President Alberto Fernández says he intends to put a bill before congress in next 10 days
Argentina is on track to become the first major Latin American country to legalise abortion.
Its president, Alberto Fernández, said on Sunday that he intends to send a legal abortion bill to congress in the next 10 days.
Continue reading...A new record set so soon after the previous record of 17.5C in March 2015 is a sign warming in Antarctica is happening much faster than global average
Antarctica has logged its hottest temperature on record, with an Argentinian research station thermometer reading 18.3C, beating the previous record by 0.8C.
The reading, taken at Esperanza on the northern tip of the continent’s peninsula, beats Antarctica’s previous record of 17.5C, set in March 2015.
Continue reading...Wave of protests and violence against austerity measures and political corruption swept Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and other Latin American countries
Continue reading...Law kept mining projects out of Argentina province – now water for wine-growers will be threatened in drought-stricken area
Argentina’s wine-growing province of Mendoza, renown for its inky red Malbec varietal, has erupted in protest against the surprise overturning of a 2007 water protection law that had successfully kept water-intensive mining projects out of the province.
Thousands of people joined demonstrations on Monday outside the office of provincial governor Rodolfo Suarez in the capital city, also called Mendoza, after he overturned the law, known as 7722 late last week.
The peaceful protest turned violent on Monday afternoon, as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd in response to stone-throwing by angry demonstrators.
Continue reading...Mario Sandoval charged with dictatorship-era crimes in Argentina – so how could he have worked undetected at a top French university?
Mario Sandoval had been living in France for 14 years when he became a lecturer at the Institute of Latin American Studies (IHEAL) at the Sorbonne in Paris.
The Argentinian security specialist was in his mid-40s, spoke good French and had recently obtained French citizenship. His credentials were impeccable – he’d spent the previous five years teaching international relations at another Paris institute, the Université Marne-la-Vallée – and he soon became a valued asset at the Sorbonne.
Continue reading...Ousted president accused by prosecutors of sedition and terrorism
Prosecutors in Bolivia’s capital have issued an arrest warrant against the former president Evo Morales, accusing him of sedition and terrorism.
The interior minister, Arturo Murillo, recently brought charges against Morales, alleging he promoted violent clashes that led to 35 deaths during disturbances before and after he left office.
Continue reading...Ex-police officer alleged to be ‘butcher’ of dictatorship held over student’s disappearance
An Argentinian ex-police officer suspected of links with the murder of hundreds of people during the country’s “dirty war” has been extradited by France to Buenos Aires to face trial over the disappearance of a student.
Mario Sandoval, 66, was arrested on Wednesday at his home near Paris after French authorities gave the final go-ahead for his extradition, ending an eight-year legal battle.
Continue reading...Matthew Gibbard was killed and his son Estefan injured in Argentina after being targeted by robbers
A British tourist was killed and his son seriously wounded when they were shot outside a luxury hotel in Buenos Aires during a robbery.
Matthew Gibbard, aged 50 and his son Estefan, 28, were targeted on Saturday by robbers on a motorcycle, supported by accomplices in a car, according to local reports.
Continue reading...Court convicts two priests and former gardener at school for deaf students on counts of sexual abuse and corruption of minors
A court in Argentina has convicted two Roman Catholic priests and the former gardener of a church-run school for deaf students on 28 counts of sexual abuse and corruption of minors, in a case that has shaken the church in Pope Francis’s homeland.
A three-judge panel in the city of Mendoza sentenced Nicola Corradi to 42 years and Horacio Corbacho to 45 years for abusing children at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Lujan de Cuyo, a municipality in north-western Argentina.
Continue reading...Campaigners hail Alberto Fernández’s pledge to oversee U-turn in official policy
Argentina’s president-elect, Alberto Fernández, has promised he will move to legalise abortion after taking office on 10 December.
He will send a bill to congress which, if approved, would make Argentina the first major Latin American nation with legalised abortion. The ruling in the 45 million-strong country would follow decisions by its much smaller neighbour Uruguay, which legalised the practice in 2012, and Cuba, in 1965.
Continue reading...Victory of Alberto Fernández’s presidential campaign puts an end to the pro-business economic policies of Macri’s administration
In a dramatic comeback, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, one of Argentina’s most popular presidents during her two terms in 2007-2015, has been voted back into office as vice president.
A large crowd of supporters burst into a roar outside the Frente de Todos (Everybody’s Front) party bunker in the Chacarita neighbourhood of the capital city of Buenos Aires at 9pm when preliminary official results gave the victory to presidential candidate Alberto Fernández and Fernández de Kirchner.
Continue reading...People on a crowded underground platform in Buenos Aires came to the rescue of a woman who fell on to train tracks.
CCTV footage from Pueyrredón station shows the woman being knocked off the platform by a man who fainted. Passengers quickly responded by waving their hands to alert the train driver. They then jumped on to the tracks to help the woman after the train came to a halt
Continue reading...My friend and colleague Caroline Williams, who has died aged 57 after a short illness, was a senior lecturer in Latin American history at the University of Bristol. A much-loved and respected teacher, research supervisor and colleague, she was also an award-winning scholar.
Caroline was born in Argentina, the third of the four children of Erik Hansen, a metallurgist from Cardiff, and his wife, Tricia (nee Gorman), a nurse. She was 14 when the military junta seized power in 1976. This provoked in her a profound and critical interest in both national and global politics and a lifelong concern for human rights.
Continue reading...Jubilee Debt Campaign says the Fund broke its own rules by not ensuring sustainable debt burden
Debt campaigners have accused the International Monetary Fund of encouraging reckless lending by extending $93bn (£75bn) of loans to 18 financially troubled countries without a debt restructuring programme first.
In advance of the IMF’s annual meeting in Washington next week, the Jubilee Debt Campaign (JDC) said the the Fund was breaking its own rules by providing financial support without ensuring that the debt burden was sustainable.
Continue reading...Police say they seized the cocaine-loaded penises at the home of a couple who managed a Peruvian restaurant
Police in Argentina have arrested members of a gang of drug dealers accused of smuggling cocaine hidden inside plastic penises.
The cocaine-loaded members, of the kind found as costume adornments at party shops, were sold by dealers operating in the red light district of the city of La Plata, about 36 miles south of Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires.
Continue reading...Victory for community concerned about the industry’s environmental costs strengthens calls for shakeup of rules along Chilean coast
A growing wave of resistance to the expansion of salmon farms along the Chilean coast has led to an important victory in the fight to protect a pristine fjord in southern Patagonia, home to indigenous groups and an array of stunning wildlife.
Dolphins, whales and colonies of penguins thrive in the 240km-long Beagle Channel, an area of outstanding natural beauty between Chile and Argentina which attracts tourists from all over the world.
Continue reading...Fiery ex-president Cristina Kirchner is making a comeback as the number two on a resurgent centre-left ticket
Father Guillermo Torre, known as Willy to his parishioners, has been through this before. “I arrived here 20 years ago in 1999, right before the economic collapse of 2001,” he said.
“Here” is Villa 31, a giant slum that sprawls beside the luxurious Recoleta and Retiro neighbourhoods of central Buenos Aires, a city within a city of which Torre is the parish priest. “Back then Villa 31’s population was 12,500; now it is 45,000,” he says, accepting a constant stream of greetings and hugs from recuperating addicts arriving at his drug rehabilitation centre.
Continue reading...Sherry Bray and Christopher Ashford admit accessing CCTV of postmortem examination
Two people are facing prison sentences after they admitted accessing footage of the footballer Emiliano Sala’s postmortem examination.
The Argentinian’s body was recovered from a plane wreck on 6 February, two weeks after it crashed into the Channel.
Continue reading...Turning Villa 31 into a barrio will bring greater stability and prosperity, say city authorities, but the plan is stirring deep resentments about ownership and identity
For many Argentinians, especially those from Buenos Aires, Villa 31 is a household name. It is the most famous – and notorious – slum in Buenos Aires, synonymous with poverty and violence (it has the second-highest murder rate in the city), and with the narcotráficantes (organised drug gangs) and paco, a cocaine paste that destroys communities in Argentina.
As inflation climbed to 55% last year and the national poverty rate crept to 32%, the neighbourhood lurched further into the grip of gangs, such as the Sampedranos. Murder stories from the villa dominate headlines, the most recent one being the discovery of a woman’s dismembered corpse in March.
Continue reading...The Argentinian-American architect designed some of the world’s tallest buildings
The architect César Pelli, who designed some of the world’s tallest and best-known buildings, has died. He was 92.
Anibal Bellomio, a senior associate architect at Pelli’s studio in Connecticut, confirmed that the Argentinian-born American citizen died peacefully on Friday at his home in New Haven.
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