UK POP STAR’S FATAL FALL
Pop fans worldwide were stunned by the death of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, 31, after falling from the third-storey balcony of a Palermo Hollywood boutique hotel on Wednesday afternoon. A preliminary autopsy identified the cause of death as a crushed skull and “internal and external haemorrhage” following a bad landing from a 10-metre fall but the reasons for the accident were less clear. Hotel guests reported seeing him behaving “aggressively” under the apparent effects of alcohol and drugs so the fall was presumably due to a loss of self-control or suicide, which has not beenruled out since the fading star had been suffering from depression. In his deplorably disordered hotel room (including a smashed television) police found a suspicious white powder, half-empty champagne glasses (some reports added whisky bottles) and uppers and downers, among other things.
UNRULY UNIVERSITIES
Treasury Prosecutor Rodolfo Barra last Tuesday confirmed SIGEN comptrollers as the auditor of national universities, thus overturning a 2022 resolution by his predecessor Carlos Zannini, at a time when several dozen faculties nationwide were being overrun by their students. Until then only the Auditor-General’s office, headed by Juan Manuel Olmos (deputy Cabinet chief for the Alberto Fernández presidency), had been so qualified. The libertarian administration headed by President Javier Milei has constantly denounced the lack of transparency in university accounts. While the first half of the week was marked by faculty occupations to protest Congress upholding the presidential veto of the bill to increase university spending, the unions of both lecturers and non-academic staff called a strike for last Thursday to join that protest (throwing in the SIGEN intervention for good measure) and to press for collective bargaining recognising their “grave pay situation” while promising a turbulent week as from next Monday as well as a new federal march in a very near future.
GOOD NEWS…
The economic team was celebrating last weekend after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced a partial cut in the surcharges levied on highly indebted countries like Argentina. In the past such relief had been opposed by the United States and other G7 countries but they have relented now that it is needed by Ukraine doing battle with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Argentina now stands to save US$3.2 billion with a reduction of 29.1 percent of the surcharge on the US$44-billion contracted by the Mauricio Macri presidency after the IMF approved reducing its basic interest rates from 100 points to 60 and its surcharge rate from 100 points to 75 as from November 1. Economy Minister Luis Caputo thanked IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, saying: “This is very important for many countries like ours whose people is making a huge effort to emerge.”
…AND BAD NEWS
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom last Tuesday knocked back an appeal by Argentina against a British high court ruling condemning it to pay bondholders 1.33 billion euros plus interest for statistical legerdemain. The beneficiaries of this ruling can now cash in the guarantee of 313 million euros deposited by Argentina last March. The case originated in lawsuits lodged by four investment funds whose growth-linked bonds acquired in the 2005 bond swap entitled them to a bonus every time annual growth topped 3.3 percent but in 2013 the Kirchnerite government (with current Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof then heading the Economy Ministry) changed its methods of calculation so that year’s growth dropped to 3.2 percent in its last quarter.
DOC IN THE DOCK
The City Federal Appeals Court last Thursday confirmed the trial of former Health Minister Ginés González García in the so-called ‘VIP vaccination’ case (which consisted of queue-jumping for vaccines against Covid-19 organised for friends of the Frente de Todos government during the 2020-22 coronavirus pandemic), slapping a lien of 20 million pesos on his assets.
LIBERTY ADVANCES ON DEREGULATION
The government last Monday sent to Congress the deregulatory ‘Ley Hojarasca’ bill seeking to eliminate some 70 obsolete laws that limit civic liberties and property rights. Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger, the mastermind of the bill, pointed out that many of these laws were the work of military governments (including a law of the Alejandro Lanusse presidency dictating what kind of music Argentines should be hearing) although several were also Peronist in origin, such as a 1975 law obliging radio and television media to dedicate at least one hour daily to promoting national tourism.
EXPRESS DIVORCE ON WAY?
The government last Monday presented to Congress a bill permitting divorce by mutual consent to be settled administratively at a civil registry rather than judicially, thus saving time and money (especially the fees of lawyers) within a cumbersome legal system which such cases further burden. The Justice Ministry headed by Mariano Cúneo Libarona listed Brazil, Portugal, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Norway, Italy, Romania, Estonia, Latvia and Japan among the countries permitting administrative divorce or via notary. The text of the Ministry’s bill also defended the institution of divorce by arguing that it was “dysfunctional families and not divorce per se which had a negative effect on children.”
MILEI WELCOMES BOJO
President Javier Milei last Monday afternoon received Boris Johnson, Britain’s controversial Conservative prime minister between 2019 and 2022 and here to promote his recently published memoirs Unleashed, in the Casa Rosada. Thursday found BoJo already in Chile. Johnson was not only obliged to leave Downing Street in 2022 due to pandemic ‘Partygate’ among other factors but was also forced to vacate his Uxbridge seat more than a year before last July’s general elections for having deliberately lied to Parliament.
VEEP MEETS PONTIFF
Vice-President Victoria Villarruel visited Pope Francis in the Vatican last Monday for an hour-long audience during which the Supreme Pontífice urged her “not to back down and not to lose her common sense,” to which the veep, very traditionally clad in black complete with veil, responded: “I pray for you but you pray for me.” Her entourage described the encounter as positive. On Thursday – coinciding with Peroinst Loyalty Day – she met with former president Isabel Perón in Madrid, seeking the “reinvindication” of her figure.
TEAMING UP AGAINST DRUGS
The Foreign Ministry last Tuesday hosted a high-level event within the framework of co-operation between Argentina and the United States against drug-trafficking and more specifically the synthetic varieties and the misuse of chemical precursors with the support of UNODOC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). Foreign Minister Diana Mondino was joined by fellow-Ministers Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice), Mario Lugones (Health) and Patricia Bullrich (Security) together with Attorney-General Eduardo Casal with US Ambassador Marc Stanley accompanying the visitors, Todd Robinson, the Assistant Secretary of State of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) and UNODC’s regional representative for the Andes and the Southern Cone, Candice Welsch. A workshop followed on Wednesday and Thursday, aimed at officials from the security forces. Since March, 2023, UNODC has trained over 1,500 federal and provincial officials to fight narcos.
PRO DEPUTY DIES
Deputy Héctor ‘Tito’ Stefani (PRO-Tierra del Fuego) succumbed to cancer at the age of 64 last weekend on the anniversary of the foundation of his home city of Ushuaia, the provincial capital. A political scientist, he was serving his first term in Congress, having won his seat in the 2021 midterms. Provincial Governor Gustavo Melella and various PRO colleagues all paid tribute to his memory.
COLUMBUS DAY REBRANDED
Columbus Day last Saturday saw the government mark the occasion with a video reverting to the old and politically incorrect designation of "Día de la Raza" from "Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural" (as it has been officially called since 2010 in recognition of indigenous peoples). The video also described "the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas as a milestone marking … a new era of progress and civilisation in the New World."
MALVINAS MISSING FROM MAP
A map for the guidance of investors attracted by the RIGI major investment incentive scheme showed all 23 provinces colour-coded various shades of red and green according to their degree of adhesion but omitted the Malvinas, drawing the vehement protests of former Foreign ministers Felipe Solá and Santiago Cafiero. Strategic Affairs Secretary José Luis Vila was quick to admit that the "grave error … would be investigated," quickly correcting it electronically.
FOOTBALL STARS
A Ruby Tuesday for Argentine football with the table-topping national soccer squad thrashing Bolivia 6-0 in a 2026 World Cup qualifier home win featuring a Lionel Messi hat-trick (his third in that category), Fernando Gago being finally presented as the new coach of Boca Juniors after weeks of speculation but Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia also being denied re-election as AFA Argentine Football Association when the AFA Ordinary General Assembly scheduled for Thursday was suspended by the Inspección General de Justicia (IGJ) judicial watchdogs. This decision at the behest of Talleres de Córdoba president Andrés Fassi also frustrates Tapia’s plans to nix relegation and revert to a 30-team First Division. Until then Tapia was the only candidate in an election brought ahead from next year after the AFA Disciplinary Tribunal suspended Fassi for two years. AFA immediately appealed the IGJ ruling but time was short between Tuesday and Thursday – at press time, the next step had yet to be confirmed.
