INFLATION DIPS
Last month’s inflation was 2.6 percent, the INDEC national statistics bureau reported on Thursday afternoon), almost a percentage point down from March’s 3.4 percent and the first reversal of the upward trend in the last 10 months. Inflation has thus increased 12.3 percent so far this year at an annual rate of 32.4 percent. These figures were in line with the projections of the economic team and private consultants. Core inflation (excluding regulated and seasonal prices with the former rising 4.7 percent) was 2.3 percent. Transport was the leading culprit at 4.4 percent, driven by rising fuel prices (on the same day YPF upped its petrol prices by one percent), followed by education (4.2 percent) while the key item of food and beverages was 1.5 percent. Economy Minister Luis Caputo celebrated the figure as “the lowest in five months.” On Monday City Hall reported very similar figures with April inflation 2.5 percent (down from March’s three percent) and food and beverages 1.4 percent but transport was even worse at 5.4 percent.
ADORNI STILL NEWS
A new witness testified for the prosecution against Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni last Wednesday – José Rodríguez, owner of a house in the Indio Cuá gated community in Exaltación de la Cruz, confirmed that Adorni rented the property from him for US$15,400 for three months while his own place was being refurbished for almost quarter a million dollars, paying in cash. Adorni already knew the house from having rented it for US$5,600 (also paid in cash) in the summer of 2024 when he was presidential spokesman. Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita also has his eye on Adorni’s cryptocurrency movements. Meanwhile, opposition deputies were unable to guarantee Congress quorum in midweek in order to request a special session to press Adorni further on his irregular transactions. The drive was headed by the socialist deputy Esteban Paulón (Provincias Unidas-Santa Fe), backed by some other Provincias Unidas deputies and other provincial parties, the left and Coalición Cívica but not the Peronist Unión por la Patria, which was afraid of losing the vote and wished to head the initiative itself rather than follow Paulón’s lead. On the same day Buenos Aires provincial deputy Franciso Adorni (elected last September), the Cabinet Chief’s brother, was indicted by federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuán on charges of embezzlement and money-laundering mounted by maverick libertarian deputy Marcela Pagano on the basis of purchase of a Jeep Renegade and the cancellation of a 60-million-peso Bapro (Buenos Aires provincial bank) mortgage in only a year. Also in midweek Adorni’s predecessor Guillermo Francos defended the government in a Rotary Club speech beginning: “I’m not going to talk about Adorni.”
UNIVERSITY MARCH
Students and academic staff, accompanied by opposition parties and trade unionists bringing the total of demonstrators up to an estimated 120,000 (600,000, according to the University of Buenos Aires), marched on Plaza de Mayo last Tuesday to urge the Javier Milei administration to comply with the law of university financing upheld by Congress seven months ago. There were also rallies in several inland cities. The marchers were further provoked by new educational budget cuts totalling 78.7 billion pesos. President Milei dismissed the march as an “opposition rally.”
REIDEL IN DOCK?
Indicted on May 7 by prosecutor Ramiro González, presidential advisor Damián Reidel – the head of Nucleoeléctrica Argentina SA state company until last February – now faces a trial headed by federal judge Daniel Rafecas to investigate the scandal of irregular corporate credit card spending to the tune of US$313,000, including beach services in Valencia, discotheques in Madrid, the purchase of sports clothes in duty-free shops, hotels, restaurants, pubs and even hairdressers around the world. Reidel has denied any personal expenses on his account, saying that he has “nothing to hide.”
THIEL APPEAL
Economy Minister Luis Caputo, his deputy minister José Luis Daza and Central Bank Governor Santiago Bausili met up with German-born United States multi-billionaire Peter Thiel last Tuesday (during the fourth Federal University March) to discuss an agenda of “numerous current economic and geopolitical issues,” according to the minister. The Palantir Technologies CEO of previous PayPal and Facebook fame was joined by his husband, Thiel Capital portfolio manager Matt Danzeisen. Thiel had already been received in the Casa Rosada by President Javier Milei late last month, also meeting spin doctor Santiago Caputo. The meeting between the economic team and Thiel was seen as a government bid to convince the libertarian tycoon to sink some of his almost US$30 billion into this country under the benefits of the upcoming Super RIGI incentive scheme for major investments (including a corporate tax reduced to 15 percent). Thiel for his part was viewed as aiming to sell to the Argentine state his systems for the Big Data mass analysis of information. Embattled Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni celebrated: “I take advantage of this occasion to say to all the world’s billionaires who wish to flee their increasingly regulated and taxed countries with states persecuting their citizens that they are welcome to the Argentine Republic, the new land of liberty.” Just before last weekend Caputo gave a press conference to promote his Super RIGI, underlining that its aims went beyond energy and mining to new sectors such as lithium batteries.
GERMANS SEEK AUSGANG
After 23 years of running an Argentine branch, the German agrochemical firm Helm wants out in the course of this year. The decision, taken by the company helm, stems from two main reasons: the “financial risk” from the prolonged delay with tax returnables amounting to some US$5 million and the repatriation of dividends and secondly, a brutal fall in profits with the economy opening up to Chinese competition. Helm hired a total of 30 employees, of whom half have already been fired while their invoicing reached US$30-40 million but their profit margins have been halved in recent years.
YELLOW NOT PURPLE
The centre-right PRO party last weekend distanced itself from the La Libertad Avanza (LLA) government with a harsh communiqué accusing it of “arrogance” and asking the citizenry to make “sacrifices which they themselves are not inclined to make.” The party, which has backed almost all government reforms in Congress while joining its electoral alliances in last October’s midterms, continued: “Accompanying change is not to applaud everything … That is true loyalty.” The text warned: “There is a difference between the macro numbers improving and your life improving” before underlining: “Change has two enemies: the standard populism which promises much and destroys everything and those who halt change from within with arrogance or asking for sacrifices which they are not ready to make.” Instead PRO pledged to go for “more roads, more hospitals and better education.” According to libertarian sources, the government is not taking this criticism to heart, dismissing it as jockeying for higher slots on next year’s lists of candidates when most PRO voters have migrated to LLA, with whom City Mayor Jorge Macri proposes alliance.
BARADEL NOW HISTORY
María Laura Torre was elected the new secretary-general of SUTEBA Buenos Aires Province teachers union last Thursday, thus ending two decades of dominance by Roberto Baradel who did not run. The new SUTEBA chief pledged continued confrontation with the national Javier Milei administration.
TESLA TUSSLE
An unlicensed Tesla Cybertruck priced at up to US$300,000 and belonging to deputy Manuel Quintar (La Libertad Avanza-Jujuy) was towed away from the underground Congress parking-lot last Thursday. Quintar previously drove a Mercedes Benz, reportedly paying US$126,000 for the Tesla. Congress Speaker Martín Menem denied expressing annoyance over the episode.
INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE
Digitally leaked voice messages have revealed an alleged plot by the United States, Israel, Honduras and Argentina to destabilise leftist governments in Latin America, orchestrated by Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández (pardoned on the cusp of last year’s Honduran elections by US President Donald Trump when serving a 45-year prison sentence for drug-trafficking), according to the digital Diario Red, founded by Spanish Podemos far-left leader Pablo Iglesias. The voice messages include an alleged dialogue between Hernández and current Honduran President Nasry Asfura assuring the former that his pardon was engineered by Israel. Also recorded are conversations where Hernández asks President Asfura for US$150,000 to assemble files against Mexico and Colombia and where he refers to President Javier Milei contributing US$350,000 to his project “to extirpate the cancer of the left” in Latin America. Both Presidents Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Claudia Sheinbaum (Mexico) reacted to these revelations of the “international right” spreading fake news.
SUPERSONIC ROCKET
A 60-strong interdisciplinary student team from ITBA (Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires) participating for the third year running in the International Rocket Engineering Competition in Texas between June 15 and 20 have designed the supersonic rocket “Aconcagua,” aiming at bursting the sound barrier for the first time for an Argentine university team at an altitude of 30,000 feet. The ITBA Rocketry Team was born in 2022 as a student project geared to positioning Argentina within the aerospace industry at university level, finishing 42nd out of 143 participants in 2024.
MILE HIGH CLUB DENIED RECRUITS
A middle-aged couple aboard a Copa Airlines flight between Panama and Rosario ended up under arrest for their attempt to join the “mile high club” by engaging in sexual intercourse at high altitude in the small hours of last Saturday.
EU DAY CELEBRATION
More than 800 guests gathered at the Bolsa de Cereales in Buenos Aires last Thursday evening as the European Union marked ‘Europe Day’ in style. Diplomats, business leaders, academics and cultural figures were in attendance at the celebration, which was hosted by the European Union Ambassador to Argentina, Erik Høeg, and his wife, Consuelo Cespedosa. The event reflected both the history of European cooperation and the growing ties between Europe and South America. Europe Day commemorates the famous Schuman Declaration of May 9, 1950, widely regarded as the starting point of the modern European Union. In his address to guests, Ambassador Høeg highlighted the significance of the recently enacted European Union-Mercosur trade agreement, describing it as the most ambitious trade deal ever implemented, connecting 31 countries and some 700 million people. He also highlighted the role immigration had played in national history, noting that “Europe really is in Argentina’s DNA.” Ambassador Høeg also spoke of the importance of support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, a subject that has fallen from national debate considerably over the past year. Meanwhile, several of Buenos Aires’ best-loved landmarks – including the Puente de la Mujer and Floralis Genérica sculpture – were turned blue and gold in honour of Europe Day. Celebrations even spread beyond the capital, with Córdoba and Tucumán joining in the illuminations for the first time.
