Stories that caught our eye: January 27 to February 2

CRUNCH-TIME IN CONGRESS

The government’s ‘omnibus’ bill to transform the economy finally reached the House floor last Wednesday when a marathon debate still in progress at press time began. Prior to that stage the bill had already shed over half its original 664 articles in concessions to moderate opposition deputies while just before last weekend the government withdrew the core fiscal chapter in its entirety due to an inability to muster sufficient support, nevertheless pledging to reach zero deficit by other means (which provincial governors fear will be at their expense). Earlier in the week the government also accepted certain limitations on the legislative prerogatives to be delegated to the executive branch without any final agreement on this issue having been reached at press time. There were incidents outside and inside Congress on both Wednesday and Thursday (incIuding four women singing the national anthem who were arrested in midweek and released the next morning). While the Lower House of Congress was busy with the omnibus bill, the Upper House’s Unión por la Patria caucus was rapping Vice-President Victoria Villarruel for blocking a special session enabling them to throw out the parallel DNU emergency decree.

IN MILEI’S FAVOUR

The Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday greenlighted the remittance of US$4.7 billion to Argentina along with belated approval of the sevebnth quarterly review of its Extended Fund Facility agreement and enthusiastic praise for the economic policies of the new Javier Milei government although also pointing to the possible need for “additional measures” as well as increased social assistance to ensure political support. Nevertheless, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook forecast published the previous day was less kind, reversing its previous prediction of 2.8 percent growth for Argentina this year to exactly the same percentage of negative growth in the light of the new government’s stiff austerity policies, which it nevertheless described as “absolutely necessary.” At the same time the 2025 growth forecast was upped from 3.3 to five percent.

POSSE FLIES NORTH

Cabinet Chief Nicolás Posse flew to the United States on Monday for a series of meetings with members of the Joe Biden administration and authorities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), having fixed up many of those meetings at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier in the month. The most important meetings were with senior US Treasury officials Michael Kaplan and Jay Shambaugh, IMF Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath (on Tuesday) and CIA director William Burns, the latter with AFI intelligence chief Silvestre Sivori.

ONE MORE SECRETARY, ONE LESS MINISTER

Ambassador to Brazil for the last four years, the 2015 Peronist presidential candidate Daniel Scioli joined the Javier Milei administration last Tuesday as its Tourism, Environment and Sports secretary, thus covering what were two entire ministries in the previous presidency. Shortly after our press time last week President Milei fired Infrastructure Minister Guillermo Ferraro, supposedly for Cabinet meeting leaks. No replacement was contemplated with the ministry passing under the wing of Economy Minister Luis Caputo, including its Housing, Transport and Communications departments. A former local director of KPMG global consultancy, Ferraro had been one of only four ministers selected from the start by Milei after clinching the presidency but reportedly fell afoul of Cabinet Chief Nicolás Posse.

BEYOND THE OMNIBUS

Without need for Congress approval, the Trade Department quashed over 60 resolutions obliging banks, companies, supermarkets, private schools and prepaid health schemes to supply information on a monthly basis to the state. This deregulatory move, via Resolution 51/2024 published last Monday in the Official Gazette, was described as aiming at a "simpler, less bureaucratic and more transparent domestic trade."

PETROL PRICES SHOOT UP

Petrol was just one of a raft of price increases on the first day of the month last Thursday, going up 10 percent on average and a total of 75 percent in just seven weeks of the Javier Milei presidency. Bus fares, electricity bills, rents, prepaid health schemes, cable television and Internet were all lining up behind the service stations as February started.

DRAFT MAURICIO

The PRO party chairs of 20 of the 23 provinces del PRO on Monday issued a signed letter calling for ex-president Mauricio Macri to step into the national party helm vacated by Security Minister Patricia Bullrich during last year’s election campaign, praising his "experience, leadership and vision." The exceptions were few but significant – Buenos Aires City and Province and the Patagonian provinces of Chubut and Santa Cruz (ironically enough these exceptions include Macri’s own cousin, City Mayor Jorge Macri). Only two of the 20 party leaders – Gabriela González Riollo of San Luis and Inés Liendo of Salta – are women.

MILEI MEETS MONEY

President Javier Milei’s presence at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month seems to have given him an appetite for contact with big global names, holding a virtual meeting with Larry Fink (whose BlackRock investment fund handles some US$7.3 trillion dollars) on Thursday and Sean Rad, founder of the Tinder dating app, on Wednesday.

PHEW, WHAT A SCORCHER STILL!

While this city sweltered throughout the week with no rainfall to interrupt the heatwave, there was no refuge to be found taking summer holidays elsewhere in the country – temperatures in Mar del Plata and the Atlantic coast were a couple of degrees higher at times but against all geographic logic the most searing heat was in Patagonia with devastating consequences for the larch trees of El Parque Los Alerces in the province of Chubut where 600 hectares of native wood were burnt out by forest fires raging beyond control despite the intense efforts of fire brigades and two hydrant planes. Chubut PRO Governor Ignacio Torres voiced suspicion of arson by RAM Mapuche militants.

CARIBBEAN COMMENTS

In an atypically intense summer week here, the other end of the subcontinent also managed to enter the news. From Madrid ex-president Alberto Fernández deplored his successor Javier Milei blasting Colombian President Gustavo Petro as a “murderous Communist.” And last weekend Foreign Minister Diana Mondino expressed her concern about the political situation in Venezuela, especially the disqualification of opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado.

ÁMBITO GOES DIGITAL

After a print run of almost half a century (founded by the late Julio Ramos in the last month of 1976), Ámbito Financiero has ceased to be a newspaper with employees informed of the decision by editor Julián Guarino as the last January 26 edition was going to press. The digital version of the newspaper, enjoying “exponential growth” in its battle against fake news according to its Grupo Indalo owners, will continue, however. Guarino adduced environmental reasons to justify the decision, arguing that the newspaper had a duty “to take the initiative in reducing our carbon footprint.” Ambito has been owned by Grupo Indalo (headed by Cristóbal López and Fabián de Sousa) since 2015. The newspaper began as basically a money market newssheet with some editorials by Ramos in the early stages of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship although as from the return of democracy Roberto García added a strong political ingredient. The digital portal was born with the century.

UMMA SUSPECT RELEASED

Patricio García, 22, the first of five arrests for the murder of Umma Aguilera (the nine-year-old daughter of one of Security Minister Patricia Bullrich’s bodyguards) was released on Monday due to lack of evidence. Arrested on the previous Monday, the same day as the girl’s tragic death during an attempted car robbery in Lomas de Zamora, the police could establish García’s links to the gang, finding stolen property at his home, but not to the crime.

SUSANA GIMENEZ TURNS 80

Susana Giménez, one of the biggest names in Argentine television and show business, turned 80 last Monday, inviting that number of guests to a mega-party at her La Mary mansion in Punta del Este. Almost everybody who is anybody in the Argentine entertainment world (including singer Palito Ortega and actor Ricardo Darín) seems to have been there except Mirtha Legrand.