‘$LIBRA’ RETURNS TO LIMELIGHT
An apparent draft (but unsigned) contract for US$5 million between President Javier Milei ‘$LIBRA’ cryptocurrency creator Hayden Mark Davis leaked from the mobile telephone of lobbyist Mauricio Novelli last weekend has revived the scandal over Milei’s ill-starred promotion some 13 months afterwards. The memo drafted last spring and retrieved by forensic experts at the Prosecutor-General’s office details three payments in tokens or cash as payment for Milei’s intervention before, during and after. The same forensic sources detected over 20 communications between Novelli and Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei alongside frequent contacts with top presidential advisor Santiago Caputo and economist and tech and nuclear advisor Demian Reidel over the $LIBRA launch. During the week deputies investigating the cryptocurrency scam over the past year said that the new details confirmed Milei’s central role in the fraud, demanding formal explanations from both Milei siblings, and also criticised prosecutor Eduardo Taiano for dragging his feet.
CRISTINA’S DEFENCE (OR ATTACK)
Ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner left her house arrest on Tuesday to testify in the ‘Cuadernos’ corruption notebooks graft trial, the biggest corruption case in Argentine history. Speaking for almost an hour, she chose attack as the best form of defence, blasting prosecutor Carlos Stornelli in particular and the judicial system in general for their “political persecution” as well as calling both “mafia.” She then refused to answer any questions (as did her co-defendant, former federal planning minister Julio De Vido), stating: “I’m not going to form part of this circus” and arguing: “If I had robbed billions, I wouldn’t be here.” The former president criticised President Javier Milei for anticipating her lifelong imprisonment in his state-of-the-nation speech at the start of the month, charging that this violated the Constitution as interference by the Executive Branch with the Judicial Branch. La Cámpora militants awaited her return from court in sufficient numbers to interrupt traffic while Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof posted a supportive message protesting “harassment.”
ANSES CHANGES HELM AGAIN
Fernando Bearzi resigned last Tuesday as head of ANSES (Administración Nacional de la Seguridad Social) social welfare administration after just over a year and will be replaced by Guillermo Arancibia, who now becomes the agency’s fourth chief of the Javier Milei administration following Osvaldo Giordano (ousted due to his wife voting against the Ley Bases), Mariano de los Heros (out for detailing a pension reform not in the government’s immediate plans) and now Bearzi while Carolina Píparo had been named for the post prior to Milei’s inauguration without ever taking over. The new helm is expected to digitalise and streamline ANSES administration. Bearzi had been the choice of Economy Minister Luis Caputo at the time with a special focus on pensions.
UNEMPLOYMENT 7.5%
Unemployment closed out last year at 7.5 percent, the figure announced for its final quarter by INDEC national statistics bureau last Wednesday. INDEC further reported 48.6 percent of the population as being economically active and 45 percent employed.
YPF LAWSUIT REPRIEVE
The government hailed as “historic and unprecedented” last Wednesday’s ruling by the United States Appeals Court suspending the discovery process in the US$16.1-billion lawsuit mounted by hedge funds over the last 12 years until the underlying issue is resolved. President Javier Milei praised the work of his legal officials for this favourable result (especially the recently appointed Treasury Prosecutor Sebastián Amerio, who was displaced as deputy Justice minister early this month), also describing it as a US tribute to his La Libertad Avanza government.
MISSING IDENTIFIED
Just ahead of next Tuesday’s anniversary of the 1976 coup, the EAAF (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense) forensic team were able to confirm by midweek the identity of the remains of 12 persons who went missing during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship after being taken to the notorious La Perla concentration camp in Córdoba Province run by Third Army Corps commander Luciano Benjamín Menéndez – some 2,500 people were detained there, most failing to survive. The 12 clandestine graves were unearthed last weekend and the identification resulted from expert EEAF genetic studies.
THE MOST ZIONIST PRESIDENT
The day after attending the ceremony commemorating the 34th anniversary of the terrorist destruction of the Israeli Embassy where he reaffirmed Argentina’s “strategic alliance” with Israel, President Javier Milei, who prides himself on being “the world’s most Zionist president,” announced last Wednesday that Argentina would be taking up the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in the spirit of “a frontal struggle against anti-Semitism,” adding that “Argentina will fight that cultural battle fearlessly and with moral clarity” before concluding: “Our commitment to the United States and the State of Israel is unbreakable. VIVA LA LIBERTAD, CARAJO!”
MILEI MESSAGES MADRID
President Javier Milei was abroad last weekend to close the Madrid Economic Forum 2026 with an ideologically charged speech attacking socialism as “filthy trash which plunges us into poverty” while maintaining that “the capitalistic system is the only one which brings prosperity to Earth.” He also had harsh words for Spanish socialist premier Pedro Sánchez, applauded by a local audience very much right of centre, while lauding Donald Trump. Milei further praised the role of the private sector in the creation of wealth, saying: “Businessmen are not villains but social benefactors,” somewhat at odds with his recent rhetoric against some Argentine entrepreneurs.
KICILLOF TOPS PRIMARIES
Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof won the Peronist primaries in 10 of the 16 districts voting last Sunday, thus boosting his 2027 presidential candidacy. The ultra-Kirchnerite militants of La Cámpora triumphed in four districts (including the most important, General Pueyrredón housing Mar del Plata) while the Frente Renovador responding to the 2023 Peronist presidential candidate Sergio Massa picked up the remaining two, including Junín. Last Tuesday Kicillof inaugurated his own Centro de Estudios Derecho al Futuro (CEDAF) think tank in the Buenos Aires provincial capital of La Plata while on Wednesday he travelled to Bahía Blanca to supervise the reconstruction works after last year’s flooding. Kicillof could have a rival for next year’s Peronist presidential candidacy – on Thursday evangelical pastor Dante Gebel held a rally in Lanús with the support of Córdoba Governor Martín Llaryora and trade unionists among others.
KIM KILLER SENTENCED
A La Plata court last Monday sentenced a teenager (17 at the time of the crime) to 280 months in prison for running over seven-year-old Kim Gómez last year while stealing the family car, dragging her for 15 blocks.
CONGRESS SCARE
PRO deputy Javier Sánchez Wrba literally set alarms bells ringing in Congress in midweek when he dispatched an air rifle purchased via Internet to his parliamentary office instead of his home address. The deputy sent a note to Congress Speaker Martín Menem to explain the “misunderstanding” without apologising, claiming that the error was not his.
HEALTH AT RISK
World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that Argentina’s exit from the WHO made the country less safe as well as being a loss for the rest of the world, also questioning how the nation could at the same time remain in the Pan American Health Organization, given the overlap between global and continental programmes.
MACRI’S BLAST FROM PAST
Ex-president Mauricio Macri on Wednesday revealed that when he became City Mayor in 2007, then Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández “pressured” him to contribute funds to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo foundation for their Sueños Compartidos housing scheme which ended up in a corruption scandal.
BAEZ OFF ONE HOOK
Former Kirchnerite tycoon Lázaro Báez was acquitted last Wednesday on one of the various charges of tax evasion against him thanks to the recent Law of Fiscal Innocence reform. The benefit was shared by 10 other defendants, including his three children.
FINALISSIMA CANCELLED
The cancellation of the so-called ‘Finalissima’ between the Americas and European Cup champions, Argentina and Spain, which was to have been played in Qatar next Friday until the outbreak of war in that region, was announced last weekend by Europe’s UEFA football association. The latter stuck to Madrid as the alternative venue while AFA Argentine Football Association proposed Rome on March 31 with agreement between both sides proving impossible. The UEFA communiqué placed the blame on AFA for finding the alternatives “unacceptable” and for rejecting all dates other than March 31.
RUGBY WORLD CUP
Argentina has thrown its hat into the ring as a candidate to host the 2035 Rugby World Cup with UAR (Unión Argentina de Rugby) chairman Gabriel Travaglini describing “the region as being prepared.” The UAR is not averse to sharing fixtures with other South American countries such as Chile, Uruguay or Brazil. The next two World Cups have already been bagged by Australia (2027) and the United States (2031) with Japan the main rival so far to host 2035. The Pumas currently rank fifth in the world and have reached the World Cup semi-finals three times (every eight years since 2007).
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