MILEI’S PURPLE PATCH
President Javier Milei promised “the most reform-minded Congress in Argentine history” following a resounding triumph in last Sunday’s midterms after a generally negative string of results in the advanced provincial elections this year, culminating in a crushing defeat by a humiliating margin of almost 14 percent in Buenos Aires Province last month. The ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA) picked up 40.74 percent of the vote in the election of 127 new deputies, way ahead of the 24.5 percent for Fuerza Patria (although rising to 31.66 when including allied Peronist lists with other labels). Milei did even better in the Senate, winning in six of the eight districts and increasing his caucus from seven to 20 seats to come within 17 of quorum. The sweetest win was in the scene of the previous humiliation – Buenos Aires Province where the LLA list under Diego Santilli (who afterwards celebrated by shaving off his mop of red hair in compliance with a pre-electoral bet) squeezed ahead of Jorge Taiana’s Fuerza Patria by half a point (41.4 to 40.9 percent) in a major upset with Governor Axel Kicillof widely criticised internally for having shot his bolt by advancing the provincial elections. Pointing out that “in many provinces the runner-up was not Kirchnerism but the ruling provincial party,” Milei invited “the great majority of governors to discuss agreements” – an invitation they were not in a strong position to refuse since of the six provinces forming the centrist Provincias Unidas, the local governor could only win in Corrientes. Milei already started meeting a score of governors last Thursday to advance with structural reforms.
LLA’S MEGA-CAUCUS
The caucuses of La Libertad Avanza (LLA) and PRO agreed last Wednesday to form an interbloc making them the leading minority in the next Congress, thus facilitating the passage of structural reforms. The new interbloc will number 105 deputies, of whom 81 will be LLA and 24 PRO, a strength permitting them to chair key committees. The agreement emerged from a meeting last Wednesday between Congress Speaker Martin Menem and PRO caucus chief Cristian Ritondo, who reportedly disclaimed any intention of becoming speaker, as widely rumoured before the electoral triumph. Re-elected deputy Diego Santilli, who spearheaded the upset win in Buenos Aires Province, is said to be settling for being an ordinary member with his focus on his 2027 gubernatorial candidacy. The new interbloc will be boosted by the support of at least eight Radicals, the seven deputies of Innovación Federal (an inland alliance representing the local interests of Misiones, Río Negro and Salta) and some from a Provincias Unidas caucus said to number 17 deputies. There are also doubts about the Peronist loyalties of the Kirchnerite deputies from the provinces of Catamarca, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán. Yet the distribution of seats in Congress is not written in stone, awaiting the recount and the final official results, but could change in some of the eight provinces reporting extremely slender margins: Buenos Aires, Chaco, Chubut, Corrientes, La Pampa, La Rioja, Río Negro and Santa Cruz. In Buenos Aires 384 of the 38,760 voting-precincts have still to report with 212,676 ballots questioned across the province when the difference between LLA (41.45 percent) and Fuerza Patria (40.91 percent) was 46,600 votes. In Chaco three Senate seats are at stake with 4,741 votes separating LLA from the Fuerza Patria candidate Jorge Capitanich. Three-digit differences were reported in La Rioja (621 votes, growing to 782 in an already completed final count) and Santa Cruz where the Peronists topped LLA by just 728 votes while the differences in also marginal Río Negro (2,101 votes) and Corrientes (6.754 votes) were larger. The novel single paper ballot is assumed to leave a certain margin for error.
NEW MINISTER LAUNCHED
Pablo Quirno was sworn in as President Javier Milei’s new foreign minister last Tuesday in what was more a victory celebration than a formal ceremony lasting only five minutes with erstwhile rivals cordially greeting each other. All ministers were present, including Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona, who had been due to leave office the previous day but is now staying on until February or a successor is defined. An economist, Quirno (previously finance secretary) described his mission as attracting international investment while predictably giving a special priority to relations with the United States. An affirmation of that pro-Washington stance already came the next day in the United Nations where, for the first time in three decades, Argentina voted in favour of the US embargo against Cuba, one of only seven UN members to do so (Israel, Hungary, Ukraine, Paraguay and North Macedonia were the only other countries). Quirno has been replaced as Finance Secretary by locally born Chilean economist José Luis Daza but he may not last long since he has been tipped to become Chile’s economy minister, should the right win the elections on the other side of the Andes in a fortnight’s time.
SAN JUAN ACQUITTAL FOR MACRI
The Supreme Court last Tuesday had the last word in closing the case against ex-president Mauricio Macri, his AFI intelligence chief Gustavo Arribas and nine of his subordinates for presumed espionage against the families of the 44 crew members who went down with the submarine ARA San Juan in mid-November, 2017. The City Federal Appeals Court had already ruled the acquittal of Macri and his co-defendants, arguing that the AFI activities fell under the protocols of presidential security.
NEW LEAD IN TRIPLE FEMICIDE
Joseph Freyser Zavaleta Cubas 31, aka ‘Señor J’ and the presumed leader of ‘Los Pulpos de Trujillo’ drug ring in northern Peru, was questioned last Tuesday as the suspected mastermind of the triple femicide of Brenda del Castillo, Morena Verdi and Lara Gutiérrez in September after others detained in the case had pointed in his direction. Zavaleta Cubas was already being detained in a Palermo cell for drug-related offences and awaiting an extradition to Peru which could be delayed by these new charges. He has been linked to Tony Janzen Valverde Victoriano alias ‘Pequeño J,’ the prime suspect until now, but a female whistleblower has told police that Zavaleta Cubas ordered the triple slaying from his prison cell after the theft of cocaine belonging to his organisation. The video made of the torture and murder of the girls was reportedly to enable Señor J to see everything with his own eyes. Zavaleta Cubas brings the total of arrests in this case up to 11 with three others sought.
CHACO TRIAL BEGINS
The trial for the femicide of Cecilia Strzyzowski, 28, began in Chaco last Tuesday, suggestively scheduled for after last weekend’s midterms which saw former three-term Peronist governor Jorge Capitanich elected to a Senate seat among other results. In the dock will be the victim’s husband César Sena, accused of her murder, along with his parents, former picket leader Emerenciano Sena and Marcela Acuña (both closely linked to Capitanich), and four employees of the Sena family. The trial is scheduled to run until November 20 with 13 hearings. Cecilia Strzyzowski went missing on June 2, 2023, with her body yet to be found. Nicolás Boniardi Cabra, one of Emerenciano Sena’s lawyers, was arrested on Wednesday for violating the rules protecting the identity of jurors.
ALBERTO HEADS FOR TRIAL
The City Federal Appeals Court last Thursday confirmed the trial of ex-president Alberto Fernández for gender violence against former first lady Fabiola Yáñez with judges Martín Irurzun and Eduardo Farah voting in favour against the dissident vote of Roberto Boico, who argued that the production of relevant evidence by the defence remained pending with the due process of law affected – a question which should be resolved by the new judge Daniel Rafecas before the case could go to trial in his opinion.
LIFE MEANS LIFE
The Supreme Court last Tuesday unanimously upheld a life sentence for a man who stabbed his pregnant partner to death in broad daylight in the middle of the street in the City neighbourhood of Villa Urquiza in 2016. Cristian Matías Guzmán (then 25 and a recycler of garbage) and Rocío Falcón (20) already had two children at the time.
TRAGIC BUS ACCIDENT
Election day news in Misiones also included a deadly traffic accident when a long-distance bus travelling between Oberá and Campo Viera crashed into a Ford Focus car and plunged into the Yazá ravine, killing at least nine people and injuring over 30 among the 50 passengers. The dead included the car-driver and eight passengers, the oldest of whom was 26.
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