MILEI IN PARIS
Arriving in Paris for Argentina Week on Wednesday with a large delegation including 13 provincial governors, five ministers and numerous businessmen, President Javier Milei delivered his main speech to potential European investors on Thursday at OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) headquarters. Boasting of the macro-economic transformation achieved by his administration, he spoke of “a bazooka” of US$75 billion to ensure his re-election next year against any “coup-mongering,” thus making 2028 “the best year in history.” The previous Argentina Week in New York last March had yielded announced investments of over US$16 billion, he added. Milei also contended that “it is fallacious [to argue] that our model is destroying industry,” telling his listeners “to get ready for a miracle.” On his arrival last Wednesday, Milei was greeted by rallies both for and against him – the latter by Reporters Sans Frontières to protest his hostility to journalists and the former by French libertarians. Also from Paris last Wednesday Milei zoomed into the 62nd colloquium of IDEA in Mar del Plata, telling his business audience that they faced a choice next year between “a great country and a miserable country” and that his “chainsaw” would continue working.
LAND SALES REOPENED
The Supreme Court last Tuesday unanimously overturned the ruling declaring unconstitutional Article 154 of emergency decree DNU 70/23 repealing the Rural Land Law on the grounds that lower judicial instances lacked the legitimacy to define the Constitution. The ruling had been issued by La Plata federal judge Ernesto Krepak early in 2024 in response to a class action presented by the CECIM grouping of Malvinas war veterans on the grounds that territorial sovereignty prevented land sales to foreigners.
US $LIBRA CASE DEFUSED
A New York court last Thursday dismissed a class action presented by a group of investors considering themselves victims of a fraudulent rug pull with the launch and rapid collapse of the ‘$LIBRA’ crypto-currency, created by the Texan businessman Hayden Davis and promoted by President Javier Milei in February, 2025, resulting in a US$110-million profit for the former. The decision was adopted by Manhattan South District circuit judge Jennifer Rochon, who shut down the litigation after dismissing the main arguments of the plaintiffs in an 81-page ruling. Rochon found no evidence of any similar operations by Davis but the lawyers urged expanding the case to include other crypto-currencies such as $M3M3, $ENRON, $TRUST and $MELANIA with the documentation here also considered vague and inadequate by the judge, who also expressed doubts whether New York courts had jurisdiction over these cases. Despite the involvement of President Milei, his sister Karina and a couple of local businessmen mentioned in the case, no charges were presented against any Argentine while back home prosecutor Eduardo Taiano continues to sit on the case.
SEA LION UNDER FIRE
The government on Monday gave the United Kingdom a fortnight to submit to international arbitration in the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for its “illegal plundering of our resources via the Sea Lion [oil exploration] project,” also denouncing the British company THALES UK LIMITED for making illegal flights out of the disputed Malvinas islands to Punta Arenas in Chile. The Presidential Office also stated its “categorical rejection” of the 2013 referendum unilaterally held by the islanders as lacking international recognition and not altering the sovereignty issue in any way. Westminster took just two days, not two weeks to consider the Sea Lion ultimatum before rejecting it on Wednesday.
LLA SENATOR DIES
Senator Juan Carlos Pagotto (La Libertad Avanza-La Rioja) died at the age of 74 upon being found dead in his bed in the provincial capital early last Tuesday morning. Pagotto was one of the original septet of libertarian senators back in 2023, a caucus greatly boosted by last year’s midterms, thus making him one of its leading members. At the time of his death he was chairing the Senate Appointments Committee which was processing over 200 judicial appointments. Mendoza-born in 1952 and a Córdoba University law graduate in 1974, Pagotto nevertheless spent most of his life in La Rioja where he strongly identified with the Menem dynasty in both its Peronist and later phases.
IMF IN TOWN
The International Monetary Fund mission last week continued working on the third review of the ongoing Extended Fund Facility agreement with Argentina after arriving here on September 21. In that time the mission had to take on board some negative data such as rising poverty, industrial slump and the reduced purchasing power of wages. The mission headed by Joyce Wong was able to contact Economy Minister Luis Caputo soon after his return from accompanying President Javier Milei at the annual General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. The review is to clear a remittance of US$900 million (which will compensate for the September 25 payment of US$850 million made by Argentina to the IMF) with no inconveniences expected. The mission was the subject of a Washington press conference last Thursday by IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack.
TERRORISTS REVISITED
Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier last Tuesday downsized the presidential claim of 30,000 terrorists denied entry to the country to 20,630 people expelled or extradited as “possible terrorists or national security threats” while later further admitting that the figure also included foreigners who simply did not meet the requisites to enter Argentina. Ravier had no answers when asked at his routine press conference which terrorist activities or organisations came specifically into question apart from relating the crackdown to the upcoming November visit of Pope Leo XIV.
ARGENTINE BEEFGOES KOBE
Economy Minister Luis Caputo last Wednesday announced that Argentine beef exports would be returning to Japan after 20 years, having reached agreement on health standards following two years of negotiations. The agreement applies to zones free of foot-and-mouth disease. Japan represents a market importing over US$3 billion worth of high-quality beef annually, according to Caputo. Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno added that the first half of this year has already seen health standard clearance achieved for over 20 products in multiple markets including citric fruit, mutton, chicken, pork, bovine genetics, beef and sub-products, leather and dairy produce, among others.
VANCE HERE NEXT MONTH
The Casa Rosada on Thursday confirmed that United States Vice-President JD Vance will be visiting Argentina next month as part of a regional swing and meeting up with President Javier Milei but did not specify the dates and thus whether the presence of the Ohio Republican (a Catholic convert strongly opposed to abortion and gay marriage) would overlap with Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV. Vance will be the first US vice-presidential visit here since Mike Pence (Donald Trump’s previous veep) in 2017 during the Mauricio Macri Presidency.
PAPAL HOLIDAYS IN DETAIL
Decree 1103/2026 published last Monday in the Official Gazette to declare the November visit of Pope Leo XIV to be of “national interest” also clarified the scope of the public holidays announced in the previous week. While Monday, November 9 was confirmed as a nationwide public holiday, Tuesday November 10 will be a holiday throughout the province of Córdoba and not just the provincial capital (as originally announced) as well as in this City, while Wednesday November 11 will be a holiday throughout Buenos Aires Province and not only in the city of Luján, as first announced. The decree also creates a “Unidad Ejecutora Especial Temporaria ‘Visita de Su Santidad el papa León XIV’” planning committee under Cabinet Chief Diego Santilli to coordinate the visit, running until November 12. A darker side to the papal visit emerged on Wednesday when a special tribunal in the Vatican posthumously found the late Argentine priest Father Carlos Buela, founder of the Instituto del Verbo Encarnado (Word Incarnate) who died in Italy in 2023, guilty on 20 charges of sexually abusing seminarians in a case originating in 2010, rejecting the cleric’s conspiracy theories.
SKIING TRAGEDY
French skier Juliette Willmann, 29, was killed by an avalanche at the Cerro Crestón mountain near El Chaltén (Santa Cruz Province) last Wednesday while her husband Pierre-Idris Mehdi, 30, was also injured but survived.
SENIOR OFFICIAL IN MOTORBIKE ACCIDENT
Just eight days after being appointed Secretary for the Handicapped, Pablo Di Liscia suffered a bad motorcycle accident in the small hours of Tuesday, ending up in the intensive therapy ward of Pirovano Hospital with serious head injuries and multiple fractures, including seven broken ribs leading to his being placed on an iron lung.
DOZENS OF NEW SPECIES
Last year’s CONICET national research council’s underwater expedition off Mar del Plata at a depth of almost 4,000 metres with the international support of the Species Discovery Workshop, the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Nippon Foundation identified 57 new marine species, it was revealed this week.
POLO AMBASSADOR
The government has appointed polo star Adolfo Cambiaso as an Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador “ad honorem” with the mission of promoting Argentine sport worldwide, according to Decree 1116/2026 signed by President Javier Milei and Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and published last Tuesday in the Official Gazette.
MOTOS ON TRACK
MotoGP has added two new circuits in Argentina and Australia for the 22-race 2027 calendar, it was announced just before last weekend. The first new track will be in Buenos Aires in April, the second leg of a three-race American swing starting in Goiania in Brazil (which staged its first race this season) and finishing in Austin, Texas with South Australia’s Adelaide joining in next November. The Autodromo Oscar y Juan Galvez in Buenos Aires replaces Termas de Hondo in the northern province of Santiago del Estero, which sporadically hosted the circuit between 2014 and 2025, while the last Buenos Aires race was in the last century in 1999. MotoGP starts in Thailand and finishes in Spain (Valencia). The good news comes at a low point in the prestige of national racing-car idol Franco Colapinto, who crashed into his teammate Pierre Gasly in the Grand Prix race in Baku last weekend, not only eliminating both Alpine drivers but also last year’s champion Lando Norris.
