milei business allies.

 

UNION TENSIONS

Teamster Pablo Moyano, one of the three CGT secretaries-general until then, walked out of the umbrella trade union grouping last weekend after his pressures for a general strike were resisted but the other two members of the labour troika assured that there was no crisis or “risk of a rift” while the maverick unionist’s veteran father Hugo Moyano (although pushing for a monthly five percent wage increase for teamsters) remains on board.

 

SKIES OPENING

Transport Secretary Franco Mogetta announced last Monday morning that three international airlines – Arajet of the Dominican Republic, Chile’s Sky and Peruvian-owned Jetsmart – had been authorised to operate in Argentina on certain routes transporting both passengers and freight. On Wednesday the government then proceeded to authorise the Paraguayan airline Paranair to link up Córdoba with the Paraguayan capital of Asunción.

 

CAPUTO’S MINISTRY STAYS ACTIVE

A tender for BONCAP, BONCER and LECAP bonds was called by the Economy Ministry between Wednesday and yesterday with final results still pending at our press time. In other Ministry news, Economy Minister Luis Caputo announced in person the dissolution of five more fiduciary funds last Tuesday, arguing that they lacked both results and controls. The five fiduciary or trust funds were set up to assist entrepreneurial capital, mortgage refinancing, the victims of white slavery, strategic investments and the competitiveness of the northwestern sugar industry. 

 

NEUQUÉN VICE DUMPED

The Neuquén provincial legislature voted unanimously (with five abstentions) Wednesday to suspend Lieutenant-Governor Gloria Ruiz for being “morally unfit” after she was caught transferring some 30 million pesos of public funds into the bank account of her brother Pablo.

 

VIOLENT AND GREEDY?

Tucumán provincial police officers last Tuesday found 40,000 kilos of food belonging to the provincial Social Development Ministry which had been sent by the national Human Capital Ministry in the home of a man accused of gender violence although they also found evidence that deliveries had been made to local soup kitchens, evidence which is being investigated. The man nevertheless remains under arrest on gender violence charges.

 

LIFE FOR NAHIR

Nahir Galarza, 24, stands to spend the rest of her life in prison after the Supreme Court last Tuesday turned down her appeal against her life sentence for shooting dead her boy-friend Fernando Pastorizzo. The ruling was signed by the justices Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz and Juan Carlos Maqueda. The Supreme Court looked more kindly on Daiana Elizabeth Fernández, quashing the eight-year prison sentence against her for the homicide of a violent ex-partner when she was aged 19. Monday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (instituted by the United Nations in 1999) and there was duly a 25N march against machista violence.

 

DROMI DEAD

Roberto Dromi, Public Works minister during the 1989-1999 Carlos Menem presidency and a key figure in the privatisations of that administration, died at home last weekend at the age of 79 while he was watching Racing win the South American Cup. He made a partial comeback to public life during the Kirchner presidencies by serving as advisor to then Federal Planning minister Julio De Vido.

 

NEW RULES FOR UK TRAVEL

As from last Wednesday Argentines became one of 48 non-European nationalities eligible to apply for an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) to enter the United Kingdom as from next January 8. An ETA will cost 10 pounds sterling with its processing completely electronic and may serve for stays of up to six months over the next two years. The change applies to the travellers of 48 countries (among them Argentina) who until now did not need visas for tourist trips. As from March 5 European citizens will also be eligible for the ETA, which they will need as from April 2. Further information can be obtained at the Internet portal gov.uk.

 

 

POLAR FLIGHT

An Argentine aircraft flew over the Antarctic for the first time in 51 years when a Beechcraft TC-12B Huron belonging to the Argentine Navy landed at Petrel base in the small hours of Wednesday, flying in from Río Grande (Tierra del Fuego). The flight had been planned for the last six months with intensive training. The first-ever Argentine flight over the White Continent was back in 1942.

 

DIPY IN DEEP

David Adrián Martínez, better known as musician ‘El Dipy’ and the libertarian mayoral candidate in La Matanza in last year’s elections, was denounced last weekend by a fellow-militant of La Libertad Avanza for sexual abuse and extortion between last March and May. The plaintiff, identified only by her initials of M.C.A.M., said that ‘El Dipy’ had both raped her and forced her to perform oral sex on him after spiking her drink (according to her suspicions). When the woman told him she was jobless, he offered her public-sector employment provided that she continued to see him, which she considered to be extortion.

 

PALERMO VICE

Sseries Division Palermo, created by its star Santiago Korovsky, won the Best Comedy award at the 52nd edition of the Emmy Internationals in New York last Tuesday. Korovsky was there to pick up his prize, together with producer Nicolás Goldar Parodi and some of the team, who included the iconic cartoon figure Mafalda in their celebration photo. The series (centred on a parallel civilian security force) places a focus on minorities in general and the handicapped in particular.

 

DON JULIO TOP AGAIN

The Palermo grill Don Julio, run by Pablo Rivero since 1999, was ranked the best restaurant in Latin America and the 10th in the world by the British listing 50 Best at a prize ceremony in Rio de Janeiro’s National Historic Museum. Don Julio had already topped a regional ranking back in 2020 during the pandemic.

 

WHEN IRISH EYES ARE EYEING

Professor Alan Barrett, a prestigious Irish economist who specialises in inclusive development, arrived here yesterday for a visit stretching into next week, during which he will be meeting with government officials and fellow-economists and academics. During his visit Barret will address events hosted by the European Union Delegation, CIPPEC (Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento, CARI (Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales) and the Universidad Di Tella. In these events he will explain how Ireland overcame major economic challenges to construct a model of sustainable development while respecting its national identity (although not overlooking the European Union as a pillar of growth).