Once as unthinkable as Cuba importing sugar, Argentina is faced with the prospect of importing wheat. And to rub salt into wounded national pride, Argentina, formerly dubbed the world’s bread basket, could need to turn to neighbouring Uruguay to replenish a near-empty basket. The Argentine government of President Cristina Fernández has reacted in belligerent fashion, blaming wheat producers for price speculation, and digging up a tough old law which would punish suspected hoarders with a prison sentence. Opposition legislators, however, claim that the government is allowing wheat contraband from Uruguay to enter the country in a desperate bid to push…
As he prepares to take over the reins of power, President-Elect Horacio Cartes has signalled that he is not a traditional Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado (ANR-PC, Colorados) politician and that he will try to practice consensus politics instead of merely relying on the support of the Colorados to govern. Given that the ANR-PC secured majorities in both chambers of congress in the April general election [RBS-13-04], Cartes’s decision to establish a working relationship with the political opposition might at first glance seem odd. But upon closer inspection it becomes clear that doing so may be a necessity for the incoming…
Expressions of South American unity were very much the fashion at the latest summit of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) in Uruguay on 12 July. Regional leaders vied to demonstrate the greatest outrage over the refusal of various European countries to allow the Bolivian presidential plane travel through local airspace on the erroneous belief the fugitive US intelligence whistleblower, Edward J. Snowden, was on board. President Cristina Fernández had good reason to issue a statement of solidarity. “I am going to be extremely sincere,” she said. “I cannot fly to some countries in Europe with my presidential airplane, because there…
Corruption has proved a popular spectator sport in Argentina this year. Attempts by the government to shift the spotlight away from an investigative journalism programme by scheduling domestic football matches at the same time failed to dampen the public’s appetite for tale of official corruption. Periodismo Para Todos, a Sunday night broadcast which regularly entertains viewers with stories of alleged secret vaults and bags of cash stashed in the mansion belonging to the presidential couple, the late Nestór Kirchner (2003-2007) and his wife and successor Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, appears to have broken through the longstanding cynicism of the Argentine…
Before the legislative elections due on 27 October, Argentina’s political parties are holding primaries to select their candidates on 11 August. Known as elecciones primarias, abiertas, simultáneas y obligatorias (PASO), they will select the candidates due to stand in the senate, where a third of seats will be contested, and the congress, where around half the members face elections. Just under 31m Argentines will be eligible to vote in the primaries, including, for the first time, 600,000 16-17-year olds. The last legislative elections for this half of congress were held in 2009, following a nationwide strike in the agricultural sector,…
In the space of a month the government of President Sebastián Piñera has faced nationwide demonstrations by unions and students. The latest demonstrations were notable for a show of unity among different sectors, upping the pressure on the government ahead of the November general elections. On 11 July, thousands of workers and students took part in protests across Chile as part of a national strike called by the main labour union, Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT). The Piñera government sought to downplay the protests – the first called by the CUT since 2011 – claiming a turnout of just 30,000,…