Argentina

• Friday, February 21st 2025 - 09:38 UTC

  Argentine Senate okays no PASO elections and in absentia trials

  

  Argentina's Senate Thursday passed a bill suspending the Primary, Open, Simultaneous, and Mandatory (PASO) elections for 2025 with 43 affirmative votes, 20 against, and six abstentions. The initiative simplifies the electoral process and leaves it up to each political force to appoint its candidates in the manner they see fit. In addition, the Upper House approved the Trial in Absentia bill, which among other things would allow the Iranians accused of the 1994 AMIA bombing to be tried. Thursday's session also highlighted internal parliamentary divisions among the various legislative blocs.

• Thursday, February 20th 2025 - 19:58 UTC

  Spanish Labor Minister announces tour of Argentina and Uruguay

  

  Spain's Labor Minister and Second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz will be touring Argentina and Uruguay later this month to attend Yamandú Orsi's inauguration in Montevideo on March 1, among other engagements, her office in Madrid announced Thursday.

• Thursday, February 20th 2025 - 17:31 UTC

  Hamas hands over bodies of Argentine national and her two children

  

  Israeli authorities confirmed Thursday that the four bodies handed over by the pro-Palestine terrorist organization Hamas to the Red Cross belonged to Argentine national Shiri Bibas (née Silberman) and her two children, Ariel and Kafir, who were 9 months and 4 years old at the time of their abduction on Oct. 7, 2023. Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the children’s father, was released on February 1, 2025, as part of the ceasefire. The fourth victim was Oded Lifshitz, an 84-year-old Israeli who had long fought for an understanding between the two peoples but was eventually “betrayed” by the Palestinians, according to his wife, who was released by Hamas 16 days after the incursion. All five had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

• Thursday, February 20th 2025 - 10:53 UTC

  Milei turns Banco Nación into a corporation

  

  Argentine President Javier Milei signed a decree transforming Banco de la Nación Argentina into a corporation in a move to facilitate its future privatization or allow private investors to join its capital. The bank currently has assets of US$ 48 billion, deposits of US$ 33 billion, and a net worth of US$ 15 billion.

• Thursday, February 20th 2025 - 10:46 UTC

  Milei’s crypto scandal deepens, now involving his sister 'The Boss'

  

  The fallout from Argentine President Javier Milei’s involvement in a crypto scandal has expanded, now implicating his sister and closest adviser, Karina Milei. Allegations have surfaced that she was directly approached by those behind the controversial Libra memecoin, which skyrocketed and then collapsed after Milei endorsed it on social media.

• Thursday, February 20th 2025 - 10:29 UTC

  Argentina settles scores with Paraguayan side of Yacyretá

  

  The Paraguayan side of the Yacyretá Binational Entity (EBY) admitted Wednesday that Argentina now owed nothing after paying US$ 23 million earlier this week, although certain arrangements concerning US$ 50 million were still pending. Paraguay's EBY General Manager Luis Benítez also pointed out that a financial agreement would be signed next week to set the entity's accounts straight.

• Wednesday, February 19th 2025 - 20:41 UTC

  Argentina hands over regional defense leadership to Peru

  

  Argentina's Defense Minister Luis Petri Tuesday handed over the pro tempore presidency of the XVII Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas (CMDA) to his Peruvian colleague Walter Astudillo during a ceremony at the Libertador Building (Army Headquarters) in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, February 19th 2025 - 10:58 UTC

  $LIBRA scandal: Milei's legal team yet to be appointed

  

  The Argentine Government explained Tuesday that Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona would not be stepping down to defend President Javier Milei in the so-called $LIBRA cryptofiasco. Instead, the Anticorruption Office as well as judiciary authorities would handle the investigations into the case, Spokesman Manuel Adorni said. “He is the Minister of Justice and is devoted to his specific functions in the Ministry,” Adorni stressed about Cúneo Libarona. Regarding Milei's legal counseling, he admitted that the team was yet to be appointed.

• Wednesday, February 19th 2025 - 08:42 UTC

  Uruguay on avian flu alert after detection in Argentina

  

  Uruguay's Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP) declared a state of health alert due to an outbreak of avian influenza in Tres Isletas, in the Argentine province of Chaco, it was reported Tuesday in Montevideo. The measure seeks to protect public health and national poultry production as the malady poses risks to biodiversity, the poultry sector, and public health. It can cause sudden bird mortality, respiratory and neurological symptoms, hemorrhages, and diarrhea, it was also explained.

• Tuesday, February 18th 2025 - 10:52 UTC

  Footage of Milei's interview twitched released

  

  Video footage of an advisor - believed to be Santiago Caputo - cutting President Javier Milei's interview with Jonatan Viale to have some inconvenient parts removed was leaked through X late Monday. “It can cause you a judicial mess,” Viale admits as he agrees to the interruption while the head of State sought to explain his side of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency scandal on TN in a friendly environment. The controversial part of the interview was aired live through YouTube.