Macri relishes more relaxed meeting with Pope Francis
Sunday, October 16, 2016 Macri relishes more relaxed meeting with Pope FrancisPope Francis poses with President Mauricio Macri, second from right, his wife Juliana Awada, second from left, and their children, Agustina Macri (left), Antonia Macri (centre) and Valentina Barbier (right) on the occasion of their private audience at the Vatican yesterday. President remarks that ‘many people claim to represent the pope and they do not’ following meeting“Be strong and go forward,” was the piece of advice Pope Francis gave to President Mauricio Macri at the end of their second meeting this year yesterday at the Vatican, according to Argentina’s head of state. “It was a good meeting, as I believe they always have been — like those between two people who have known each other for a long time,” Macri said. Francis also appeared to lend his backing to the government’s controversial amplification of the so-called “war on drugs,” according to Macri. “It’s a battle that cannot be lost,” Francis reportedly told Macri during the meeting.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 16, 2016 04:52 UTC
The old order changeth
As I see it Sunday, October 16, 2016 The old order changethBy James NeilsonFor the HeraldLuckily for Hillary Clinton, the US election campaign is all about the sheer horribleness of Donald Trump. Thanks to Trump, she has been able to avoid talking about unpleasant issues that, in a less bizarre situation, would surely dominate the agenda. In Turkey, Iran and North Korea, ruthless characters eager to take full advantage of the superpower’s retreat are on the move. For millennia, the Chinese leaders placed themselves at the centre of world affairs and expected foreign potentates to pay them the tribute they deserved. The many who assume that a Chinese world order would be far more agreeable for their country than the one that is falling apart should bear this in mind.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 16, 2016 04:52 UTC
Vidal mixes old and new in police reform
Sunday, October 16, 2016 Vidal mixes old and new in police reformWith tackling crime as one of the main goals of her administration, Buenos Aires Governor María Eugenia Vidal has had to tread a fine line between continuity and turning the provincial police inside out since she was sworn-in in December. Plans to reform the Buenos Aires Penitentiary Service are also underway. Old habitsDespite the efforts at reform, it is clear that the Bonaerense has not completely won over the Vidal administration as officers from four federal security branches have been set aside to be dispatched to Greater Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata in the coming days amid concerns over growing violence and drug-trafficking. Vidal did replace Hugo Matzkin, the former head of the police, with Pablo Bressi — a Bonaerense insider who had been in charge of the drug trafficking unit before his promotion. The provincial administration vowed to investigate Bressi and so far has said that it has found no evidence of wrongdoing, ensuring that in the first face-off between politics and the police, Vidal sided with her top cop.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 16, 2016 04:52 UTC
Scant job creation expected next year despite growth forecast
Sunday, October 16, 2016 Scant job creation expected next year despite growth forecastWorkers at a construction site to build an office building and shopping mall in a residential area in Buenos Aires, Argentina, September 20, 2016. Job figures in the construction have been hit badly and there is debate about the scope of a recovery in 2017. “Workers will be given overtime again, suspensions from car manufacturers will be less likely, but job creation not so much,” he argued. “But you also have to factor in population growth,” she added. With the population growing, the half decade (and counting) of scant job creation starts looking like one of decline.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 16, 2016 04:52 UTC
‘Kirchner wanted to move away from Peronism’
Sunday, October 16, 2016 ‘Kirchner wanted to move away from Peronism’By Agustina LarreaHerald StaffJournalist Mario Wainfeld analyzes what the late president represented for his party, progressive forcesIn his recent book Kirchner. So, he had the chance and, unlike other political leaders, he accepted. Many other political leaders —of course not the fearful ones — would have done the same. But he never said, “I retract from Peronism.” He said, “I move away from pejotismo, I hate it.” Seeing this now one can say that Kirchner always wanted and could never move away from Peronism. So first with the “transversality” and then with the Concertación, Kirchner wanted to leave and couldn’t.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 16, 2016 04:52 UTC
The electronic vote, a political suicide
Sunday, October 16, 2016 The electronic vote, a political suicideBy Mempo GiardinelliFor the HeraldIt is widely known, proverbial even, that the Argentine political class commits suicide every now and then. That is why the government is now seeking to hastily apply the single electronic ballot system throughout the country starting with next year’s elections. Electronic voting is, at this moment, the greatest immediate danger facing Argentine democracy. A true detritus of the wonderful cybernetic progress of these times, the single electronic ballot system is being questioned and has faced backlash throughout the world because it fundamentally thwarts the voters’ control over the elections. This is why England, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and Finland have already banned electronic voting after trying it out for a few years.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 16, 2016 04:07 UTC
BA Expat Comedy: Stand-Up Comedy in English is Back!
BA Expat Comedy is back! The self-proclaimed “best and only stand up show in English in Buenos Aires” returns on Thursday nights to bring in the weekend with a laugh. Eliana La Casa was up next, playing the part of the sex-crazed millennial girl-next-door well, with entertaining insights into dating and the Tinder scene in Buenos Aires. And more laughs is exactly what the BA Expat Comedy crew intend to deliver with their arrival back onto the stage this evening. BA Expat Comedy: 8pm, Taburete Comedy Club (Jorge Luis Borges 1655).
Source:The Argentina Independent
October 13, 2016 13:52 UTC
Sarmiento tunnelling finally kicks off
Thursday, October 13, 2016 Sarmiento tunnelling finally kicks offThe tunneling of the Sarmiento train line could take up to four years and has a budget of US$3 billion. The works have a budget of US$3 billion and a consortium by the name of Consorcio Nuevo Sarmiento (CNS) will carry out the works. The tunnelling machine, named the Argentina, reportedly cost 40 million euros and requires a 15-person team of specialists to operate. Only in March of this year three bids were awarded to SES SA, of which Caputo has a 50 percent stake, by the City of Buenos Aires. Re-launchThe announcement that the tunnelling machine was finally starting up after having been initially moved into place in 2012 included the presence of Transport Minister Guillermo Dietrich, Buenos Aires Governor María Eugenia Vidal and Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 13, 2016 03:33 UTC
Hipólito Yrigoyen: 100 Years On from the People’s First President
The man you’re seeing is Hipólito Yrigoyen, and there’s a reason he’s being so widely celebrated now. And 100 years ago today, he become the country’s first president elected via a popular, secret vote. Though sanctioned under president Luis Saenz Peña in 1912, it nonetheless would pave the way for Yrigoyen to take the presidency four years later. And it was a moment Yrigoyen would have trouble repeating while in office. The Radical party itself was never the same after Yrigoyen.
Source:The Argentina Independent
October 12, 2016 16:18 UTC
Victims of Crime Lead March Against Injustice and Impunity
Thousands of demonstrators packed the Plaza de Congreso yesterday evening to call for justice for the victims of “insecurity, injustice, and impunity” in Argentina. Maciel and Novaresio read a list of demands that included creating a registry that would record victims and crimes that had gone unpunished. They called for legal processes that fairly include victims in their own cases, and for the provision of effective legal assistance to victims. Earlier in the day, Gustavo Ferrari, the Minister of Justice for Buenos Aires province, said that the government had been working on new legislation to ensure more transparent legal processes and legal counsel to victims. Despite harsh rhetoric aimed at the state’s law enforcement and legal institutions, the event also displayed national pride.
Source:The Argentina Independent
October 12, 2016 11:37 UTC
Buenos Aires Hosts First National Asado Competition
Argentina's First National Asado Competition from Argentina Indy on Vimeo. The first National Asado Competition took place on the streets of Buenos Aires this weekend. As they heated up their grill, Daniel and Diego from Jujuy claimed that “it’s essential to have good meat and charcoal. “The secret of a good asado is to have patience, good charcoal, and good fuel to make a fire which never goes out. You need patience to cook, you can’t cook an asado in half an hour or in an hour.
Source:The Argentina Independent
October 12, 2016 04:30 UTC
Peru ex-president Humala faces graft probe
Wednesday, October 12, 2016 Peru ex-president Humala faces graft probePeru’s then-president Ollanta Humala (right) and his wife Nadine Heredia attending a ceremony at the Government Palace in Lima, in 2015. A Peruvian prosecutor said earlier this year that the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, and two Brazilian construction companies may have bankrolled Humala’s presidential campaigns before he took office in 2011. Representatives for Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Earlier this year prosecutors barred Heredia from leaving the country as they probed her finances for evidence of undeclared contributions. But in 2011, after losing the 2006 presidential election, Humala kept Chávez at a distance and won after campaigning in the more moderate style.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 12, 2016 03:00 UTC
Rosario is Bleeding: Inside A City’s Struggle Against Violence
The cries for justice and accountability echoed loudly in the city of Rosario on the evening of 8th September 2016. Rosario Sangra – ‘Rosario is Bleeding’ – was the cry. This kind of violence is all too routine for the citizens of Argentina’s third largest city, home to around 1.3m people including the greater Rosario area. In recent years the violence plaguing the city has received its fair share of national, and even international media coverage. The streets of Rosario, left once again to the patrol of the provincial police, slowly but surely began to succumb to high levels of violence.
Source:The Argentina Independent
October 11, 2016 20:17 UTC
CGT escalates ‘strike’ threat
Tuesday, October 11, 2016 CGT escalates ‘strike’ threatUnion and gov’t meet tomorrow to discuss end-of-year bonus, income taxes and other demandsWith the government’s 10-day grace period set to expire tomorrow, the CGT umbrella union warned yesterday that it will mobilize and organize an imminent general strike if it doesn’t receive an adequate response to the demands of its members. If Macri’s Cabinet doesn’t give the union any satisfactory proposals to their demands, the CGT promised to put their words to action and go on strike. “If the response from the government isn’t satisfactory, there will be a strike,” announced Carlos Acuña, who is part of the triumvirate leading the union. CGT finance secretary Abel Frutos also confirmed that a strike would be called, and that they only needed to fix a date. Dissent withinAlthough the CGT leadership almost confirmed yesterday that they would strike, other union leaders have upped the pressure on the triumvirate to take more assertive action or they would leave.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 11, 2016 02:37 UTC
Legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda dies
Monday, October 10, 2016 Legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda diesAndrzej Wajda speaks at the opening of a retrospective of his movies held on the occasion of his birthday in Warsaw, in March, 2016. Wajda had recently been hospitalized and died last night, his colleague, film director Jacek Bromski, told the Associated Press. “In 1945 it experienced an influx of Paris-educated professors, who painted beautifully in the French postimpressionist manner,” Wajda once said. They initiated a new current called the “Polish Film School,” which tells the stories of folk heroes from both during and after the war and challenges the national tradition of martyrdom and romantic heroism in art. In 2011, continuing the mission of the school, Wajda and Marczewski founded a film production studio — The Wajda Studio, which focuses on auteur film projects.
Source:Bueno Aires Herald
October 10, 2016 03:33 UTC