News of poverty

COPING WITH THE PANDEMIC

Slum priests, jack-of-all-trades in Buenos Aires’ villas

Yesterdat 09:59 Local church leaders take on all tasks, as they help to keep residents and their communities afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

CRISIS AHEAD?

Debt deal sealed, but Argentina’s economic woes remain

Yesterdat 09:36 Experts say deal with bondholders ‘takes pressure off’ the government, but warn renegotiating terms of US$44-billion loan with IMF is now the urgent concern.

EDITORIAL

Debt deal – more relief than belief

Yesterdat 09:22 The quality of this haircut falling on interest rates way above recent levels rather than capital deserves praise, as does abandonment of the absurd three-year grace period exempting this administration from any payment.

COPING WITH THE PANDEMIC

Pandemic exacerbates challenges facing Argentina’s disabled community

Yesterdat 08:54 For those living with disabilities, the virus crisis has posed a unique threat to their ability to access basic healthcare, education and to their own individual autonomy.

by Jennifer Heiman

DEBT, DEFAULT. DEAL

Goodbye default my old friend

Yesterdat 08:44 The ultimate question is if this agreement will spare Argentina the ordeal of holdout bondholders – Guzmán will have conjured a miracle if there are none to worry about once this deal is done.

by Martín Gambarotta

INTERVIEW / PERIODISMO PURO

Sabina Frederic: ‘Security means protecting people, not repression’

Yesterdat 08:37 During almost eight months leading the Security Ministry, social anthropologist and university professor Sabina Frederic has found herself under criticism from both Sergio Berni and Horacio Verbitsky. In a feature-length interview, she discusses those debates, Sergio Maldonado, Facundo Castro and why mediation should be prioritised over the violent use of force.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

Coronavirus Pandemic

Once-bustling La Boca struggles without tourists

23-07-2020 02:00 Legendary neighborhood, normally filled to the brim with tourists and shops, now appears deserted due to quarantine and travel regulations. Shopkeepers and residents struggle to cope with economic contraction and loneliness.

CORONANOMICS

Deeper, harder, slower: Analysts forecast Argentina’s worst economic crisis since 2001

18-07-2020 09:37 Argentina’s GDP likely to slump by as much as 15 percent this year, experts warn, with economic activity only returning to pre-quarantine levels in December – if there is no increase in coronavirus cases.

by Mirta Fernandez

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Dr. Maureen Birmingham: ‘This is an opportunity to transform Argentina’s health system’

18-07-2020 09:29 The World Health Organisation and Pan American Health Organisation’s representative in Argentina explains how the UN agency is providing support to officials and what post-pandemic changes need to be made to the health system.

by Jennifer Heiman & Anina Hoffman

PERIODISMO PURO / INTERVIEW

Hernán Lacunza: ‘We can’t reset the economy every four years, as we’ve been doing since 1945’

18-07-2020 08:30 Former finance minister Hernán Lacunza on Argentina’s debt restructuring efforts, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, inflation and more.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

THE WEEK

What we learned this week: July 4 to July 11

11-07-2020 08:39 Stories that caught our eye over the past seven days in Argentina.

EDITORIAL

Apocalypse now

11-07-2020 08:27 Quarantine saves thousands of lives but lockdown spells meltdown – both these truths are irrefutable and yet completely in conflict despite the efforts to present this as a false dilemma.

EDITORIAL

100 days

27-06-2020 08:46 Behind closed frontiers in most cases with the nation state in full revival, each government lurches into its own response in a global patchwork of quarantine strategies amid total uncertainty.

PERIODISMO PURO / INTERVIEW

Jeffrey Sachs: ‘This is not a game for BlackRock to get an extra percentage point – that's absurd’

27-06-2020 08:29 US economist and public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs on Argentina’s debt restructuring talks, the Macri administration’s missteps and the fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

UN: Argentina could lose 850,000 jobs in 2020 amid virus crisis

27-06-2020 07:59 Child poverty in Argentina could reach 58% by the end of the year, warns United Nations in new report.

by Lorena Rodríguez

100 DAYS OF QUARANTINE

100 days of quarantine

27-06-2020 07:48 On March 20, President Alberto Fernández told the nation in a televised address that all citizens would enter a mandatory quarantine period in an effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Though restrictions in some regions have now been loosened, many Argentines are today waking up this morning to their 100th day of lockdown. Here’s a look back at how the pandemic has changed our lives.

by Michael Soltys

FOOTBALL IN ARGENTINA

Pandemic puts dreams of poor young footballers on hold

20-06-2020 11:43 Football has now been cancelled for more than 80 days now with no restart in sight, cutting off thousands of young players in Argentina’s poorest barrios from what many felt was their only shot at a better life.

CONGRESS

Cafiero faces flurry of questions in Congress début

20-06-2020 10:44 Cabinet chief defends move to nationalise Vicentin, says pensions have improved in real terms.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Fernández TV

20-06-2020 09:02 Time will tell if the delays with the Vicentin and wealth tax bills are a deliberate strategy by the president to buffer the complaints by the lobbies who have historically clashed with Kirchnerismo.

by Martín Gambarotta

Coronavirus pandemic

Virus deepens economic crisis as poverty soars

13-06-2020 08:58 Number of Argentines receiving food aid since crisis began has gone from 8 million to 11 million, according to officials.

POLITICS & THE PANDEMIC

Lockdown: complainers will complain

30-05-2020 09:16 The debt drama will escalate if the talks fail to make progress and some bondholders decide to accelerate the situation, which could see them eventually taking the republic to court in the middle of a pandemic that is crippling for the economy.

by Martín Gambarotta

Global pandemic

Disease that began among rich shifts to Latin America's poor

29-05-2020 13:04 The virus, initially brought to the region largely by wealthy citizens or visitors coming from Europe and the United States, is now increasingly concentrated in poorer neighbourhoods, where residents have few means of protecting themselves.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Pandemic intensifies isolation of Huarpe children in Mendoza

16-05-2020 09:27 The Huarpe, numbering little over 1,000 and scattered across 11 communities, live in a remote part of Mendoza Province. For them, social distancing – the only known preventive weapon against coronavirus – is the almost the norm.

Coronavirus pandemic

Infections spike in poverty-stricken Villa 31, worrying authorities

14-05-2020 15:55 Villa 31, one of Buenos Aires' poorest and most densely populated barrios, has shown a spike in the number of Covid-19 infections, worrying authorities hoping to ease the capital's two-month lockdown later this month.

DIEGO DONATES

Maradona autographs shirt to help poor during pandemic

09-05-2020 09:07 Maradona's signed jersey, which reads – “With all my heart and we are all going to get over this” – will be raffled among those who donate food for people at a working class neighbourhood called René Favaloro in José C. Paz.

WEEK IN REVIEW

May 2-May 9: What we learned this week

02-05-2020 09:44 Key stories from the last seven days in Argentina that caught our eyes

Coronavirus Pandemic

City officials: 124 Covid-19 cases confirmed in Buenos Aires' villas

01-05-2020 16:53 Villa 31 de Retiro has the most cases of Covid-19 out of all the City's shantytowns, with 57 infections confirmed. Villa 1-11-14 follows with 48 cases. City government says it has plans to mitigate social circulation of the virus.

Coronavirus Pandemic

Pandemic upends lives of Latin America's domestic servants

28-04-2020 12:34 The coronavirus pandemic in Latin America has hit domestic workers particularly hard, often leaving maids without income or forcing them to be stranded at the homes of their employers.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

UNICEF warns of pandemic’s impact on Argentina’s youngest

25-04-2020 10:19 New survey by UN agency reveals that 59% of households have reported a loss in income thanks to pandemic and nationwide lockdown, though 96.2% agree quarantine measures are necessary.

by Valen Iricibar

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Poverty will likely climb to 45% as result of lockdown, says UCA

24-04-2020 00:44 Agustín Salvia, director of UCA’s influential Social Debt Observatory, says poverty rate in the first quarter of the year will likely rise to around 45% amid coronavirus pandemic.

TWO HOURS WITH THE PRESIDENT

Alberto Fernández: ‘Every time I speak, I’m saying the truth – I don’t lie’

18-04-2020 08:14 In a feature-length interview, Argentina's president addresses the coronavirus pandemic and opens up about his private life and relationship with both Peronism and Radicalism, explaining why he is more a child of hippie culture than Peronist doctrine.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

Survival during quarantine

Desperate hunt for food by Peru's poor amid virus quarantine

08-04-2020 07:21 Pandemic has spotlighted the wide gap between rich and poor in Peru. Economists say a looming recession worse than any since World War II could push the continent's long-suffering poor into even more dire circumstances.

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Living on the streets during a nationwide lockdown

04-04-2020 11:48 Most Argentines are staying home, but some have nowhere to go. For the homeless of Buenos Aires during the coronavirus pandemic, this is a very different version of isolation.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

35.5% of Argentines were living in poverty at end of 2019, says INDEC

01-04-2020 23:01 Some 16 million people were considered to be living below the poverty line at the end of 2019, according to official data published Tuesday.

POVERTY IN THE PANDEMIC

Argentina’s poorest faces up to challenges amid shutdown

28-03-2020 10:57 Low-income neighbourhoods are organising themselves against Covid-19, with social organisations playing a key role for those on the breadline.

GUEST VOICE

This is much more than just a health pandemic

28-03-2020 08:47 We are facing not only a health epidemic but a new wave of structural poverty which especially hits the daily lives of the most vulnerable.

by Agustín Salvia

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

Unemployment rate dropped to 8.9% in last quarter of 2019

27-03-2020 00:01 Argentina's unemployment rate fell in the fourth quarter of 2019, the INDEC national statistics bureau revealed Thursday, adding that underemployment rose.

Coronavirus pandemic

Rio's favelas prepare for the worst amid coronavirus fears

23-03-2020 15:26 The usual guidelines for how to protect oneself from the coronavirus – "social distancing" and "barrier gestures" – are difficult to apply in Rio de Janeiro's teeming favelas.

Environment

'Green favela' fights to live sustainably in Brazil

10-03-2020 21:40 On the outskirts of São Paulo, a concrete jungle of 12 million people, the impoverished community of Vila Nova Esperanca is fighting to be a model of sustainable living.

EDITORIAL

Bridging the distance

15-02-2020 10:53 A major actor compounding the appalling neglect suffered by the Wichi indigenous population is the 1,500 kilometres separating them from the corridors of power in an overcentralised country.

POVERTY & HUNGER

Argentina’s double trouble: reducing poverty and debt

06-02-2020 16:42 President Alberto Fernández launches food coupons as a temporary solution to reduce poverty and hunger among vulnerable populations in Argentina.

ALBERTO IN EUROPE

Fernández and Francis try to steer clear of abortion issue

01-02-2020 09:12 Poverty and debt on agenda as president and the pontiff meet at Vatican – but mixed messages emerge over discussions over abortion reform.

by Joseph Charney

2019 IN REVIEW

How the economic crisis came to define 2019

28-12-2019 08:52 As the year draws to a close, Argentina’s economy is in “virtual default,” according to President Alberto Fernández, who has compared the current crisis to the country’s worst-ever in 2001.

NEW ERA IN ARGENTINA

Fernández administration to send recovery package to Congress

16-12-2019 15:21 Legislative package includes, among other measures, a 30 percent surcharge on 'tourist dollar,' increased taxes on exports and plans to make healthcare more accessible and affordable, according to government.

NEW PRESIDENT

Alberto Fernández’s five biggest economic challenges

12-12-2019 08:16 President-elect took power on December 10 facing a challenging economic and social crisis, with a deep recession and runaway inflation.

Transition 2019

Economic crisis looms large as Alberto Fernández assumes office

09-12-2019 17:37 Against a backdrop of near-economic disaster, president-elect's biggest challenges will be leading the country out of recession – and navigating his coalition government.

Transition of Power

Macri and Fernández embrace as Mass as Church calls for unity

09-12-2019 12:47 Church leader calls for "respect, unity and peace" as outgoing and incoming leaders attend Mass at Basilica of Our Lady of Luján,

Poverty

New UCA report puts Argentina's poverty level at 40.8%

06-12-2019 15:06 Some 16 million Argentines now below the poverty line, with 3.6 million living in extreme poverty, reports UCA's Observatorio de la Deuda Social.

NATIONAL STATISTICS BUREAU

Jorge Todesca: 'INDEC's independence was a firm commitment by Macri'

05-12-2019 08:00 Outgoing INDEC chief discusses the changes at the national statistics bureau under his term, his replacement Marco Lavagna and his relationship with his daugther Cecilia – who is an economic advisor to president-elect Alberto Fernández.

by Patricia Valli

POVERTY AND INEQUALITY

Latin America’s poverty trap

30-11-2019 08:44 The real problem is that poverty is on the rise once again, and it’s not just the fault of President Mauricio Macri’s disastrous management of the economy.

by Agustino Fontevecchia