ALBERTO CLOSE TO TRIAL
The City Federal Appeals Court has confirmed the trial of ex-president Alberto Fernández for the irregular allocation of the insurance contracts of state agencies during his presidency, prohibiting him from leaving the country. His former private secretary María Cantero and her husband Héctor Martínez Sosa, an insurance broker accused of being one of the main beneficiaries of the scheme by collecting commissions on almost 60 percent of the policies, also face trial along with five other defendants. Even after Decree 823/2021 obliged all state offices to take out their insurance Nación Seguros SA, President Fernández still forced them to pay juicy commissions to a handful of brokers. It is now up to prosecutor Carlos Rívolo to send the case to trial.
SENATORS RESISTED
The Senate’s Constitutional Affairs Committee on Wednesday scrutinised the credentials of the 24 senators elected last month, approving all but three of them. The roughest ride was experienced by outgoing deputy Lorena Villaverde, elected for La Libertad Avanza (LLA) in Río Negro, who ran into the objections of not only the eight Peronists sitting on the committee but also Juan Carlos Romero (Encuentro-Salta) and Pablo Blanco (Radical-Tierra del Fuego) due to her connections with Federico ‘Fred’ Machado recently extradited to the United States on drug-trafficking charges, although the last word on Villaverde’s future will come at the November 28 preparatory session. LLA senators then counter-attacked by impugning Peronist Martín Soria, also elected for Río Negro, as well as former Chaco governor Jorge Capitanich but the move was rejected by their party colleagues.
OIL EXPORT DUTIES LIFTED
The government signed last Tuesday a memorandum of understanding with Chubut to eliminate export duties on conventionally produced oil in order to encourage companies to maintain their investments in mature fields and preserve jobs. Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni together with Ministers Luis Caputo (Economy) and Diego Santilli (Interior) signed the agreement with Chubut Governor Ignacio Torres, who committed himself to revising provincial royalties. This agreement is to be progressively extended to other oil-producing provinces.
MILEI PRAISES BLACK INK
President Javier Milei last Monday celebrated Argentina staying in surplus amid all last month’s midterm electoral turmoil, describing it in his X social network account as “the iron anchor … cleaning out all the vices of populism.” He was responding to the Economy Ministry’s announcement that last month’s primary surplus was 823.92 billion pesos and the financial (following debt payments) 517.67 billion while Economy Minister Luis Caputo detailed that in the first 10 months of this year the primary surplus had been 1.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product and the financial surplus 0.5 percent of GDP. On Wednesday, during a speech at the headquarters of Corporación América, he told business leaders to “fasten their seatbelts” as reforms are on the way.
LORENZETTI RAPS MEGA-TRIAL
In a radio interview last Tuesday, Supreme Court justice Ricardo Lorenzetti described the format of the ‘Cuadernos’ corruption notebooks mega-trial (currently ongoing) as “inadmissible,” saying that it needed a “special policy” giving judges a structure within which they could decide the case in a reasonable period of time instead of forcing them to work through the summer. He also deplored the number of vacancies on judicial benches, criticised the Council of Magistrates for having been dysfunctional for many years and said the upcoming labour reform needed consensus to be sustainable while also using the word “inadmissible” to describe the current index-linking system for severance. Finally, he said that the three justices currently manning the Supreme Court needed to be balanced by female appointments, as stated by Decree 222/2003 issued by the late Néstor Kirchner. In the course of last week the trial’s main defendant, former two-term president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was limited to no more than three people visiting her no more than twice a week for no more than two hours at a time while under house arrest after receiving nine economists backing her policy proposals last Monday.
MILEI HAILS KAST
President Javier Milei rang up Chile’s far-right presidential candidate José Antonio Kast Tuesday to congratulate him on a favourable showing in last Sunday’s voting with a view to next month’s runoff against Communist Labour Minister Jeanette Jara, posting Kast’s words with the aggregate: "LA LIBERTAD DE AMÉRICA AVANZA!" While Jara finished a couple of points ahead, four of the other six candidates are considered right of centre in their ideology with two of them explicitly endorsing Kast while the two remaining contenders finished in the last two places.
PRESS DEPLORES AGGRESSION
Journalists Hugo Alconada Mon and Julia Mengolini, together with representantives of FOPEA and SIPREBA press associations, CELS human rights organisation and Amnesty International all denounced the Javier Milei administration at the headquarters of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Miami last Wednesday for attacks on the press and intimidation tantamount to an assault on the freedom of expression. Mengolini and the investigative journalist Alconada Mon both detailed the harassment to which they had been subjected, both of which involved interventions into their private life, hacking attempts and the creation of fake pornography. SIPREBA denounced how state media had been downsized or closed with violence against reporters at demonstrations against the government.
WORLD CUP DRAW
The group draw for next year’s World Cup on December 5 will be the occasion for President Javier Milei’s 15th trip to the United States in less than two years in office, possibly combined with signing the trade agreement pencilled in last week (although yet to be confirmed). Milei will be alongside host US President Donald Trump in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center in Washington, whose concert hall has capacity for 2,442 people.
EZEIZA INFERNO
A massive explosion at the Logischem warehouse storing chemical products last Saturday spread to five other plants in the Carlos Spegazzi industrial polygon in Ezeiza, destroying them almost totally and leaving 24 people injured although no fatalities. The material losses could not be immediately quantified but were described as “immense” while 400 jobs are at risk. The affected companies include Iron Mountain, which has suffered three major blazes in its warehouses since 2014. The fire was brought under control in the course of the day by almost 400 firefighters, helped by rain, but investigation continues.
HIDROVIA SECURITY TIGHTENED
The Security Ministry (still under senator-elect Patricia Bullrich) last Monday commenced the implementation its “Plan Paraná” to dismantle contraband, organised crime, drug-trafficking and money-laundering along the vital Hidrovía Paraná-Paraguay waterway, the longest in South America with a daily traffic of up to 300 freighters. The plan includes the use of advanced technology (radars, drones, thermal cameras, scanners of containers, etc.) along with “more solid” international cooperation. Its implementation will combine the forces of the Coast (Prefectura Naval) and Border (Gendarmería) Guards, the Federal Police and the PSA airport police under the general coordination of the Coast Guard.
PATAGONIAN STORM
A violent storm with winds topping 120 kilometres an hour sank three ships anchored near the Santa Cruz town of Caleta Olivia within minutes last Monday. None of the crews were on board at the time. The Coast Guard decided to await an improvement in the meteorological conditions before evaluating the possibility of refloating the boats and clearing the harbour waters. The storm led the Santa Cruz provincial government to actívate preventive emergency measures across the territory, sounding an orange alert, suspending school classes, closing public offices and restricting traffic. Roofs were blown off at least 60 houses in the provincial capital of Río Gallegos, Caleta Olivia and Las Heras. On Thursday, a massive rain and thunderstorm hit the capital.
BOCELLI AT CASA ROSADA
President Javier Milei hosted the famous blind Italian singer Andrea Bocelli, in town for a series of shows in the Casa Rosada last Wednesday morning. The Italian lyrical tenor, who sang to United States President Donald Trump at the end of last month, treated the opera fan Milei to some songs (without singing) before receiving a decoration from the libertarian administration.
COVID BACK IN FORMOSA
The province of Formosa has detected a surge in Covid-19 cases this month, rising from 60 to 401 in the past week (250 in the provincial capital) with 24 percent of the persons swabbed testing positive. Health authorities are returning to recommendations out of fashion in the past few years, such as using face-masks in closed spaces and washing hands frequently. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in March, 2020, Formosa has registered a total of 151,129 diagnosed cases with a death toll of 1,351.
ROSARIO AWARD
A new cup was controversially created for Rosario Central, who emerged as the aggregate winners of Argentina’s top flight (which is split into two halves), by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), despite there being no plans for such an award at the start of the season. Elsewhere, CONMEBOL President Alejandro Domínguez said the Finalissima between Argentina (Copa América champions) and Spain (who won the Euros) will be played in March at a neutral ground – according to reports, the stadium will be in the Qatari capital of Doha.
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