LIJO ON THE BLINK
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected federal judge Ariel Lijo’s request for leave, a development which took a disoriented government aback, especially since Lijo’s fellow-nominee Manuel García-Mansilla accompanied his new peers with only the justice Ricardo Lorenzetti filing a dissenting opinion, favouring the Comodoro Py judge’s request to join the Supreme Court without resigning his current post. García-Mansilla reportedly gave no prior notice of his rejection of Lijo’s request, shaking up those who had worked to place both presidential nominees in the Supreme Court although the entourage of presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei argued that this showed the government’s respect for judicial Independence. Since the government assured that they will be insisting on Lijo’s nomination, this increases the pressures on the judge to resign with his only hope lying in somehow obtaining the necessary two-thirds majority in the Senate now in session.
STATE OF THE NATION
Last Saturday President Javier Milei inaugurated the ordinary sessions of a half-empty Congress with a state-of-the-nation speech widely linked by observers to the campaign for this year’s midterms. Milei said that he would be sending the upcoming agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Congress, asking for its approval, and made Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof his main target for his “legal wokeism” over crime in Greater Buenos Aires, also announcing stiffer immigration laws and a bill to lower the age of criminal responsibility. Unlike some of his offerings this year, the 72-minute speech was largely dominated by spelling out his government’s economic achievements. He only made one indirect reference to the Cryptogate scandal when he said that some speak of fraud after Kirchnerism robbed US$110 billion from Central Bank reserves.
MANES VERSUS CAPUTO
Radical deputy Facundo Manes last Tuesday lodged a criminal lawsuit against presidential advisor Santiago Caputo for his threats following last Saturday’s inauguration of ordinary Congress sessions. In his writ, Manes argued that the threats were both premeditated because of the time Caputo needed to descend from his Congress balcony to confront him and all the more dangerous because of the very real power and influence enjoyed by the star spin doctor, especially over SIDE intelligence and ARCA tax bureau. “You don’t know who I am but you will,” Manes said he was told by the member of the “iron triangle” troika, causing him to fear both for himself and his family. The clash began when Manes held up a copy of the Argentine Constitution during the state-of-the-nation speech, prompting a verbal reaction from President Javier Milei and vehement gestures from Caputo prior to the confrontation in the exit corridor afterwards. Manes also claims to have been punched in the belly by an unidentified member of Caputo’s escort.
WOLFF OUT THE DOOR
City Mayor Jorge Macri last Monday replaced his Security Minister Waldo Wolff with former top cop Horacio Giménez, 71, reassigning Wolff to the campaign for the upcoming May 18 midterms where a stiff contest is expected. “It’s time for a policeman,” Macri said after Wolff had come under fire due to three recent breakouts in City police stations. Giménez headed the Metropolitan Police between 2011 and 2016 when the eviction of health workers and demonstrators from the Borda mental hospital in 2013 with over 50 injured was the most controversial episode. Furthermore, Hernán Lombardi is the new Economic Development Minister (replacing Roberto García Moritán, who quit last October) and Leticia Estévez the Legal and Technical Secretary with the Mayor’s cousin, ex-president Mauricio Macri, seen as a key figure behind all three changes. City Hall’s change of ministry was followed by a ferocious social network exchange between the ex-president and his former Security minister Patricia Bullrich (currently again heading the portfolio) over whether those remanded in custody by national judges should be housed in City police precincts or federal penitentiaries with PRO deputy María Eugenia Vidal also intervening on Macri’s side – “Security is not about designing uniforms,” Bullrich told Macri.
POWER CUTS
Over two million people were hit by power cuts last Wednesday in this city and southern Greater Buenos Aires districts with a heat index reaching 44 degrees Centigrade on Wednesday (and 47 degrees on Thursday). Hundreds of traffic lights going out of service hit transport badly and subway lines were closed down for hours, not to mention countless problems with Internet also affecting all three branches of government. The problems were attributed to the collapse of two Edesur transmission lines. A yellow alert is expected for the next few days following the intense rainfall during much of the Carnival long weekend with orange alerts further north and red alerts for Santiago del Estero, Corrientes, Misiones, Eastern Formosa and northern Santa Fe.
ADORNI NOT ALONE
Communication and Media Secretary Manuel Adorni, who also doubles as presidential spokesman, has 208 employees (including around half in senior posts) amid the government’s “deep chainsaw” austerity, it emerged from a report presented to the Senate last Monday by Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos in reply to a question by Senator Pablo Blanco (Radical-Tierra del Fuego). Adorni’s 208 employees include several libertarían influencers in the Digital Communication Department. The following day Deregulation & State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger placed a number on the “deep chainsaw” – a total of 41,142 state employees fired during the Javier Milei administration (including 13,161 in state companies and 4,405 in the armed and security forces). Meanwhile ATE state employees union called a state of alert against a new wave of dismissals in the Human Capital Ministry.
MUTING PESKY REPORTERS
The government on Wednesday said it is considering asking voters to decide which journalists should cover President Javier Milei's events and also mulling a "mute" button to silence overly persistent reporters. Asked about the latter issue, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni initially denied it, then said, half-jokingly, that it "wouldn't be bad" out of respect for other reporters. Adorni further confirmed that the Milei administration was planning "some changes" to press access at the Casa Rosada where the press pool might be "elected by the people." These proposals have drawn comparisons with plans by United States President Donald Trump also in the process of restricting media access to the White House. Like Trump, the libertarian Milei has made a point of bypassing traditional media to communicate directly with voters on social media via an army of trolls without a single press conference during 15 months in office.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Russian President Vladimir Putin last Wednesday sent his Argentine colleague Javier Milei a message thanking him for his government’s abstention in the previous week’s United Nations vote calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. The message was relayed by Russian Ambassador Dmitry Feoktistov. Argentina’s vote marked a U-turn from previous support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in tune with United States President Donald Trump, who called Zelenskyy a “dictator” with Washington voting against the UN resolution, which was carried by a 93-18 vote with 65 abstentions. Argentina was joined in abstention by all the members of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) except Russia.
SHAKIRA SAYS: 'ESTOY AQUI'
The famous Colombian singer Shakira (the love interest of the then President‘s son Antonio de la Rúa at the start of this century) will be performing tonight at the Campo Argentino de Polo after already giving a concert last night in the framework of her 'Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran' world tour. Both concerts were sold out well in advance. The singer arrived here early Tuesday in a private flight, greeting her fans at the airport, for her first appearance in Argentina in the last six years.
NEW EXHIBITION INAUGURATION
The interactive art exhibition DESATAR ("Untying") by artist María Eugenia Llorente will be inaugurated at the British Arts Centre (Suipacha 1333) between 7pm and 8.30 pm on Friday, March 14, preceded by a press conference at 6pm. Admission is free. A native of Río Negro, Llorente, 45, is a computer science graduate and a self-taught painter, who left a safe technical job of almost a decade at the Red Bull boxes in Formula 1 racing in Britain to pursue her creative instincts in an artistic career here in Argentina following her schoolyear dreams of architecture. Until her recent return here she had lived over half her life abroad since 2001, starting with Canada. Her art evolved out of doodling, she says, planning sculpture as her next move.
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