BULLRICH BEGS TO DIFFER
In a message exposing internal differences within the government, Senator Patricia Bullrich (La Libertad Avanza-City) confirmed last Monday that she had told President Javier Milei of her disagreement with the decision to withdraw the nomination of María Verónica Michelli for a federal judge’s bench on the grounds that she is the sister-in-law of journalist Hugo Alconada Mon who is exploring cases of government corruption. She followed this up the next day by offering to resign from the caucus chair of the ruling party but Milei asked her to stay on while Bullrich accompanied her dissent with the words: “I am part of this project and support with conviction the historic transformation being pushed by President Javier Milei.” Last month Bullrich caused tension in libertarian ranks when she pressured Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni (under investigation for illegal enrichment) to present his sworn statement of assets by presenting her own over 10 weeks ahead of the deadline, thus annoying presidential chief-of-staff Karina Milei, whose defence of Adorni is adamant. Thursday saw the Senate stick to its guns over their earlier approval of Michelli at committee level in open defiance of the Milei government, voting 44-18 in favour of her nomination with all negative votes coming from La Libertad Avanza. Formosa libertarian senator Francisco Paoltroni broke party ranks to vote approval while Bullrich (pleading “objections of conscience”) and Silvina Schneider (Radical-Chaco) abstained. The other 73 judicial nominations (including Emilio Rosatti, the son of Supreme Court Chief Justice Horacio Rosatti, despite Peronist opposition) were approved with comfortable majorities.
FEMICIDE BECOMES HOT ISSUE
Thousands of women marched on Congress last Wednesday to mark the 11th anniversary of the ’Ni una menos’ movement against femicide, which overlapped with the nationwide shock and indignation over the brutal murder of 14-year-old Agostina Vega, whose lifeless and mutilated corpse was found in Córdoba in bits last Saturday after going missing for a week. This crime had already provoked a massive demonstration on the day and in that city to demand justice amid serious clashes with the provincial police using tear gas and rubber bullets. Claudio Barrelier, 33, an ex-partner of Agostina’s mother, has been arrested for the crime as the last person to see the girl alive and with a criminal record as an Instituto de Córdoba hooligan, including kidnapping and stripping a woman who managed to escape after almost three weeks of captivity. According to Wednesday’s massive march on Congress, which disrupted traffic, there have been more than 3,400 femicides in Argentina during the 11 years of Ni una menos, including 99 so far this year through to last week.
HOMICIDES DOWN
National Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva held a press conference last Monday to assure that homicide in Argentina fell to a record low last year at 3.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, as compared to Colombia’s 23.2 or Ecuador’s 50.9. The 2025 murder rate was 7.3 percent down from the previous year and 18.7 percent lower than the end of 2023 when the Javier Milei administration entered office, she continued. Meanwhile robberies had fallen by over 17 percent, the minister added. Monteoliva refused to consider female deaths to be automatically femicides, saying: “Last year 279 women were victims, of whom 200 were categorised as femicides.” Asked about the brutal murder of Agostina Vega, her reply was: “The most important thing is to learn the complete truth.”
MILLIONAIRE EX-OFFICIAL IN TROUBLE
Facundo Leal, 52, an ex-official with almost two decades in strategic state posts including stints heading ARSAT and ORSNA airport regulatory agency, was arrested last weekend after a court raid in which some US$650,000 in cash, drugs (chiefly ketamine and ecstasy) and electronic devices were found in his Palermo flat while a subsequent raid on his Mendoza home turned up a further US$1.7 million. The investigation seeking to clarify the disappearance of valuable technological equipment from ARSAT did not have Leal as its original focus but the case took on a quantum leap after the weekend raids. Throughout his career Leal was considered a political middleman good at “opening doors” and bypassing red tape – apparently not free of charge judging from the sums of greenbacks found in his possession. Leal resigned as head of ORSNA early this year, presumably pressured over having used an aircraft belonging to AFA Argentine Football Association treasurer Pablo Toviggino to fly to Barcelona.
GLACIERS LAW TUSSLE
The Comodoro Rivadavia Federal Appeals Court last Monday issued a key ruling in favour of government policies when it overruled the injunction suspending the application of the reformed Glaciers Law (Law No. 27,804) in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz. The injunction had originally been issued by the Río Gallegos Federal Court at the behest of the municipal authorities of El Calafate but the Comodoro Rivadavia judges ruled that it lacked authority to halt a law passed by Congress at national level and nor had it backed up the alleged risks of that law with concrete evidence. They also argued that the Mayor of El Calafate lacked the legitimacy to arrogate the representation of the entire province.
FREE HAND FOR AI
President Javier Milei added Financial Times columnist to his repertoire when he penned an opinion piece proposing a special totally deregulated legal régime for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in his country. He argued that such a régime could play the same pioneering role in world history as the creation of the Dutch East India Company in 1602 for modern capitalism (ignoring that England’s East India Company was chartered two years previously on the last day of 1600), taking human endeavour to new heights of productivity. His proposal would include a new business category: the “non-human corporation” peopled entirely by robots and AI avatars, as well as generous tax breaks. Milei further boasted that his government’s fiscal surplus and deregulation thus far had taken Argentina up 20 places in the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, showing the country to be “open to business.”
ANOTHER US TRIP FOR MILEI
President Javier Milei is planning a flight to the United States next month to join in the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence. Milei’s 18th trip stateside will also serve the purpose of underlining his total alignment with the Donald Trump presidency while wooing investment with over 330 US companies already active in this country, according to government data.
ANOTHER PRIZE FOR MESSI
Football superstar Lionel Messi was awarded Spain’s Premio Princesa de Asturias de los Deportes 2026 prize last Wednesday for his “dazzling talent,” for being “the most successful footballer of all time with more titles than anybody else in the history of football” and also for “his formidable and continuous work to promote access to education and healthcare for the most underprivileged children.” Messi triumphed over 26 rival candidates from a dozen countries on the strength of winning eight Golden Balls, six Golden Boots and being The Best FIFA Men’s Player thrice. He will be awarded the prize on October 23 at a solemn event headed by the Spanish royal family. Tennis superstar Serena Williams was last year’s winner.
SANFILIPPO NO MORE
Former centre forward José Francisco Sanfilippo, who shone in San Lorenzo and the Argentine national squad over six decades ago, died last Thursday at the age of 91. Sanfilippo lifted three national trophies and played in two World Cups (1958 and 1962) in the course of his brilliant career, which saw him score a total of 344 goals, 205 of them for San Lorenzo and 18 for Argentina. But he also played for Boca Juniors and Banfield and even abroad with Nacional in Uruguay and Bahia in Brazil. Less than modest about his achievements, he was a controversial figure in the media, boasting about his “perfect” football skills.
UBEDA OUT IN BOCA
Boca Juniors club authorities announced on Monday morning that Claudio Ubeda would not be staying on as the first team’s coach after confirming that his contract would not be renewed beyond its expiry at the end of the month. While Ubeda’s track record could have been worse with 17 wins (two of them over River Plate in the superderby), seven draws and eight defeats, his failure to clinch any titles doomed him. Club President Juan Román Riquelme is now on the lookout for a coach capable of absorbing the immediate pressure to win local and international tournaments.
