Provincial Candidacy Rejected for Re-election Technicality & more –8th June 2023

¡Buenos días from The Springs! This is the Rorshok Argentina Update from the 8th of June twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Argentina.

We’re less than three weeks away from the deadline for political parties to present their presidential candidates. As the 24th of June draws near, key political figures have been making high-profile announcements regarding their campaigns.

The Frente de Todos party, for example, confirmed that Victoria Tolosa Paz, the Minister of Social Development, will run for governor in the Buenos Aires Province. She will join a ticket headed by Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli, who unsuccessfully ran for president in twenty fifteen and is seeking another run this time. Tolosa Paz’s biggest challenge will be taking on the current governor, Axel Kicillof, in the PASO primaries in his bid for re-election.

Meanwhile, in the province of San Juan the Supreme Court rejected the candidacy of Sergio Uñac. He was planning on running for a third term in the province’s elections, but the provincial constitution establishes a maximum of two consecutive reelections. Uñac is finishing off his second term as governor and was vice governor before that, so his candidacy would be constitutional only if the reelection limit applied to a specific office—in this case, running for governor because he has been reelected once for that role.

Either way, the Supreme Court decided to reject the notion that the two roles are different, so he won’t be able to run.

This whole debate led to the temporary suspension of the provincial elections, but a new date has been set for the 2nd of July.

Regarding the opposition, Juntos por el Cambio has been holding talks with political leaders such as José Luis Espert and Margarita Stolbizer. The opposition coalition is looking to expand their alliances in the run-up to the elections with the goal of guaranteeing change.

According to Buenos Aires Mayor and presidential candidate Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, they were also in talks with Córdoba Governor Juan Schiaretti. However, he confirmed on the 6th of June that he would not join forces with Juntos por el Cambio, as an alliance would represent too big of a compromise on the ideals from both sides.

Schiaretti is a center-right figure who supports the political ideals of Peronism and the human rights agenda, but disagrees with Kirchnerism on issues such as the role of the state and rural policy.

Moving on from the topic of the upcoming elections, tens of thousands of Argentines turned out for the annual Ni Una Menos (or Not one less) anti-gender violence march, just days after a young woman was killed by a coworker who had harassed her. The iconic annual Ni una menos march was born in twenty fifteen, when hundreds of people took to the streets after the killing of fourteen-year-old Chiara Páez. On top of gender violence, the march is also meant to call attention to economic inequalities, which many consider a form of violence in itself for limiting women’s ability to extract themselves from dangerous situations.

Unfortunately, the numbers aren’t dropping, with over 250 women killed in femicides last year.

As we hope for winds of change, so does Celeste Saulo, the head of the UN’s weather and climate agency., who was the head of Argentina’s National Meteorological Service since twenty fourteen, was recently appointed as the head of the World Meteorological Organization. The WMO pieces together the work of national weather agencies in monitoring greenhouse gasses, sea levels, temperatures, glacier melting and other climate change indicators.

In an interview last week, Saulo voiced deep concern that some countries were not getting the message about the effects of pumping ever more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

On that note about emissions, Argentina’s flagship carrier, Aerolíneas Argentinas, will start operating regular flights to the US from the Jorge Newbery airport. Known as Aeroparque and located in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires City, this airport usually operates domestic flights. However, as of the 7th of August, it will start operating international flights to Miami and New York.

The Miami flights will operate Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The New York route will have three weekly flights on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

In other business-related news, Newmont Corp, the world’s largest gold producer, is planning to invest about 540 million dollars in its Cerro Negro gold mine in Argentina. The American mining corporation’s project will extend the mine’s life in the province of Santa Cruz until twenty thirty-four, according to the government.

Speaking of millions, exporters sold more than five billion dollars at the “agro dollar,” a preferential exchange rate for soybean exports launched in April. More than one billion of the total amount was liquidated on Wednesday the 31st by soybean exporters, a record-high for a single day.

On the topic of energy, President Fernández and his Bolivian counterpart Luis Arce inaugurated the Juana Azurduy de Padilla electroduct. Located in the Bolivian city of Yacuiba, this is the first power line to connect the neighboring countries’ power grids. It will allow Argentina to import energy from Bolivia, as well as improve the voltage levels in the northernmost regions at times of peak demand.

During the inauguration speech on the 1st of June, Fernández also addressed the UNASUR, a regional cooperation organization established in two thousand eight by leftist presidents. However, the initiative faced challenges when right-wing governments took power in certain countries and withdrew from the organization. Last week, a summit of South American presidents in Brazil marked the initial efforts towards reopening UNASUR.

The UNASUR is not beyond rescue yet, but the Argentine soy giant Vicentin may be. After the company’s bankruptcy three years ago, a consortium led by Viterra and Bunge agreed to restructure the company’s 1.3 billion dollar debt and take over its operations. However, prolonged proceedings in a provincial bankruptcy court and a devastating drought have put the deal at risk.

The drought led to a decline in soybean deliveries to Vicentin and reduced their revenue from processing fees. The consequences could include plant closures, job losses, and the endangerment of the company’s takeover.

Speaking of taking over, the Argentine former footballer Javier Morales was appointed as the interim head coach of the Major League Soccer team Inter Miami CF. He is not the only Argentina national in the team, as goalkeeping coach Sebastián Saja and the head coach of Inter’s reserve team Federico Higuaín are also part of the club.

Perhaps it was this distinctly Argentine feel to the club that prompted Lionel Messi to choose Inter Miami for the next chapter in his career.

After considering a series of high-profile offers from clubs in Saudi Arabia, England and more, the thirty-five-year-old star finally announced that he will sign with the US team. He also explained that he hopes leaving the European football scene will take some of the pressure off and allow him to enjoy his day-to-day life more.

Messi has spent the last two seasons at Paris Saint-Germain, and played his final game for the club on Saturday the 3rd. Many fans are disappointed to see him bring his years in Europe to a close, as they expected the footballer to go back to Barcelona, where he spent the majority of his career.

Since we’re talking about Messi we have to discuss the upcoming friendly against Australia in Beijing. Fans in China are outraged by the price of tickets, which are as high as 680 dollars. Many took to social media in the last few days to complain about the “robbery” and scalpers offering VIP tickets for over 18,000 yuan (or 2,500 dollars).

On the other side of the spectrum, Taylor Swift sold out three stadium shows in Buenos Aires, and US and Europe fans can’t believe the prices. Excluding fees, tickets in the standing-room area closest to the stage sold for 75,000 pesos, or about 150 dollars, according to the informal exchange rates.

While that may be a king’s ransom for plenty of locals, it’s significantly lower than secondary market tickets for US shows. Much to the rage of Latin American fans, US fans are weighing the cost of a full trip to Buenos Aires against the price of a single resale ticket in the United States.

Aaaand that's it for this week. You know every week we work hard to pick what the most important stuff is in Argentina. What's talked about the most, what's big but flies under the radar. All the main stuff. Are we getting the mix right? Not a specific thing we have missed? what types of information do you want more or less of? Let us know at argentina@rorshok.com

¡Nos vemos la próxima semana!