The Argentine government expressed on Monday its most vigorous rejection to “the United Kingdom’s pretension to establish maritime spaces round the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich islands, which are part of Argentine national territory”.
Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner will run for a seat in Congress in a bid to bolster the ruling party in June 28 mid-term elections. The ballot is seen as referendum on the government of current president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her husband, Nestor Kirchner.
The President Barack Obama administration has named a prestigious civil rights activist of Hispanic-Mexican origin as the next US ambassador in Argentina. Vilma Socorro Martinez, 66, will replace Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne who has held the job for three and a half years.
The Argentine Central Bank must ensure that the flight of capital does not erode the “wealth of the country”, warned a former head of the bank, who revealed that since the beginning of the crisis 34 billion US dollars had fled from South America’s second largest economy.
The freezer vessel Mataco II, owned by Harengus SA and the Amaltal Fishing Company, sank Tuesday night some 40 nautical miles (70 kilometres) from Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz, in the midst of a severe storm.
Brazilian and Argentine manufacturers reach a tentative understanding to privilege the two countries markets and exports which should help overcome the ongoing trade dispute among Mercosur main partners.
Argentina produced 37,262 cars in April which is 1.7% less than the previous month and down 31.8% from a year ago, the automotive manufacturers association, Adefa, reported Wednesday. April exports dropped 23.8% compared to April 2008, totaling 23,249 cars, but increased 12.6% from March. Brazil was by far the leading export market, taking about 84% of exports.
Argentina’s cereals and oil seeds exports are forecasted to drop to 13.8 billion US dollars in this 2008/09 crop which means 56% less compared to the 31.9 billion of the 2007/08 crop according to a paper from the Argentine Agrarian Federation, FAA.
Following on fear tactics, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner warned that if in the coming June mid term elections the government looses its majority “we’ll be back at the explosive Argentina of 2001”.
Argentina is forecasted to plant the smallest wheat crop on record because of drought and export restrictions, according to the Buenos Aires Cereals Exchange. Planting will fall as low as 3.7 million hectares this fall that would be the smallest since the Exchange began recording such data in 1910.