For the third night in ten days angry Argentines took to the streets of Buenos Aires and other major cities banging pots and pans to protest corruption, rampant crime and insecurity, inflation and the dollar clamp in the midst of an economy that is showing clear signals of exhaustion and growing questions on the current course of affairs.
Industrial activity in Argentina dropped 3% in April compared to the same month a year ago, with the first four months closing with 1.1% growth, although with a declining tendency according to the latest data from the Argentine Industrial Union, UIA.
Argentina is rapidly becoming an expensive country for tourists and evidence of this is the declining number of tourists arriving in the country in the first months of the year while the number of Argentine travelling overseas is soaring, according to Mario Lielman, chair of the Buenos Aires Tourism and Travel Agencies Association.
UK Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne turned down on Friday an invitation sent by Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman to visit Argentina. Timerman had hoped to meet with the UK government official in Buenos Aires when Browne makes his trip to the Falkland Islands next week.
The Argentine Government warned that it has no plans to change the farming sector's agenda, therefore will not meet with members of the Liaison Board amid a national strike that began on Wednesday to protest against the property tax hikes in the Buenos Aires province.
Fiji will continue to be part of the consensus in support of the UN Decolonization Committee resolution regarding the Falklands/Malvinas dispute, anticipated the Pacific islands Foreign Affairs minister following a meeting with the non-resident Argentine Ambassador to Fiji, H.E. Pedro Villagra Delgado.
New Zealanders have been misinformed about the battle for the Falkland Islands between Great Britain and Argentina in 1982, the South American country's ambassador to New Zealand has told an audience in Palmerston North.
Argentina is trying to impose an economic blockade on the Falkland Islands, said Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne who made plain clear that the people of the Falklands are free to determine their own political arrangements and were not to be part of ”some sort of trade-off” over their heads.
The UK regretted as ‘misfortunate” and “strange” the announced attendance of Argentine president Cristina Fernandez next week to the UN Decolonisation Committee to claim sovereignty over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands.
President Cristina Fernandez has yet to fulfil her wish to have the whole Argentine opposition represented next to her when she addresses the UN Decolonization Committee claiming sovereignty over the disputed Falklands/Malvinas Islands next week.