DELUGE IN BAHÍA BLANCA
A record storm starting early on March 7 with a downpour of almost 300 millimetres before noon left behind scenes of desolation in the port city of Bahía Blanca in southeast Buenos Aires Province with around 20 people dead or missing, dozens more yet to be located and hundreds homeless. The national and provincial governments briefly put their feuding on hold with both announcing three days of mourning. Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof rushed to the spot on the day, national ministers Patricia Bullrich (Security) and Luis Petri (Defence) the next day and President Javier Milei early on Wednesday – the latter three were all abused by local residents during their trips. Last Tuesday, Killicof demanded that some of the remittances from the upcoming agreement with the International Monetary Fund be earmarked for victims of the Bahía Blanca storm. The floodwaters receded in most of the city in the course of the weekend but the situation remained serious in outlying districts like Ingeniero White and Cerri. School classes were suspended all week. The national government earmarked 10 billion pesos for immediate relief, followed by a further 184 billion, but the city’s Peronist mayor Federico Susbielles estimated the cost of reconstruction at closer to 400 billion pesos. Churches, clubs and NGOs all started collecting donations for the relief of Bahía Blanca with a train of 12 wagons loaded with food, drinking water, clothing, mattresses etc. for the flood victims heading south on Monday night. From his Vatican hospital bed an ailing Pope Francis deplored the disaster last Monday, adding: “May the Lord console them.”
MAYHEM OUTSIDE AND INSIDE CONGRESS
The pension protest march outside Congress repeated every midweek was joined last Wednesday by football clubs (reportedly including hooligans) and leftist and Kirchnerite militants, who engaged in violent confrontations with the numerous policemen and Border Guards deployed, leading to the arrest of over 150 demonstrators although 94 were soon released while remaining indicted. Two demonstrators were injured (one, the press photographer Pablo Grillo whom Security Minister Patricia Bullrich described as “a Kirchnerite militant under arrest,” in extremely critical condition with head injuries), as were 20 policemen with five hospitalised. Demonstrators torched a police car and incessantly stoned the security forces. Bullrich had already said on Monday that she would be taking “special measures” in anticipation of a hooligan presence. Not much calmer inside the building – not only clashes between Kirchnerite and libertarian deputies with Máximo Kirchner yelling at Speaker Martín Menem but even among ruling party parliamentarians with Oscar Zago and Lisandro Almirón squaring off, as did Marcela Pagano and Liliana Lemoine with their party colleague Rocio Bonacci tossing a glass of water at the latter. Yet these spats were not so much related to the events outside Congress as to the Kirchnerite drive to impeach President Javier Milei over the cryptocurrency scandal.
MYSTERY SUITCASES
The deputy Maximiliano Ferraro (City-Coalición Cívica) last Tuesday demanded access to public information to clarify whether one Laura Belén Arreta (age 32). coming hot from a CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) event in the United States, had skipped Customs control of as many as 15 suitcases on the orders of President Javier Milei, as denounced the previous evening by the journalist Carlos Pagni in his Odisea Argentina programme. In response the government released details of the woman’s private flight from Miami, which continued days later to Paris via Tenerife, insisting that the routine controls had been carried out. It also denied reports that “many suitcases” had been inside the plane.
INVITING MORE FUNDING
With no advance reported on the International Monetary Fund side, President Javier Milei last Tuesday signed DNU emergency decree 179/2025 to establish a new Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme with the IMF. The forthcoming money will centre on cancelling part of the Treasury’s debt to the Central Bank and repaying IMF remittances from the 2022 EFF agreement. Central Bank reserves have risen over US$7 billion under the Javier Milei administration after inheriting negative net reserves of US$11.2 billion, the decree noted, but the latter remain in the red. According to Article 1 of the decree, the upcoming credit will be repaid over the next 10 years with a 54-month grace period. The aim of the incoming funds is not only to stabilise the economy but to ease access to international credit markets by bringing down country risk and to reduce progressively the ‘cepo’ currency and capital controls while maintaining a policy of zero fiscal deficit. No figure for the sum expected from the IMF (where estimates range from US$5 billion to US$20 billion) nor any other hard figures are forthcoming in order to disarm speculation.
INFLATION DIPS IN CITY
Last month’s inflation was 2.1 percent, City Hall statisticians announced on Wednesday, or an annual rate of 79.4 percent. Housing and utility bills (3.1 percent) and the key ítem of food and beverages with meat on the rise (2.5 percent) were the main culprits.
CRYPTOGATE SIMMERS ON
While federal judges María Servini de Cubría and San Isidro’s Sandra Arroyo Salgado are disputing jurisdiction over the so-called ‘Cryptogate’ scandal with the opposition in Congress divided between whether it warrants impeachment (the Peronists) or an investigative commission (moderates), prosecutor Eduardo Taiano had already ordered court raids on the houses of Mauricio Novelli (organiser of the Tech Forum last October where President Javier Milei was introduced to the creators of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency) and ex-official Sergio Morales even before last weekend. Cryptogate erupted just over a month ago when Milei used his social networks to help launch the ‘$LIBRA,’ which quickly shot up in value and then tanked. The scandal is also being investigated in the United States.
PRESS PUSHBACK
The Association of Foreign Correspondents in Argentina (ACERA in its Spanish acronym) last Monday issued a harsh communiqué listing the Javier Milei administration’s restrictions on freedom of the press ranging from the “mute” button announced by presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni to police brutality against reporters covering demonstrations. ACERA also rapped Milei for not offering a single press conference during 15 months in office and for being “extremely selective, according to the political criteria and arbitrary conditions imposed by the Presidency” in his contacts with foreign media (local journalists would say the same). The list also included the restrictions on press photographers covering the inauguration of ordinary Congress sessions and Milei’s state-of-the-nation speech at the start of the month, zero access to ministers and senior officials and the amendments restricting access to public information. More complaints were forthcoming from press groups after the violence at the pensioners protest.
SIDE BUDGET PADDED
A DNU emergency decree has expanded the budget of SIDE intelligence agency by 7.366 billion pesos – of which 1,625 billion will go towards reserve funds which may not be divulged for reasons of national security. A current expenditure increase of 6.344 billion pesos is projected while capital spending rises 1.022 billion pesos.
WE’RE CURIOUS (TAXMEN)
ARCA tax bureau announced last Wednesday that in the second half of the year they would start demanding more information from banks about credit and debit card purchases abroad, including CUIT (Clave Única de Identificación Tributaria) numbers and the total sum spent in both the foreign currency and pesos. Privacy watchdogs immediately voiced concerns.
MARADONA TRIAL STARTS
The trial of seven health professionals charged with criminal negligence in the late 2020 death of football idol Diego Maradona began last Tuesday with the prosecution showing gruesome photos of Maradona’s bloated corpse.
HONOURING WOMEN ON THEIR DAY?
The government marked International Women’s Day last Saturday with a two-minute video which was anything but feminist, blasting the gender policies of the previous Alberto Fernández administration for spending four trillion pesos annually or more than on the defence or security forces or on the judiciary and “reaffirming our frontal combat against woke ideology.” The video also found time for former first lady Fabiola Yáñez (who last year accused ex-president Fernández of gender violence) while Security Minister Patricia Bullrich boasted that the “homicides of women” had fallen 20 percent last year. That and the other figures in the video were disputed by fact-checkers. Last Saturday was also honoured by marches by feminist organisations.
