MILEI DEFINES YEAR
Just before last weekend President Javier Milei signed a decree declaring 2025 to be the “Year of the Reconstruction of the Argentine Nation” and concluding: “May God bless the Argentines and may the Forces of Heaven accompany us.” Last year had been designated “the defence of life, liberty and property.” Previous themes since the bicentenary of Argentine independence in 2016 had been renewable energy (2017), the centenary of university reform (2018), exports (2019), General Manuel Belgrano in the 250th anniversary of his birth and bicentenary of his death (2020), the Nobel Prize for Medicine winner Dr César Milstein (2021), Malvinas sovereignty (2022) and science and technology (2023). In less statesmanlike mode, Milei again lashed out at his Vice-President Victoria Villarruel in a Wednesday interview, describing her complaints about her salary as being “out of line” with the government and “unforced errors.” On Thursday the government issued Decree 17/2025 published in the Official Gazette to authorise Milei’s absence from the country between January 17 and 24 to attend the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump in the United States and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
FOREIGN DEBT HONOURED
Last Thursday the government was as good as its word in making this year’s first significant foreign debt repayment of US$4.34 billion on bonds issued in 2020 by then-economy minister Martín Guzmán, both capital and interest, a signal to the markets which kept country risk on its recent downward path despite the dip in Central Bank reserves from US$32.904 to US$31.176 billion with net reserves approximately US$6 billion in the red. “DEBTS MUST BE PAID. VIVA LA LIBERTAD CARAJO!” tweeted President Javier Milei to celebrate the event. The announcement of a REPO (repurchase agreement) credit of US$1 billion defined with five banks on January 3 kept markets bullish. In the remainder of the year the government will have to repay some US$18.5 billion, of which approximately a third is owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with whom an agreement is expected in the first half of this year.
MADURO’S RIVAL HOSTED
President Javier Milei received Edmundo González Urrutia in the Casa Rosada last weekend, again recognising him as Venezuela’s president-elect, despite Nicolás Maduro’s claims to have secured re-election in last July’s election widely denounced as fraudulent. Their meeting ended with both men stepping out onto a balcony to be greeted by an unusually packed Plaza de Mayo (mostly Venezuelans). González Urrutia repeated vows to end an international tour by going to Caracas for yesterday’s inauguration and claiming the presidency himself. The visit came at a time of extreme tension with Venezuela due to last month’s arrest of Border Guard corporal Nahuel Gallo. Last Monday Maduro said that he had proof that Gallo (previously accused of espionage) had entered the country in order to assassinate his Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez – though he didn’t show any.
CHAINSAW ON PAUSE
Ahead of last weekend the government finally decided to renew the contracts of some 40,000 state employees for the next three months after 95 percent of the 14,000 taking a “suitability exam” had passed it. In the last Official Gazette of 2024, President Javier Milei and Deregulation & State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger signed Decrees 1148 and 1149 freezing the state payroll by ruling that “the national public sector may not appoint nor contract staff of any nature.” Any exception to this rule will have to be accompanied by three employees being retired or fired if not resigning.
INFANTICIDE TRIAL
The trial into the deaths of five new-born babies at the Hospital Materno Neonatal in Córdoba began last Monday. There are a total of 11 defendants in the dock, including 29-year-old former nurse Brenda Agüero, who was responsible for vaccinating the babies and is accused of injecting potassium into them, together with the former hospital director and senior provincial health officials. The case stems from 13 healthy births coming down with hyperkalemia between March and June, 2022, of whom five died and eight survived. The trial is expected to last until at least mid-June.
NOT ON SPEAKING TERMS
City judge Christian Brandoni Nonell last Monday forbade Fabiola Yáñez any contact with her former partner ex-president Alberto Fernández (who has long been banned from any communication with her) for the next 90 days unless strictly linked to their two-year-old son Francisco after Fernández complained of harassment. The ex-president is summoned to testify to Federal Judge Julián Ercolini regarding the gender violence charges lodged against him by his former partner next February 4 although several summonses were postponed last year. In a counter-offensive Fernández has also claimed custody over Francisco, demanding his immediate return from Spain to Argentina with the argument that his mother placed him “at risk” due to her alleged alcoholism. Meanwhile, Yáñez has renounced the bodyguards due to her as a former first lady under government pressure and following hostile coverage of her lavish New Year’s Day dinner.
DISMANTLING RIGHTS
City Unión por la Patria legislator Victoria Montenegro (the daughter of people who went missing during the 1976-983 military dictatorship and whose identity was recovered by the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo) has denounced Human Rights Secretary Alberto Baños and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona for “dismantling” the former’s department and placing memory sites at risk via mass dismissals, charging them with abuse of authority and malfeasance. Montenegro insisted that human rights are consecrated by the National Constitution. The year began with the closures of the Haroldo Conti Cultural Centre and the National Memory Archive at the Memory Museum (formerly the ESMA Navy Mechanics School concentration camp during the dictatorship), sparking protests.
MAIDEN RIGI PROJECT
The government last Wednesday officially approved the first project under the RIGI (Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones) major investment incentive scheme with a stake of US$211.6 million (barely over the minimum). The “Parque Solar El Quemado y Anexos” photovoltaic plant with a total installed capacity of 305 megawatts will be developed in the province of Mendoza by the company Luz del Campo SA.
MAIDEN PRIVATISATION
The government last Wednesday authorised the sale of the shares owned by the national and Mendoza provincial governments in the steel company IMPSA SA to the IAF consortium, whose leading partner ARC Energy is based in the United States. IAF offered US$27 million, the only offer made during a long privatisation process, while asking until the end of the month to refinance the debt of US$576 million owed to IMPSA’s creditors. IMPSA, which manufactures turbines, cranes and reactors, was founded by the Pescarmona family in 1907 but started running into trouble around a decade ago when they found it hard to compete with Brazilian rivals for overseas contracts.
LANATA SAVED CONAN?!?!
President Javier Milei last Wednesday broke nine days of silence on the death of iconic journalist Jorge Lanata to explain in an interview that he had held back on any public message because he feared that whatever he said, it was bound to be manipulated politically. Admitting to differences with Lanata (who was suing him at the time of his death), he nevertheless praised him as a showman before going on to say that the journalist had saved his beloved mastiff Conan’s life because Milei went home one Sunday evening to watch Lanata’s television show, only for his apartment building to burst into flames, insisting that if he had not returned home for Lanata, Conan would have been trapped.
MACRI INHERITANCE SPAT
Alejandra Macri, a sister of ex-president Mauricio Macri, has gone to court to press for a share of a list of an alleged 398 companies (many unknown until now, including some located in offshore tax havens and named in the Panama Papers) belonging to the Macri family. Alejandra Macri is the daughter of María Esther De Menech, a former receptionist of Franco Macri, winning a paternity suit against the latter in 2005 although never recognised by the family. She nevertheless claims to be an heiress of the family patriarch, who died in March 2019 with his recognised children reportedly receiving two-thirds of their inheritance in advance. Mauricio Macri had no comment.
SAD STORY
The deputy Juliana Santillán (La Libertad Avanza-Buenos Aires Province) has been denounced with a criminal lawsuit for “abuse of authority and malfeasance” by the Coalición Cívica City legislator Facundo Del Gaiso for lobbying on behalf of the SAD (Sociedades Anónimas Deportivas) model of private capital investment into football embraced by President Javier Milei. Santillán was accused of pulling weight in urging a director of the Club Social y Deportivo Bancruz to adopt this model, citing the efforts of Estudiantes de La Plata president Juan Sebastián Verón to modernise in that direction.
