A SMALL VICTORY
Thanks to the support of the PRO centre-right caucus and five Radical deputies, the government managed to scrape together sufficient votes to uphold the presidential veto of the opposition reform bill last Wednesday since the 153-87 vote against the veto fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override it. “Today 87 heroes halted the fiscal degenerates who were trying to destroy the fiscal surplus,” was how President Javier Milei chose to describe the result. During the opposition of a different nature was also expressed outside Congress with a protest containing strong Kirchnerite, leftist and trade union components, which turned violent when news of ratification of the veto broke. A forceful repression by the security forces resulted in 12 injured and three arrests.
INFLATION INCHES UP
Most forecasts had last month’s inflation slightly below July’s four percent but on Wednesday INDEC national statistics bureau posted a figure of 4.2 percent for August. Core inflation (excluding seasonal and regulated prices) also inched up to 4.1 percent. Leading culprits were housing, electricity, water and fuels (seven percent), education (6.6 percent) and transport (5.1 percent), mostly reflecting a more aggressive updating of public service charges, while the key item of food and beverages was 3.6 percent. Inflation so far this year thus reaches 94.8 percent with an annual inflation of 236.7 percent. A family of four now needs to be almost peso millionaires (939,887 pesos, to be exact) to stay above the poverty line. For once inflation in nation and capital coincided – just before last weekend, City Hall posted 4.2 percent for last month, significantly down from July’s 5.1 percent, with transport, food and housing among the main culprits.
AIRPORT CHAOS
Stoppages throughout the week causing airport chaos with up to 37,000 passengers stranded and over 300 flights affected by the end of the week prompted Aerolíneas Argentinas to legally denounce the aviation unions behind them already last Tuesday, as well as to seek the expulsion of Pablo Biró, the head of APLA pilots union, from its board of directors. Aerolíneas insisted on defining what the unions were calling "informative assemblies" as strike action already costing the airline US$2 million. Aerolíneas added that over 400 pilots were being docked a daily 150,000 pesos for their protest and ground staff belonging to the AAA union 50,000.
IN MILEI’S FAVOUR
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has removed the Chilean economist Rodrigo Valdés, the head of their Western Hemisphere Department and a frequent target of President Javier Milei’s criticisms, from negotiations with Argentina, which now revert to Luis Cubeddu, the predecessor of Valdés, IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack informed on Thursday. Yet no negotiations are in sight.
COAL TRUSTEE FIRED
Thierry Decoud, trustee of the Yacimientos Carboníferos Río Turbio (YCRT) coal mine in Santa Cruz, has been fired on suspicion of fishing for bribes from an Israeli company, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni informed his daily press conference last Tuesday, describing it as a personal decision of President Javier Milei to ensure ”absolute transparency.” The Israeli company TEGI Limited had expressed interest in purchasing 300,000 tons of coal but two brokers intervened on behalf of YCRT, hinting at ways in which the purchase could be speeded.
MINISTER CAPUTO’S MUNICIPAL CRACKDOWN
Economy Minister Luis Caputo on Tuesday banned town halls from including municipal taxes in public service billing as part of his drive to hold down prices. There was immediate pushback from several Greater Buenos Aires mayors while legal experts called it a “grossly unconstitutional” violation of federalism.
FRANCOS STRESSED OUT?
Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos, 74, was taken to hospital last weekend with gastro-intestinal problems after an episode of lipotimia causing him to pass out but was already reported to be "recovered, lucid and stable" on Monday. At press time it was unclear whether he would already be returning to work at the end of this week or at the start of next week.
HELPLESS IN GAZA
Argentine-born Israeli citizens Luis Har, 71, and Clara Marman last Tuesday told Congress a harrowing tale of their captivity in the hands of Hamas following the mass terrorist attack on Israel last October 7. Har spent 129 days as a Hamas hostage in Gaza until rescued by Israeli forces together with his brother-in-law Fernando Marman. By then the sisters Clara and Gabriela Marman and the latter’s daughter Mía had already been released during a ceasefire on November 28 among other women and children. Har had earlier described his rescue as "crazy all around, [shots] in every direction … [The soldiers] protected us with their bodies. They simply ducked our heads down and threw themselves on top of us because it was crazy … I haven’t seen anything like it even in films."
FIRMENICH BACKS DOWN
Former Montonero leader Mario Firmenich, 76, has cancelled his courses for "young militants" to identify the factors leading to the formation of his guerrilla organisation as a political alternative in the current scenario, following criticisms by leading government figures such as Vice-President Victoria Villarruel (who wants all exMontoneros placed on trial) and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, A series of chats as from September 5 had been organised by Encuentro Patriótico, headed by former Quebracho leader Fernando Esteche, in which Firmienich would talk about the Peronist resistance and the Montoneros. Last Monday the lawyer Francisco Oneto accused the ex-Montonero of "treason" and "rebellion."
VILLARRUEL LASHES OUT
Vice-President Victoria Villarruel stayed in the news last week by reflecting last Monday on “the damage radical feminism has done to society,” further claiming that seven percent of the denunciations of gender violence are false. At a more institutional level on the same day, she decreed a system of thumbprints to register presence for work in the Senate and counter absenteeism. The move comes a few days after libertarían Senator Bartolomé Abdala admitted that at least 15 of his 24 advisors were never in the Senate since they were in San Luis working on his future gubernatorial campaign.
MADRE OF PLAZA DE MAYO DIES
Herenia Sánchez de Viamonte, a La Plata history teacher and one of the first Madres de Plaza de Mayo, died last Sunday at the age of 97. Her militancy dated from October 27, 1977 when her son Santiago, his wife and two rugby teammates were abducted, never to be seen again, leaving the grandmother to look after two little girls aged three and two. She was named an illustrious citizen of the Buenos Aires provincial capital in 2022 for "her distinguished track record in the sphere of human rights." Ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof were among those paying tribute to her memory.
DIPLOMATIC FRICTION
The Foreign Ministry headed by Diana Mondino continued to be conflict-ridden last week over the application of income tax to diplomatic pay with the minister unable to find a solution. The greatest discontent is coming from the diplomats posted abroad who have to pay overseas prices but the insistent protests continue at home with an assembly called last Wednesday to define possible strike action. Diplomats in Europe and North America are complaining that just renting their flats is absorbing 50-70 percent of their salaries. Foreign Ministry staff have filed an injunction with judge Martín Cormick.
RULES OF WAR PLEA
Former Army officer Carlos Malatto, 74, on trial at a criminal court in Rome for the murder and disappearance of eight opponents of the 1976-83 military dictatorship, requested an Italian court-martial last Monday on the grounds that he was always acting as a simple soldier against "terrorist" organisations. The prosecution turned his request down since his crimes were considered to be political, not military, but after the hearing, he was released pending a decision on a possible trial on November 4. Among the eight people he is accused of having "abducted, tortured and murdered" were Juan Carlos Cámpora, member of a Peronist presidential family, and Franco-Argentine Marie-Anne Erize, who disappeared in San Juan in October, 1976.
MEXICO DEFENDS ARGENTINE CINEMA
A Mexican film festival in Guadalajara last weekend awarding its Ariel Prize for the best Ibero-American film to Spain’s "La sociedad de la nieve" (the survival story of the Uruguayan rugby team crashing in the Andes in 1972) also found time to include support for Argentine film-makers “suffering the onslaught of government policies placing in doubt the viability of an emblematic cinematography leading the way in Ibero-American cinema,” in the words of Armando Casas, president of the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinema.
REWARD FOR PAEDOPHILE ARREST
The Misiones provincial government has paid out a reward of five million pesos to the Corrientes citizen whose information led to the arrest of paedophile provincial deputy Germán Kizcka.
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
After routing Chile 3-0 on September 5, Argentina lost its World Cup qualifier 2-1 away to Colombia in Barranquilla on Tuesday with the match being decided by a soft penalty adding to the frustration. The ACORD Association of Colombian Sports Journalists lodged a complaint against Argentine goalie Emiliano Martínez for hitting out at a camera, calling it "an attack on the freedom of expression" and calling for sanctions.
Comments