Stories that caught our eye: October 23 to 30

Against the odds, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was re-elected in last Sunday’s runoff by a comfortable margin of 51.8 to 48.2 percent over Liberal Party candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. But the impact of the surprise result lasted barely a day before attention switched to the loser’s whereabouts. In rapid succession Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes banned Bolsonaro from leaving the country as a presumed prelude to arrest and the right-winger promptly vanished, triggering hours of mystery until Wednesday, when his arrival in Miami aboard a flight starting in Puerto Iguazú in Misiones was confirmed – despite his presence in Argentina being denied by the immigration authorities. The PRO centre-right party was quick to congratulate Lula on his re-election the following day, expressing hopes for better bilateral relations, but a similar reaction was awaited in vain from President Javier Milei (who had called Lula a “thief and a lier” on the eve of the run-off) until on Tuesday, presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier confirmed that there would be no official congratulations, claiming that Milei received none from Lula in 2023. Ravier ruled out this decision affecting the bilateral relations between Argentina and Brazil, also denying that Bolsonaro had requested asylum in Argentina. On Thursday Lula thanked ex-president Mauricio Macri for his congratulatory message, saying that he “recalled with nostalgia the times when differences were settled in a civilised manner.” Next Wednesday, Milei will be back in Madrid where he is due to participate in the Ibero-American Summit with every possibility of coming face to face with Lula.

CRYPTO ACQUITTAL

During the weekend President Javier Milei was in a vindictively celebratory mood over his acquittal (along with his sister, presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei, and nine other defendants) in the ‘$LIBRA’ case investigating presumed fraud linked to the presidential promotion of that crypto-currency. Both the judge (Marcelo Martínez de Georgi) and the prosecution ruled out the three charges of fraud, abuse of authority and influence-trafficking, defining the promotion as a purely private initiative and investors in the scheme as speculators. The Anti-Corruption Office had already arrived at similar conclusions. “Truth triumphs on its own while lies always need complicity,” published Milei in his Instagram social network account, asking if anybody was going to apologise or compensate him for over 20 months of “lies and slander … with coup-mongering ends,” naming several journalists in this connection. Economy Minister Luis Caputo pointed out that the courts in the United States had arrived much earlier at the same conclusion but opposition politicians were less convinced by the verdict.

CRISTINA BACK ON TRIAL

The ‘Hotesur-Los Sauces’ trial beginning on October 23 and investigating money-laundering via the Kirchner family’s Patagonian hotel chain continued last week with further details on the circuit of funds between the presidential family and businessmen. The case is being tried in the TOF (Tribunal Oral Federal) 5 courtroom with the two dozen defendants including not only ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the deputy Máximo Kirchner (with the son considered more directly responsible than the mother as chairman of the hotel chain’s board of directors) but also the Kirchnerite tycoons Lázaro Báez, Cristóbal López and Fabián De Sousa. At the start of the trial the prosecutors had formally accused Cristina and Máximo of forming a “criminal association in order to appropriate public funds” over the course of 12 years between 2003 and 2015, including the foundation of the firm Los Sauces in 2006. Between them Grupo Indalo belonging to López and De Souza (65 percent) and Báez (23 percent) picking up lucrative Santa Cruz public works contracts for his Austral Construcciones S.A. accounted for almost the entire 25,968,042 pesos of hotel invoicing with the overpriced and unoccupied rooms suspected of being disguised kickbacks for favours rendered. Both business groups enjoyed “exponential growth” during the Kirchner presidencies, the prosecution underlined. The only member of the presidential family not on trial is Florencia Kirchner, previously acquitted. Both her mother and brother have thus far participated digitally but will have to show up later in the courtroom to be questioned.

CATAMARCA LOWS

President Javier Milei made his first official visit to the province of Catamarca last Wednesday with Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei and Economy Minister Luis Caputo to visit a lithium mine and a textile plant but there was almost more news coverage off the schedule – an attack of soroche altitude sickness affecting Caputo and claims that somebody in the crowd of 1,200 greeting the presidential group threw a punch at Milei, denied by La Libertad Avanza. The Mileis and Caputo started with a visit to the company Algodonera del Valle producing cotton thread and employing 450 people with an investment of over US$50 million in modernisation. They then boarded a Hércules aircraft to Hombre Muerto where the Rio Tinto mining multinational (based on British capital) has invested US$1.4 billion into an annual production capacity of 25,000 tons of lithium. Milei used his speech to defend his RIGI incentive scheme for major investors as having zero cost where the project would not have existed without it because “A project which does not exist does not pay taxes, employ or export.”

TEACHER FEMICIDE

The CTERA teachers union called a nationwide teacher strike and a day of mourning Thursday over the murder of 52-year-old rural teacher Nancy Godoy in Corrientes, demanding clarification of the crime. Her body was found last Wednesday after being missing for over three weeks. Five people have so far been arrested in the alleged femicide investigation and remanded in custody. A post-mortem examination revealed that the victim suffered an “extremely violent death,” whilst the alleged killers inflicted “multiple stab wounds” on her, including wounds showing “macroscopic signs of having been inflicted whilst she was still alive, on her face, neck, abdomen, and upper and lower limbs.”

ANDIS CASE IN DOUBT

A technical report of Border Guard forensic experts released Thursday concluded that it could not determine the authenticity of the voice messages attributed to former ANDIS (Agencia Nacional de Discapacidad) chief Diego Spagnuolo, on which last year’s scandal of kickbacks in the now dissolved agency for the disabled was based. Many interruptions were noted with the use of artificial intelligence not ruled out. Karina Milei was mentioned in the scandal but never indicted. Federal Judge Ariel Lijo is in charge of the case.

ISRAEL AND MALVINAS

Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu has instructed his diplomats to back the Argentine position in the sovereignty dispute over the Malvinas islands, The Telegraph reported last Saturday, a story given credence by the strategic alliance and diplomatic alignment between the administration of President Javier Milei and the Israeli government. While there was no formal comment from the UK Foreign Office, Alex Gandler, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in London, posted on his X social network account: “I categorically deny this allegation. No such directive exists.” Milei tweeted about it nevertheless.

DR LEO XIV

The University of Buenos Aires (UBA) last Wednesday unanimously resolved to award the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa to Robert Francis Prevost, more widely known as Pope Leo XIV, praising him for the quality of his contributions to debates over such current social issues as inequality, poverty, immigration, the environment and artificial intelligence. They also praised him for using dialogue "as a tool to construct consensus" and "recognising the dignity of those who think, believe and live differently." The papal visit to Argentina takes place from November 8 to 11.

ESPERT APPEALS

Former  La Libertad Avanza deputy José Luis Espert has appealed the judicial decision to send him to trial for presumed money-laundering due to a transfer of US$200,000 linked to the businessman Federico ‘Fred’ Machado, calling San Isidro federal judge Lino Mirabelli’s ruling “contradictory, biased and lacking evidence.” He further appealed against the lien of a billion pesos slapped on his assets and the ban on his leaving the country. 

NEW AFA ARREST

Ariel Vallejo, suspected of being the bagman of AFA Argentine Football Association president Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia via his company Sur Finanzas, was arrested just before last weekend in the case investigating money-laundering and tax evasion to the tune of 818 billion pesos after Lomas de Zamora federal judge Tomás Rodríguez Ponte revoked his exemption from imprisonment due to his failure to show up monthly in court or give a fixed abode, naming his address as a gated community house where he has not been seen in the past year. The judge also called for fresh statements from 21 persons and 17 companies.

103 years and counting

The Turkish Embassy celebrated 103 years of the Republic of Türkiye in style last Thursday with seemingly endless flows of kebab in a garden reception with El Super Niño not included among the many guests on a glorious spring afternoon – United States Ambassador Peter Lamelas headed the many envoys paying their respects to their colleague Omür Budak hosting the event.

Following lengthy greetings to the people of Argentina from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan representing 86 million Turks (in Turkish but mercifully translated), Budak then spoke, underlining how the fact that the Treaty of Friendship between the two countries was celebrating its centenary this year showed how early Argentina had recognised the Republic but also looking ahead to the next 100 years with “enormous potential.” He concluded by quoting General José de San Martín: “Seamos libres, que lo demás no importa nada” (“Be free, nothing else matters”).”