Former Argentine two-time President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) rattled an otherwise quiet Saturday morning by announcing she would run for the country's vice-presidency in this year's elections behind her former Cabinet Chief Alberto Fernández.
Argentina's first presidential debate of the 2019 election will take place in Santa Fe province, the Noticias news magazine confirmed on Tuesday. The event will be held at the auditorium of the National University of the Littoral (Universidad Nacional del Litoral), in Santa Fe City, after the PASOs.
Argentina released April inflation numbers on Wednesday, with the monthly price rise easing to 3.4% - high by international standards, but below market expectations and reversing an acceleration trend that began in January.
The head of the IMF mission currently in Buenos Aires for the fourth review of the economic program signed by the administration of president Mauricio Macri last year, said that the Fund does not fear a possible return of ex president Cristina Fernandez to office.
Tens of thousands of Argentines demonstrated on Tuesday in a partial strike that grounded airplanes and shut banks and other businesses to protest the economic policies of President Mauricio Macri.
Argentine economy Minister Nicolás Dujovne stated that political uncertainty ahead of the upcoming presidential election this October is the main factor for increases in Argentina's country risk and instability on the exchange markets.
Argentina will increase spending on energy subsidies by more than US$ 100 million this year to compensate gas companies hit by delayed domestic price increases, a source at the nation's energy secretariat said.
Investors in Argentina are starting to get the jitters. The gap in yield between local and U.S.-issued bonds has roughly doubled in the last month in the face of stubborn inflation and mounting peso outflows, heaping pressure on President Mauricio Macri ahead of elections later in the year.
Argentina's former president Cristina Kirchner was charged in yet another corruption investigation on Monday, in this case over the fraudulent import of liquid gas. Judge Claudio Bonadio, who Cristina Kirchner accuses of political persecution, requested that the ex-president be placed in pre-trial detention, but her partial immunity as a senator shields her from imprisonment.
Argentina's government, with one eye on elections later in the year, is getting tough on crime, and one figure is taking centre stage: the country's security tsar. Patricia Bullrich, 62, the security minister, is pushing a series of new tough-on-crime measures, including dropping the age for juvenile convictions, equipping cops with stun guns and trialling facial recognition at train stations.