Stories that caught our eye: August 29 to September 5

A PROVINCE VOTES

Buenos Aires Province will be holding advanced midterm elections tomorrow at provincial level to renew half its bicameral legislature (i.e. 23 deputies and 46 senators) as well as municipal authorities. The campaign closed on Thursday when Buenos Aires Province Peronist Governor Axel Kicillof skipped closing the Fuerza Patria campaign with a single rally in favour of spot visits to Merlo and Lomas de Zamora before returning to the provincial capital of La Plata. President Javier Milei closed the La Libertad Avanza campaign a day earlier in Moreno (due to flying to Los Angeles late Wednesday night for the Michael Milken Institute symposium for big businessmen while sacrificing a subsequent Friday stopover in Las Vegas). At the Moreno rally Milei predicted a “technical draw” in tomorrow’s voting – many opinion polls give different forecasts but the veda electoral curfew prevents us from disclosing them, along with other campaign activities.

MILEI VETO TOPPLED

In another major Congress setback for the Casa Rosada, the Senate last Thursday rejected President Javier Milei’s veto of the law declaring a state of emergency for care of the disabled by an overwhelming 63-7 margin, thus obliging the bill’s promulgation by the Executive branch. Only Senator Carmen Álvarez Rivero  (PRO-Córdoba) joined the libertarians in opposition while Kirchnerites were harshly critical. It was the first total rejection of a veto since 2003. The government argued a negative fiscal impact of up to 0.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product. 

AUDIO SCANDAL RUMBLES ON

The government mounted a counter-offensive last week in the case of the audio recordings scandal of suspected graft in contracts to assist the handicapped when Civil and Commercial Federal Judge Alejandro Maraniello issued a ruling on Monday banning the diffusion of tapes attributed to Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei by any media or social network while on the same day the National Security Ministry denounced the audios as “illegal espionage” within a campaign of disinformation linked to Russian and Venezuelan interests (accusations promptly rejected by the Russian Embassy here with the 140th anniversary of Russo-Argentine relations coming up next month), also calling for court raids on those involved in the sharing of voice messages of dismissed ANDIS national disability agency ex-chief Diego Spagnuolo – prosecutor Carlos Stornelli began investigating the charges the next day without authorising the raids. Earlier, Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni had denounced “an illegal intelligence operation with the aim of destabilising the country in the midst of an electoral campaign,” while on the same day Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Preve from the M24 radio station said that he would continue broadcasting audios in defiance of the Argentine judicial ban on their publication, followed on Tuesday by a Uruguayan streaming platform broadcasting a new Karina Milei audio. Legal experts warned that the Mareniello ruling was tantamount to prior censorship while other critics pointed out that Mareniello faced five denunciations of sexual harassment and could thus be suspected of yielding to government pressures in issuing a controversial ruling outside his jurisdiction. On Tuesday President Javier Milei aimed his fire at “spies disguised as journalists” as responsible for the scam.

NAZI PORTRAIT RECOVERED

Patricia Kadgien, daughter of the Nazi financier and former SS officer Friedrich Kadgien, finally handed over to a Mar del Plata court last Wednesday an early 18th-century Italian portrait stolen from Dutch Jewish art collector Jacques Goudstikker during the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. Under house arrest since last Tuesday, she surrendered the Giuseppe Ghislandi painting (worth an estimated US$50,000) in the hope of the charges against her and her partner being dropped in exchange, also pleading the statute of limitations, but remained under prosecution. The portrait was rediscovered after 85 years when correspondent Peter Shouten of the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, or AD, spotted its photo in a real-estate ad. The Kadgien family also possesses other works of art from previous centuries which are under investigation to determine if they are also Nazi art thefts. The plot thickened on Thursday when Patricia Kadgien and her husband were charged in court with hiding numerous works, including 22 by French painter Henri Matisse discovered in the course of police raids. Kadgien was reportedly entrusted by the art-loving Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring with moving artistic plunder to South America and seems  to have kept a fair chunk for himself. Since the war, the Dutch state has retrieved some 300 works from the Goudstikker collection although many remain scattered around the globe.

WASHINGTON’S COLD FEET

The visa exemption agreement with the United States flagged with great fanfare by US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on her visit here in late July reportedly came to grief late last month when her department unexpectedly cancelled its signature on the agreement just when a delegation of senior Argentine officials was en route to Washington for the ceremony, reaching as far as Miami before being informed of the cancellation. The delegation, headed by ARCA tax bureau chief Juan Pazo, was advised not to continue its flight, spending two days in Florida before returning home empty-handed. The cancellation was reportedly due to Noem pushing the agreement without due co-ordination with Marco Rubio’s State Department, which had developed anxieties over the recent corruption scandals hitting the Javier Milei government. A top Washington official was quoted as describing the snafu as "shameful," especially since the agreement committed Argentina to replacing its Chinese computer systems in its Customs with US technology. But in midweek Argentina’s Ambassador to Washington Alec Oxenford denied any difficulties, saying that the agreement was progressing on track without offering any date for its conclusion.

REPRIEVE FOR INSFRÁN

Formosa’s constituent assembly has repealed the clause permitting indefinite gubernatorial re-election but current Peronist Governor Gildo Insfrán, now in his eighth consecutive term, may run in 2027 when his current term ends since the change cannot be retroactive. Last December the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional Article 132 of the Formosa provincial constitution, which permits indefinite re-election, and Formosa’s opposition will now be appealing to them again.

FENTANYL ALERT

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday issued an alert, its fourth of the year worldwide, regarding adulterated fentanyl in Argentina. After various batches of the opioids produced by the HLB Pharma and Ramallo SA labs, were found to be contaminated with bacteria highly resistant to antibiotics and had to be withdrawn from the market following a wave of fatalities, the WHO communiqué urged extreme caution with any product coming from those labs with a risk of “potentially mortal infections, in particular for vulnerable persons,” also calling for “redoubled vigilance” in other countries and regions.

KARINA SUMMONED TO CONGRESS

Opposition deputies in the investigative commission looking into last February’s ‘$LIBRA’ cryptocurrency scandal Tuesday managed to approve in Congress a summons of Presidential Chief-of-Staff  Karina Milei for her "fundamental testimony” as to President Javier Milei’s meetings with the cryptocurrency businessmen and her role in brokering alleged “undue payments.” Several others involved in the case are to be summoned in due course, including Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni. Left-wing Frente de Izquierda deputy Christian ‘Chipi’ Castillo insisted that President Milei himself should be summoned for promoting the memecoin which ended up as a multi-million fraud although commission chair Maximiliano Ferraro (Coalición Cívica) proposed that the President should be allowed to testify in writing. Álvaro Martínez (La Libertad Avanza-Mendoza) argued that the commission lacked any prerogative to enforce a summons, which only belonged to the judiciary – otherwise the separation of powers would be violated.

CFK ANNIVERSARY MARCH

Peronist militants marched Monday to the flat where ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is serving house arrest to mark the third anniversary of the attempt upon her life while also calling for her release. Few leading Peronist figures joined the march with Buenos Aires Province Justice Minister Juan Martín Mena and 2015 vice-presidential candidate Carlos Zannini addressing the militants the most prominent. The speakers urged those present to vote for Fuerza Patria in tomorrow’s elections in Buenos Aires Province.

LONG WEEKEND 

President Javier Miliei has recently signed Decree 614/2025 restoring long weekends when public holidays fall during the weekend except for certain dates like Christmas, Easter, national days, etc. The first beneficiary will be Columbus Day on October 12, which falls on a Sunday but the next day will now be a holiday. Three other public holidays also stand to become long weekends but most not – these include New Year’s Day, Carnival, the March 24 commemoration of the 1976 coup, Veteran’s Day on April 2, Good Friday, May Day, the national days of May 25, June 20 (Flag Day) and July 9 (Independence Day), the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8) and Christmas.

CHACO TRIAL NEXT MONTH

The October 28 date for the trial of César Sena, the son of Chaco picket leader Emerenciano Sena also implicated in the case, for the femicide of Cecilia Strzyzowski (slain in mid-2023) has now been confirmed. Charged with aggravated murder, César Sena faces a sentence of life imprisonment at the conclusion of the trial in the Chaco provincial capital of Resistencia. Starting just after next month’s midterms, the trial will be one less headache for the senatorial campaign of former three-term Peronist governor Jorge Capitanich.