A controversy has erupted in Argentina following lawmakers vote to double their congressional income while the federal government is cutting on subsidies and expenditure and has suggested ‘salary moderation’ for the coming round of negotiations with a roof of 20%.
A huge pulp mill, UPM, which has been at the heart of a several years’ controversy between Uruguay and Argentina, does not contaminate revealed Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro before the Uruguayan parliament.
Chilean Foreign Affairs minister Alfredo Moreno denied rumours that Argentina had requested Chile to join a blockade of the Falklands Islands and also reassured that the government of President Cristina Fernandez has not questioned the commercial air link between Santiago and the Islands.
The Argentine Catholic Church supports the country’s claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands but also called on the Executive and the rest of the Argentine leadership not to use the Malvinas issue with a political purpose.
Relations with the Uruguayan government couldn’t be better, with no obstacles ahead, and much of the success of the Uruguayan economy is influenced by Argentina, said ambassador in Montevideo Dante Dovena.
At least 24 people were injured after Argentine police using rubber bullets, tear gas, dogs and riot vehicles violently cleared demonstrators blocking a national route to protest a mining project by Swiss and Canadian companies in the northeast of the country.
Argentina’s consumer prices inflation reached 0.9% in January, accumulating 9.7% in the last twelve months according to the official Indec national statistics bureau. The index is less than half the private estimate or “Congress index”, 1.9%.
UN British ambassador warned Argentina on Friday that Britain would “robustly” defend the Falkland Islands if necessary, but added that his country remained open to bilateral talks with Buenos Aires on any issue except the Islands' sovereignty.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope that Argentina and the United Kingdom can avoid escalating their dispute over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and resolve their differences through dialogue.
The Argentine government sees with good eyes that a Uruguayan trade delegation travelled to the Falklands/Malvinas in spite of the ‘dialectic conflict’ with the UK over the sovereignty of the Islands, said the Argentine ambassador in Montevideo, Dante Dovena.