ALL TWOS: 2.2% MONTHLY AND DOUBLE-DIGIT ANNUALLY
Inflation slowed to 2.2 percent last month, the lowest figure since mid-2020, while the annual inflation of 84.5 percent fell to double digits for the first time in two years, the INDEC national statistics bureau announced on Thursday. Restaurants and hotels led the culprits at 5.3 percent for seasonal reasons, followed by housing and utilities at four percent, while the key ítem of food and beverages was 1.8 percent while core inflation was 2.4 percent. The 0.7 percent decrease posted by garments and footwear reflects the market now starting to be opened up to imports.
SHOWN THE DOOR
President Javier Milei began the week by requesting the resignations of both Sonia Cavallo, Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), and ANSES social security administration chief Mariano de los Heros, also describing the former’s father, the economist and ex-minister Domingo Cavallo, as “impresentable.” Subsequent comments by Milei made it clear that the dismissal of the envoy to the OAS had little to do with her and everything to do with her father’s discrepancies over the exchange rate (to which Cavallo responded by reminding Milei of his support for him during the 2023 run-off). Sonia Cavallo, who has lived in the United States for over a decade, was the choice outside the diplomatic corps of fellow-economist and former Foreign minister Diana Mondino. De los Heros, who will be replaced by ANSES deputy director Fernando Bearzi (close to Economy Minister Luis Caputo), ran afoul of Milei for floating a presumed pension reform plan sometime this year which the President felt obliged to deny in a subsequent television interview, especially raising the retirement age. Milei, who was clearly in an irritable mood during that interview (A24 by Antonio Laje), complaining about background noise as “sabotage,” pointed out that any pension reform would need to be preceded by a labour reform. De los Heros had replaced Osvaldo Giordano (ditched by Milei because his wife, the deputy Alejandra Torres, had voted against some articles of the Ley de Bases bill) last February. These Monday resignations were followed on Thursday by that of Environment Undersecretary Ana Lamas (close to Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos) although not under presidential pressure this time – Lamas pleaded “exhaustion” and “personal reasons,” which may have been related to last year’s COP29 walkout and a likely exit from the Paris Accord on Climate Change while forest fires around the country are literally a burning issue.
PRISON BREAKS
Security Minister Patricia Bullrich harshly questioned her Buenos Aires City counterpart Waldo Wolff over the weekend breakout of half a dozen prisoners from a Caballito police precinct, urging him to take on his responsibilities or return to television commentary. Wolff had argued that the problem was a lack of prison space until a new prison could be built in Marcos Paz with 35 percent more prisoners in the past year in overcrowded jails. Two of the six Caballito fugitives, who escaped in a hire car, were speedily recaptured. All six were formally remanded in custody and thus should not have been confined in police station cells. Complicity of the guards is being investigated. Wolff hit back against the national minister’s “perverse” criticisms on Monday, saying that Bullrich “knows she is lying” and arguing: “95 percent of those behind our bars do not correspond to the City.” In the last three years those remanded by national courts had increased from 60 to 2,300 or over twice police station capacity, he pointed out. Meanwhile the Kirchnerite Unión por la Patria caucus in the City Legislature took Bullrich’s side, calling for Wolff’s interpellation.
HIDROVÍA STANDSTILL
The tender for dredging and modernising the Hidrovía waterway was stillborn last Wednesday when the only offer was made by Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering NV (DEM), the Belgian rivals of current operator Jan De Nul after 11 companies had originally been in the running. The tender has previously been questioned by the Administrative Investigations Prosecutor’s Office on the basis of denunciations made by firms competing in the tender, which they claimed to be skewed in favour of Jan De Nul.
HOUSING DEPARTMENT SHUTTERED
Within the framework of its overhaul of the state, the government last Tuesday dissolved the Housing Secretariat (a full ministry under the previous Frente de Todos government) via Decree 70/2025 (a number deliberately reflecting the deregulatory mega-decree 70/2023), arguing that housing policies were best managed by the provinces, municipal governments and the private sector. It was further argued that since the creation of the ministry in 2019, housing projects had largely been delegated to three fiduciary funds (PROCREAR, Social Housing and Socio-Urban Integration or FISU) which have been dissolved or are in the process of dissolution due to the misuse of public funds and a lack of controls. The department will be merged into the Public Works Secretariat under the mantle of the Economy Ministry. “The national government is changing the model of corruption … for the model of private credit and liberty,” summed up the Casa Rosada.
SPIN DOCTORATE
Widely assumed to belong to La Libertad Avanza from its very beginnings, its star spin doctor Santiago Caputo only became a card-carrying member earlier this month (February 6), it has emerged. His signing up was accompanied by a photo showing him locked in a warm embrace with the other two members of the so-called “iron triangle,” the siblings President Javier Milei and presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei.
CIVIC VALOUR HONOURED
Just before last weekend the government decreed the ‘Al Valor del Ciudadano’ decoration, awarding the first medal post mortem to 20-year-old Luca Aguilar, the Moreno delivery boy brutally murdered after being stabbed seven times in late January when trying to defend a street peddler from assault. President Javier Milei had previously announced the decoration via a message in his social network X entitled “A hero has gone to heaven,” praising Aguilar for “making the máximum sacrifice for a stranger, giving his life to defend him.” Milei later added: “Social change and progress do not only depend on the institutions but also on individual actions which can transform reality.”
FOREST FIRES ARE ‘ARSON’
The government last Tuesday blamed the Patagonian forest fires on “arson coup-mongering” by "pseudo-Mapuches," specifically naming RAM militant leader Facundo Jones Huala and quoting a Neuquén official as saying that the fire brigade had been "infiltrated."The accusations of terrorism came when Ministers Patricia Bullrich (Security) and Luis Petri (Defence) headed south that day to review the situation and hold a press conference at which they announced President Javier Milei had ordered the creation of a Federal Emergencies Agency, pooling 12 existing structures to combat emergencies. Bullrich vowed that the government would be “implacable with those burning forests.”
GREEN CARPINCHOS!
Images and videos of carpincho rodents daubed green in the vicinity of the Entre Ríos city of Concordia circulated by social networks in midweek have caused alarm. Experts explained the unusual colouring stems from the chlorophyll in cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in the stagnant waters where these animals like to bathe. Echoing the World Health Organization (from which Argentina has recently departed), the Health Ministry described these microorganisms as toxic and “a significant problem for human and environmental health.” Pets tend to be more sensitive to these toxins than children. Symptoms include a sore throat, conjunctivitis, fever, fatigue, inflammations, blisters, diarrhoea, vomiting, difficulties in breathing, hepatitis and neurological disorders.
ESMA SHOW ICED
The rap singer Milo J (18) suspended his Wednesday pre-launch concert of his new record at the Memory Museum (formerly the ESMA concentration camp during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship) in the light of an injunction presented by Human Rights Secretary Alberto Baños following security operations by Coast and Border Guards. The Justice Ministry further pointed out that the recital lacked City Hall authorisation. The human rights organisation HIJOS denounced the government manoeuvres as "absolute censorship" while Milo J commented: "Gathering 20,000 people at the Memory Museum displeases this government," explaining that he had suspended the recital to avoid repression.
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