Argentina News and Discussions

[wjfox]

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: Gun jams during bid to kill Argentina vice-president

By Alex Binley & Matt Murphy
BBC News

2 hours ago

Argentina's vice-president has narrowly avoided assassination after a gunman's weapon jammed as he aimed at her.

Footage shows the moment Cristina Fernández de Kirchner - surrounded by a mob of supporters - found herself face-to-face with the loaded weapon.

The former president was returning home from court, where she faces allegations of corruption. She denies the charges.

Police said the gunman, who local media identified as a 35-year-old Brazilian man, has been taken into custody.

They are attempting to establish a motive for the attack on the left-leaning politician, who was Argentina's president from 2007 to 2015, and its first lady for four years before that.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-62762421

[wjfox]

James Cleverly says Falklands are British as Argentina ends deal

5 hours ago

The UK has insisted the Falkland Islands are British after Argentina broke a co-operation deal and pushed for talks on the islands' sovereignty.

In 2016, both sides agreed to disagree on the sovereignty of the Falklands in favour of improved relations.

Argentina pulled out of the pact this week and informed UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

The Falkland Islands were subject to a bloody war in 1982 when Argentina tried to stake a territorial claim.

In response, Mr Cleverly tweeted: "The Falkland Islands are British. Islanders have the right to decide their own future - they have chosen to remain a self-governing UK Overseas Territory."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64835605

[ººº]

PSG's Lionel Messi receives threatening note after family's store attacked in Argentina
https://www.espn.com/soccer/argentina-a ... e-attacked
Mar 2, 2023

Gunmen left a threatening message for Paris Saint-Germain forward Lionel Messi after attacking a supermarket owned by his in-laws in Rosario, Argentina, Rosario police confirmed on Thursday.

Fourteen shots were reportedly fired at the shutters and front door of the food store "Unico," which is located in the Lavalle district of Rosario, in the early hours of Thursday by two individuals on a motorbike.

Nobody was injured in the early morning attack, and it was unclear why assailants would target Messi or the Unico supermarket in the country's third-largest city of Rosario, owned by the family of his wife, Antonela Roccuzzo.

Police also said the attackers left a threatening note written on a piece of cardboard that said: "Messi, we are waiting for you. Javkin is a drug dealer. He is not going to look after you."

An investigation is underway. Pablo Javkin is the mayor of Rosario, the largest city in the central province of Santa Fe, 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

[Powers]

Argentina Election Results PASO 2023
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023 ... -election/
Aug. 14, 2023

Argentines will be voting on October 22 in the presidential election’s first round where the main candidates will be competing in a three-way race. To win outright in the first round, a candidate must either garner 45% of the vote on their own, or reach 40% and be 10 points ahead of the runner-up. At stake is a major market reaction as the country braces for a potential pendulum swing in politics that could fuel more financial volatility.

Outsider Javier Milei showed surprising strength in Sunday’s open primaries, amassing the most votes among all groups, with over 90% of voting tables counted. Patricia Bullrich won the main pro-business opposition’s primary election, topping challenger Horacio Rodriguez Larreta. The incumbent left-wing government’s group, which will be represented by Sergio Massa in the general election, trailed their opposition by several points.

[Powers]

Merge?

[Time_Traveller]

Merge?

This doesn't need to be merged into the South America, general thread as it deals with articles specifically dealing with the continent overall, as both Brazil and Argentina are the main two countries and have separate threads within this continent

[weatheriscool]

[Powers]

caltrek: Moved to History Forum, Middle Ages

[caltrek]

Javier Milei Says He’s the Future of Argentina. He Looks a Lot Like Its Past.
by Eamon Whalen
August 21, 2023

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) After finishing first in Argentina’s primary elections on Sunday, Javier Milei is the leading candidate to become the next president of the South American country. A former pugilistic television talking head, the libertarian economist has been dubbed “a new Trump.”
But that’s not quite right.

Yes, Milei, who has served in Congress since 2021, represents the type of outsider politician we’ve seen all around the world. He channels a broad distrust of government and mainstream institutions into populist anti-politics. But in a 2017 profile, Milei gave himself nicknames more indicative of his beliefs: Adam Smith’s heir; the Mozart of Economics; the Keynesian Wrecker. What makes Milei different from his (not particularly) ideological ilk—notably former presidents Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, both of whom he admires—is that Milei is a true believer in libertarian economics.

Milei wants to abolish the Argentine central bank and dollarize the economy. He wants to end public education and replace it with a voucher system. He wants to privatize healthcare and legalize the free trade of human organs. Milei has said that he will eliminate the health, education, and environment ministries and replace them with a one-stop shop “Ministry of Human Capital.” He downplays climate change and wants to make it easier for Argentines to own handguns. As he said during the campaign, his plan is to “change the logic of social policy, where we go from giving people fish to teaching them how to fish.”

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... riedman/

[wjfox]

[Powers]

Both suck.

[weatheriscool]

Argentina's Milei Devalues Peso by 54% in First Batch of Shock Measures

Source: Yahoo/Bloomberg

Argentina devalued the peso by 54%, overhauled its crawling peg and announced massive spending cuts to eliminate its primary fiscal deficit next year as the first steps in President Javier Milei’s shock-therapy program.

The newly inaugurated administration weakened the official exchange rate to 800 pesos per dollar, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said in a televised address after the close of local markets on Tuesday. It was 366.5 per dollar before the address. The central bank will henceforth target a monthly devaluation of 2%.
...
The government will slash spending equivalent to 2.9% of gross domestic product, in a radical fiscal adjustment, according to a senior economic official.
...
Other measures announced including halving the number of ministries, cutting transfers to provinces and suspending public works. At the same time, Argentina will boost certain social welfare programs, Caputo said.

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/argentin ... 52309.html

[caltrek]

Milei Couples 'Total Crackdown' on Protest With Economic Shocks in Argentina
by Julia Conley
December 15, 2023

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) As the human impact of Argentinian President Javier Milei's "shock treatment" to the South American country's economy became increasingly clear with rising prices on Thursday, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced what one journalist said were doubtlessly "preemptive" new controls on protests to discourage a struggling population from speaking out.

Bullrich said four security forces—the Federal Police, the Gendarmerie, the Naval Prefecture, and the Airport Security Police—will work together to stop protests that block streets and suggested the protocol is aimed only at ensuring "that people can live in peace" without demonstrators blocking traffic.

But as Progressive International co-general coordinator David Adler and others noted, the measures also include calls for armed forces to break labor strikes, create a national registry of people who organize protests, and sanctions against parents who bring their children to demonstrations.
The new package amounts to "a total crackdown on Argentine civil society," Adler said.

Bullrich's announcement came days after Milei, a far-right libertarian economist who has called the climate crisis "a socialist lie" and has been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump, announced in the first weeks of his presidency an economic "shock treatment" package including a devaluation of the peso by 50%, from 400 pesos to the U.S. dollar to 820 pesos.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/milei

[firestar464]

I thought he was an ancap

[weatheriscool]

I thought he was an ancap

Sadly, this is why I call these people LOSERTERIANS as they are only small government when it comes to helping the lower classes and providing economic support for the society...But at the end of the day they're really a new flavor of fascism that aims to grant the rich, elites and the few all the power to f*ck over everyone else.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

[caltrek]

Javier Milei, the President of Cash-strapped Argentina, Starts Another U.S. Tour and Plans to Meet Elon Musk
April 10, 2024

Introduction:

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP via PBS) — President Javier Milei of Argentina kicked off a visit Wednesday to the United States, where he’ll meet with tech billionaire Elon Musk, as his government seeks an infusion of cash to overhaul Argentina’s embattled economy.

The populist president started his four-day trip in Miami, home to one of the largest populations of Argentines in the U.S., where he received an honor from the Jewish community Wednesday at an Orthodox synagogue. Milei will meet with Musk on Friday in Texas, his spokesperson said, where he will also tour a factory for Tesla, Musk’s electric car company.

Milei’s third trip to the U.S. in merely four months as president comes as he reshapes Argentine foreign policy in line with Washington. Standing beside Gen. Laura Richardson, head of the U.S. Southern Command, at the southernmost tip of South America last week, Milei vowed to boost the nations’ “strategic alliance” — underscoring how he sees U.S. support as vital to the economic overhaul on which he has staked his presidency.

Read more here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/jav ... lon-musk

[caltrek]

Argentina's Milei Meets Elon Musk at Tesla Factory
April 12, 2024

Introduction:

(DW) Argentine President Javier Milei met tech billionaire Elon Musk on Friday at a Tesla plant in Austin, Texas, where they agreed on the "need to free markets."

Musk shared an image of the two on his microblogging platform X, formerly Twitter, with the pair giving a thumbs up. Under the image was written: "To an exciting and inspiring future!"

(See linked article for Twitter feed)

Milei shared a picture of them shaking hands in a conference room with a caption saying, long live freedom.

(See linked article for Twitter feed)

One of the richest men in the world, Musk has previously shown his admiration for Milei's full-throated embrace of private enterprise and his disdain for what he sees as socialist excesses.

What did Musk and Milei talk about?

A spokesperson for the president said Milei and Musk "agreed on the need to free markets and defend the ideas of freedom" as well as the importance of eliminating bureaucratic obstacles to business.

Read more here: https://www.dw.com/en/argentinas-milei ... 68809179