Budget on the way
The 2026 Budget was given first reading in the Congress of Deputies by a 132-97 vote late Wednesday while in the Senate earlier in the day La Libertad Avanza caucus chief Patricia Bullrich landed the chair of the Labour and Social Welfare Committee and soon afterwards began debate on the Javier Milei administration’s labour reform, which she was already hoping to steer through committee stage by yesterday. While Peronist senator José Mayans questioned whether formation of the committee complied with procedural rules, Bullrich was under fire on another front from Kirchnerite lawyer Gregorio Dalbón, who denounced her and her son Francisco Langieri, owner of the Tostado café chain, for tax evasion, money-laundering and business irregularities, a case now going to federal judge Ariel Lijo.
Quantitative easing (local style)
The Central Bank announced last Monday that the adjustment of the currency bands would be index-linked as from the start of next year instead of the current fixed monthly rate of one percent. The index-linking will be based on the most recent monthly inflation figure available at the start of each month, which means that next year will kick off using the November inflation of 2.5 percent. Central Bank Governor Santiago Bausili further anticipated the beginning of a plan to accumulate reserves in response to International Monetary Fund (IMF) pressures, aiming to purchase US$10 billion next year. The innovations were positively received by both the markets and economists.
Cabinet overhaul
ARCA revenue and Customs agency has a new boss with DGI tax bureau chief Andrés Vázquez replacing Juan Pazo while being replaced himself at the DGI by Mariano Mengochea, an accountant close to Vázquez. Banco Nación president Daniel Tillard resigned on Tuesday morning and was replaced by Darío Wassermann (previously his second-in-command and close to presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei). Five decrees signed by President Javier Milei just before last weekend redefined various posts below ministerial level. Former Buenos Aires Province governor Daniel Scioli will continue as Tourism and Environment secretary but as from this month “ad honorem,” i.e. without salary (which the new Strategic Affairs Secretary Ignacio Devitt will also have to forgo). Furthermore, Press Undersecretary Javier Lanari is promoted to Communications and Press secretary, all three posts under Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni. In the Economy Ministry Federico Ramos Nápoli has been designated Nuclear Affairs secretary while the Health Ministry now has Rodrigo Sbarra as its Administrative Coordination undersecretary.
Milei off to Brazil
After being given the honour of his first trip abroad by Chile’s president-elect José Antonio Kast (the landslide winner of last Sunday’s run-off with over 58 percent) last Tuesday, President Javier Milei finally confirmed the following day that he would be attending today’s Mercosur Summit in Foz de Iguazú, Brazil, with signature of the trade agreement between the regional bloc and the European Union still in doubt after at least 20 years in the works. On a lighter note, Milei revealed that he has 14 YPF overalls and uses two a day.
Bullrich denounces AFA
Senator Patricia Bullrich (La Libertad Avanza-City) last Monday denounced AFA Argentine Football Association president Claudio “Chiqui Tapia” and AFA treasurer Pablo Toviggino to the Ethics Committee of the CONMEBOL continental association, accusing both of being “mafiosi” whose activities “taint” Argentine football with “their mansions, Ferraris and all that dirty money” in her social network accounts while also pointing to court investigations underway into “presumed money-laundering, tax evasion and concealment of assets.” On another front, Deregulation & State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger jumped on Tapia’s current notoriety to compare Mendoza wineries to him, due to their resistance to deregulation while the AFA president opposes private capital in football.
Air controllers strike
A wave of strikes by the ATEPSA air controllers timed to plague the holiday season began last Wednesday and is set to continue for the rest of the year, causing delays and cancellations nationwide. The first strike lasting three hours affected 169 domestic flights. International flights will start to be affected as from December 27. From now on passengers are advised to check whether their flights are still on schedule.
Scatturice picks up OCA
The United States investment fund belonging to the businessman Leonardo Scatturice is set to become the majority shareholder of OCA courier firm with the aim of transforming it into “the biggest company of transport and logistics in Latin America” via the incorporation of technology and the synergy with Flybondi low cost airline (which Scatturice purchased last June). Scatturice has various interesting links – with star presidential spin doctor Santiago Caputo, the media businessman Daniel Haddad, the US intelligence community and CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference) frequented by US President Donald Trump. Under the terms of the agreement Claudio Espinoza will continue chairing the board of directors. OCA is presented as “Argentina’s biggest private courier company with a track record of over 60 years, 760 points of attention nationwide and a fleet of over 3,500 vehicles.” The purchase “will not affect the normal supply of OCA services to millions of clients nor the almost 9,500 jobs in the company,” assured the agreement. “Our aim is to make OCA a leading company in the regional market,” concluded Scatturice.
Back to growth?
The economy grew 3.3 percent in the third quarter as compared to the same three months in 2024 while 0.3 percent up on the previous quarter, the INDEC national statistic bureau reported on Tuesday. The financial sphere (with a year-on-year surge of 28.4 percent), mining and quarries (up 10.3 percent) and hotels and restaurants (7.1 percent) were growth leaders while manufacturing industry registered slumps in mass consumption sectors.
Milei anti-anti-Semitism
President Javier Milei’s speech at last Monday’s annual dinner of the Fundación Faro was dominated by the recent news of the lethal Islamic terrorist attack against a Hanukkah beach celebration in Australia, prompting him to express his solidarity with the Jewish community at home and abroad and to blast anti-Semitism alongside the woke movement. He further congratulated Chile’s president-elect José Antonio Kast as “a sign that South America has woken up to the ideas of liberty” and praised Luis 'Toto' Caputo as “the best economy minister in history” steering “the best process of stabilisation in history, not only in Argentina but also in the world.”
Glacier law to Congress
The government announced last Monday that it has sent to Congress the bill to reform the Glaciers Protection Law, seeking its approval during the extraordinary sessions running until December 30. The professed aim of the initiative is to put an end to arbitrary interpretations of glacier demarcation which “paralyse productive investments and affect the legitimate exercise of provincial jurisdictions over natural resources.” The bill basically leaves decisions to the provinces with its Article 124 recognising them as the original domain of natural resources in compliance with the commitments assumed in the Pact of May, thus accepting the longstanding claims of Catamarca, Jujuy and Salta (lithium) and Mendoza and San Juan (copper) to exploit their natural resources.
South Atlantic oil dispute
The Foreign Ministry has expressed its “strongest rejection” of the “unilateral” Anglo-Israeli Sea Lion project to extract oil north of the Malvinas Islands, reaffirming Argentina’s sovereign rights over the archipelago. The Ministry’s communiqué pointed out that both companies involved had already been sanctioned – Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration was declared clandestine and suspended for 20 years by two resolutions in 2012 and 2013 while Israel’s Navitas Petroleum received similar sanctions in 2022 for unauthorised operations.
Fast track for disabled
Just before last weekend Campana federal judge Adrián González Charvay declared invalid presidential Decree 681/2025, which had suspended the state of emergency for the disabled (voted by Congress last July) until the funds could be defined to finance it, ordering its immediate implementation nationwide. The judge agreed with the parents of two disabled children that the suspension left thousands of people dependent on treatments and services against the Health Ministry argument that applying the law without specific funds would jeopardise other areas of healthcare. Judge González Charvay ruled that once the presidential veto had been overturned, the Constitution left the government no choice but to promulgate and implement laws passed by Congress with the Cabinet chief having the scope to reallocate spending.
Olivos guard shot dead
Rodrigo Gómez, 21, was found shot dead with a bullet through his head while on guard duty outside Olivos presidential residence in the small hours of Tuesday. A letter addressed to his comrades and families alluding to debts of two million pesos prompted a conclusion of suicide but San Isidro federal judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado is investigating the case with other possibilities not ruled out. The Presidential Office expressed condolences to the family but the tragedy triggered the issue of underpaid armed forces on the social networks.
Streaming spies
The first Martín Fierro prize ceremony for streaming last Sunday saw the journalist Pedro Rosemblat, one of the prize-winners, accuse the rival streaming Carajo of being financed by SIDE intelligence, saying that it gave him “special joy to beat Carajo which, out of the channels financed with the reserve funds of SIDE, is my favourite.”
Cultural deaths
The veteran actor Héctor Alterio died peacefully in Madrid last weekend at the age of 96 after performing in over 150 plays and films, having lived much of his life in the Spanish capital since being forced into exile in 1975. Born in Chacarita in 1929, Alterio first gained artistic prominence on the stage in the 1960s, cofounding the company Nuevo Teatro. On the same day Ernesto Acher, a member of the satirical musical group Les Luthiers between 1971 and 1986, died in this city at the age of 85.
BELEN SHORTLISTED
Dolores Fonzi’s Argentine legal drama Belén on the abortion issue has been shortlisted for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced last Tuesday, joining the Brazilian political thriller O Agente Secreto as the Latin American candidates.
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