Four London AIM listed oil companies carrying out exploration work in Falkland Islands waters have been barred from operating in Argentina. The measure affects Borders & Southern Petroleum, Desire Petroleum, Argos Resources and Falkland Oil and Gas.
Falkland Islands lawmakers at their final assembly on Thursday thanked Argentine President Cristina Fernandez for her, undoubtedly unintended assistance in getting the Falklands story publicized world-wide and in repeated headlines, reported the latest edition of the Penguin News in its front page.
The Argentine government replied furiously on Sunday night to the latest chapter of journalist Jorge Lanata program on corruption in Argentina which so far had exposed top officials and protected businesspeople of the Kirchner couple administrations but on this occasion targeted President Cristina Fernandez and her non disclosed two-day visit last January to the Seychelles islands a renowned tax haven.
Mercosur as an only market ‘remains a fiction’ since it is missing the effective implementation and ironing out of trade and macroeconomic reforms, said Uruguayan foreign minister Luis Almagro, who went on to promote “double and triple membership” for Mercosur members.
In an extremely aggressive speech in the aftermath of primaries defeat, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez blasted the media for misinterpreting electoral results, charged against the Mayor of Tigre Sergio Massa who was the big winner on Sunday, pressed for full commitment from her allies and promised more of the same in support of the ‘socially inclusive model’.
Argentina’s Sunday primary was the worst election result for Kirchnerism since they first arrived to office in 2003, almost thirty percentage points below the 54% of Cristina Fernandez re-election in 2011 writes Rosendo Fraga, Argentine historian and political analyst.
President Cristina Fernandez Victory Front managed to remain as the leading political force nationwide on Sunday’s congressional primaries but her opponents emerged exceptionally strong in the all-important province of Buenos Aires and the other main districts of the country, to the extent that some political analysts anticipate the beginning of the end of the ten years of Kirchnerism.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez confirmed by writing that she would be attending the inauguration of Paraguayan president Horacio Cartes next Thursday 15 August, according the organization committee of the event in Asuncion, Ambassador Federico Gonzalez and head of Protocol at the Paraguayan foreign ministry.
On Sunday Argentina will go to the polls to select their candidates for the country’s upcoming October legislative elections. Though it may seem a trivial democratic chapter, the open, mandatory and simultaneous primaries will in fact be the first step in an election that is likely to prove critical to Argentina and most probably a referendum on President Cristina Fernandez’ administration.
This week’s incursion of President Cristina Fernandez at the United Nations Security Council, (because during August Argentina holds the rotating presidency of the council9 caught the attention of The Economist in a brief piece under the heading “Argentina, the Falklands and the UN: self determined”.