A MILITARY DEFENCE CHIEF
For the first time since 1983 the defence portfolio will pass from civilian into military hands, it emerged last weekend when President Javier Milei announced the replacements of Ministers Patrica Bullrich (Security) and Luis Petri (Defence) – respectively elected to the upper and lower houses of Congress in last month’s midterms. The appointment of Army Chief-of-Staff Lieutenant-General Carlos Alberto Presti as Defence Minister caused considerably more surprise than the widely expected replacement of Bullrich by her second-in-command, Security Secretary Alejandra Monteoliva. The Presidential Office described the latter as “a fundamental part of the Bullrich Doctrine establishing as priorities the frontal combat against drug-trafficking and criminal organisations and the maintenance of the rule of law and order on the streets of the Argentine Republic.” As for Presti, the Office’s comment was that “for the first time since the return of democracy, a person with an irreproachable military career reaching the top rank will be at the head of the Defence Ministry, ending the demonisation of officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers.” But the militarisation of the Defence Ministry ran into criticism beyond Kirchnerism or the left. In one of her last ministerial initiatives, Bullrich last Tuesday announced and launched the new National Immigration Agency recently moved to her portfolio, detailing that it would involve the participation of “all the provinces with a federal outlook.” The move ultimately aims at the creation of an Immigration Police to supplement the efforts of the Border and Coast Guards and the PSA airport police in guarding the frontiers.
ECONOMY LOOKING UP
Economic activity was five percent up in September from the same month last year and 0.5 percent up from the previous month of August, the INDEC national statistics bureau reported last Tuesday, while the cyclical trend was the second-highest since mid-2022. The growth for the first three quarters of the year as opposed to the annual rate was 5.2 percent. Only two of the 15 economic sectors were in negative territory – public administration and manufacturing industry – while fisheries (58.2 percent) and the financial sphere (39.7 percent) registered the best figures.
GROSSI’S HAT IN UN RING
Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno last Wednesday officially presented the candidacy of Rafael Grossi, who has been the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the past six years, to be the next secretary-general of the United Nations, praising his “extraordinary leadership in the face of grave situations affecting peace and international security” – qualities he considered “essential” for heading the UN in the 80th year since its foundation.
US ASSISTANCE
Just before last weekend a report from the Exchange Stabilization Fund of the United States Treasury confirmed the transfer of Special Drawing Rights to the tune of US$872 million within US President Donald Trump’s bailout of his Argentine colleague Javier Milei. The transfer was dated October 15, ahead of the October 26 midterms in order to dispel the pre-electoral uncertainty. At the same time the US Treasury under Scott Bessent spent over US$2 billion buying up pesos to prop up the currency. On Tuesday the Customs of the two countries signed an agreement in Washington for the exchange of information while boosting controls and modernising the system by replacing paperwork with digital techniques.
ISRAELI FM IN TOWN
President Javier Milei received Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in the Casa Rosada last Tuesday, accompanied by his visitor’s local counterpart Pablo Quirno and the ambassadors of the two countries (Eyal Sela here and Axel Wahnish there). Sa’ar had just arrived from Paraguay where he had been accompanied by a business delegation. Quirno confirmed that he was preparing a new visit by Milei to Israel to complete the transfer of the Argentine Embassy to Jerusalem. The next day National Security Minister Patricia Bullrich (in almost her last days in that post) met with Sa’ar to talk about the “struggle against terrorism.”
MUSSI DEAD AT 84
Berazategui Peronist Mayor Juan José Mussi died last Monday at the age of 84 in the middle of his sixth term after being hospitalised in the previous week with a lung ailment. Originally a doctor, Mussi’s political career spanned some four decades, interrupting his six mayoral terms for such provincial and national posts as being Buenos Aires Province Governor Eduardo Duhalde’s health minister and Environment secretary in the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration – on those occasions he usually had his son Juan Patricio Mussi (nine years mayor) replacing him in Berazategui City Hall. In the September provincial elections he drew up a purely municipal list in order to avoid siding with either Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof or ex-president Fernández de Kirchner but both paid him tribute – the latter as “a great mayor and a lifelong Peronist” while Kicillof called him “a tireless militant … and an exemplary comrade … We’re going to miss him.”
COP30 COPOUT
Argentine participation at the COP30 climate change summit in the northern Brazilian city of Belém do Pará between November 10 and 21 makes for a brief item as almost non-existent but at least it was not a total boycott like last year’s Baku COP 29 summit. The Casa Rosada delegation consisted of just three representatives headed by Eliana Saissac, director of Environmental Affairs at the Foreign Ministry – neither Sports, Environment and Tourism Secretary Daniel Scioli nor Environment Undersecretary Fernando Brom made the trip although both were listed. The latter’s resignation is reportedly sought as linked to previous Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos. The Climate Action Tracker rates Argentina’s policies and commitments as “critically insufficient” with the Javier Milei government projecting a denialist image. The governnment has announced that it will increase its 2030 limit of 359 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to 375 million for 2035. The main Argentine argument at Belém was “defence of sovereignty.” Such indifference to the environment did not prevent Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno from travelling to Uruguay on Wednesday to protest to his Uruguayan colleague Mario Lubetkin against the green hydrogen plant which the Montevideo government has authorised for construction in Paysandú, seeking to avoid the running battle over the pulp mills under Kirchnerite administrations. Installation of the plant by Chile’s HIF Global would “harm economic activities making rational use of the Uruguay River,” Quirno argued, also maintaining that it would represent "visual contamination" but the Uruguayan authorities insisted that all environmental norms were being respected. Quirno was accompanied by Entre Ríos Province Governor Rogelio Frigerio, among others.
ITALO-ARGENTINE OIL PARTNERSHIP
State energy company YPF announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Italy’s ENI to begin searching for oil in Uruguayan waters. Uruguay, through its state-owned oil company Ancap, has seven offshore areas with active exploration contracts held by international companies. The agreement between YPF and ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, or “National Hydrocarbons Corporation”) focuses on the possible exploration of a block located some 200 kilometres off the Uruguayan coast, according to the information from Montevideo. The area covers around 17,000 square kilometres and reaches a maximum depth of 4,100 metres. The probability of finding oil is rated at below 50 percent although YPF CEO Horacio Marín is slightly more optimistic.
MESSI SPONSOR DIES
AFA Argentine Football Association announced the death last weekend of Omar Souto, a historic manager of Argentine national football squads, after spending much of the past year in a wheelchair. Especially noted prior to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, he brought Lionel Messi into the Under-20 side although for a long time he thought his first name was Leonardo. He also helped to motivate Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez during the years when the 2022 World Cup champion goalie had scant playing time at Arsenal.
PASSIONS OF MULTITUDES
Recent football news included Lanús lifting its second South American Cup and its third international trophy in a goalless final against Belo Horizonte’s Atlético Mineiro in the Paraguayan capital of Asunción last weekend, winning 5-4 on penalties with goalie Nahuel Losada making three saves. The next day there was a new twist to the scandal of AFA Argentine Football Association President Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia’s arbitrary decision to invent a “league champion” title for Rosario Central when the players of Estudiantes de La Plata lined up for the required corridor of honour for the improvised champs but then turned their backs on them before beating them 1-0 – Tapia immediately spoke of disciplinary action. President Javier Milei then made a point of taking the side of Estudiantes by tweeting a photo of the red and white stripes of their shirt, accompanied by the message: “Honour to the School of Don Osvaldo [Zubeldía, the La Plata team’s most successful coach].” Meanwhile Tapia is potentially embroiled in the DGI tax bureau investigation of financier Ariel Vallejo, closely linked to the AFA and to its president personally, for money-laundering and tax evasion to the tune of over 800 billion pesos.
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