Argentina

Reasons For An Argentina-Brazil Currency Union

February 14, 2023 Barbara Fritz, Consortium News. Create! Argentina, Brazil, Currency, Global Economy

Even before German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met newly re-elected President Lula da Silva in Brasília last week, the latter had visited neighbouring Argentina, where he floated the idea of creating a common currency union for the two countries. The international response? Shaking heads. “It’s a terrible idea,” tweeted Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate in economics. In the German weekly Die Zeit, Thomas Fischermann wrote about a “dream money of the South.” So, was the announcement of a common currency for southern Latin America just talk? A monetary union of all of Latin America would cover 5 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) – in comparison with the euro’s 14 percent, estimates the Financial Times.

Latin America Refuses To Send Ukraine Weapons, Despite Western Pressure

January 30, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy Report. Resistance Report Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism, weapons

Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia have refused to send weapons to Ukraine, despite pressure by the US and EU. Latin American left-wing leaders have urged peace with Russia and called for neutrality in the West’s new cold war. Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia have rejected requests by the United States and European Union that they send weapons to Ukraine. The commander of the US military’s Southern Command (Southcom), which operates in Latin America and the Caribbean, revealed on January 19 that Washington has been pressuring countries in the region to arm Ukraine. Southcom wants Latin American nations to “replace [their] Russian equipment with United States equipment – if those countries want to donate it to Ukraine”, said Army General Laura J. Richardson.

SOUTHCOM Chief Aims To Increase Imperialist Plunder Of Latin America

January 27, 2023 Luigi Morris, Left Voice. Educate! Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Latin America, U.S. Imperialism

Laura Richardson, the Chief of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, spoke about the importance of Latin America’s resources for U.S. foreign policy in an interview with the U.S. think tank Atlantic Council. “Why is this region important?” Richardson asked. “With all its rich resources and rare earth elements, there is the lithium triangle, which today is necessary for technology. Sixty percent of the world’s lithium is found in the lithium triangle: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile.” She also pointed out that “the largest oil reserves, including light and sweet crude, [were] discovered off Guyana more than a year ago.” The general also mentioned Venezuela’s rich oil, copper, and gold resources. She highlighted the importance of the Amazon as “the lungs of the world,” and added that “we have 31 percent of the world’s fresh water in this region.”

Brazil And Argentina To Advance South American Currency

January 23, 2023 Kawsachun News. Educate! Alternative Currency, Argentina, Brazil, Global Economy

Alberto Fernandez and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are preparing to relaunch the strategic alliance between Argentina and Brazil this week in Buenos Aires. The two will meet for the first presidential meeting between Brazil and Argentina in more than three years. Immediately after, the VII Summit of CELAC will take place in the same city. The forum that brings together the 33 countries of the Latin American and Caribbean region and which, since last year, has been under the presidency of Argentina. The event will mark the return of Brazil to this mechanism of dialogue and regional consultation. According to a statement published by the two presidents, there are multiple areas in which the two countries will work together to improve the quality of life of their citizens; “such as the fight against hunger and poverty, health, education, sustainable development, climate change and the reduction of all forms of inequalities.”

Environmental Defenders Join Forces Across Argentina To Stop Mining Boom

January 17, 2023 Bala Chambers, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! Argentina, Environment, Lithium, Mining, Social Movements

With the Argentine government recently investing in over 30 new mining projects in the next decade, environmentalists are mobilizing against the country’s expanding extractivist economic model. Environmental groups are coming together to share knowledge, experiences and forms of resistance against these projects, which they say are being driven from the global north. Ever since childhood, Freddy Carbonel, an Argentine environmental advocate, has held a deep connection to nature — from his fascination with trees to hiking in the mountainous province of Tucumán and using his video camera to document snowfall in his town. After the global anti-nuclear push in the 1980s, Carbonel founded an environmental association with a group of like-minded young colleagues called Pro Eco Ecologist Group.

China Pushes De-Dollarization With Gold, Currency Swap Deal

January 9, 2023 Ben Norton, Geopolitical Economy. Create! Argentina, Brazil, China, Currency, Global Economy

China’s central bank has taken a series of steps to accelerate the global drive toward de-dollarization, challenging the hegemony of the greenback. The People’s Bank of China is increasing the share of gold in its foreign-exchange holdings, bucking the US dollar, which has for decades been dominant in reserves. This January, China also signed an agreement with Argentina’s central bank for a currency swap deal, in which Beijing will provide 130 billion Chinese yuan (roughly $19 billion USD) to help Buenos Aires stabilize its currency and economy. The South American nation said it is “committed to deepen the use of the RMB [renminbi] in the Argentine market for bilateral exchange”. (Renminbi is the official name for the Chinese currency, also known as the yuan.)

Argentine Vice-President Hits Out Against Judicial ‘Parallel State’

December 30, 2022 Brasil De Fato, People's Dispatch. Educate! Argentina, Kirchner, Lawfare, Right wing extremism

Argentine Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in her first public appearance after her conviction earlier this month, spoke at the inauguration of the Diego Armando Maradona multi-sport gymnasium in the municipality of Avellaneda, a suburb of Buenos Aires, on Tuesday, December 27. Speaking alongside her main allies within the ruling coalition, the Frente de Todos (Front of All, FdT), Kirchner criticized the press, the economic elite, and the Argentine judiciary for promoting a “parallel state.” Kirchner was sentenced to six years in prison and barred from contesting for life on December 6. The so-called ‘Causa Vialidad’ case against her and 12 others is considered to be another case of political-judicial persecution against progressive leaders in Latin America.

How Argentina Has Been Trapped In Neocolonial Debt For 200 Years

December 19, 2022 Esteban Almiron, Multipolarista. Educate! Argentina, Debt, International Monetary Fund

The deuda (“debt” in Spanish) is one of the most persistent elements in the two centuries of Argentina’s history. It has conditioned the political life and the economy of the country like no other factor, for generations. But this should not be confused with just any debt. The word deuda normally refers to the external debt (both public and private), a debt owed to foreign creditors. Historically, the key aspect of the deuda is that it is based on a foreign currency, the world trade currency controlled by the ruling empire. It was once the British pound. Since 1944 it has largely been the US dollar. The United States can “print” dollars (and the Federal Reserve does so regularly), but Argentina cannot. The same is true of other countries in the Global South with large external debts denominated in foreign currencies.

Bolivarian Alliance Supports Peru’s President Castillo Against Coup

December 17, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Educate! Argentina, Bolivia, Coups, Latin America, Peru

The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the left-wing economic and political bloc uniting countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, has forcefully opposed the coup d’etat in Peru and expressed its support for the country’s democratically elected President Pedro Castillo. ALBA member states released a joint declaration stating that they “reject the political trap created by the right-wing forces of that country against the Constitutional President Pedro Castillo, forcing him to take measures that were later used by his adversaries in parliament to oust him from office.” The alliance condemned the violent “repression by the law enforcement agencies against the Peruvian people who are defending a government democratically elected at the polls.”

Lawfare: Judicial And Legislative Coups In Argentina And Peru

December 16, 2022 Teri Mattson, WTF is Going On in Latin America and the Caribbean. Podcast – WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean Argentina, Lawfare, Peru, US coups

On Tuesday, December 6, An Argentine court sentenced Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to six years in jail and disqualified her from holding public office in a high-profile corruption case on Tuesday. The vice president, who has temporary immunity due to her current role, will not face immediate prison time and is expected to appeal the sentence, with the case likely to spend years winding through higher courts. The crisis in Peru reached the streets, after Congress dismissed former President Pedro Castillo on December 7 for wanting to dissolve Parliament and establish an emergency government. The appointment of Vice President Dina Boluarte as President of the Republic, far from bringing calm, has led to a wave of protests in Lima and in the interior of the country.

Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia Back Peru’s President Castillo

December 14, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Educate! Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Coups, Latin America, Mexico, Pedro Castillo, Peru

The governments of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Bolivia released a joint statement supporting Peru’s democratically elected President Pedro Castillo, saying he is the victim of “anti-democratic harassment.” Castillo was overthrown in a coup d’etat on December 7, led by the infamously corrupt right-wing opposition that controls Peru’s unicameral congress, which has an approval rating of between 7% and 11%. The US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) and State Department have openly supported the coup, backing unelected leader Dina Boluarte, who declared herself president in collaboration with the congress. Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia wrote that they “express their profound concern for the recent events that resulted in the removal and detention of José Pedro Castillo Terrones, president of the Republic of Peru.”

Judicial Coup In Argentina

December 10, 2022 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Educate! Argentina, Coups, Kirchner, Right wing extremism

Argentina’s notoriously corrupt and deeply politicized judicial system set off an international scandal on December 6, sentencing left-wing former President and current Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in prison and banning her from future office based on highly dubious charges. Prominent leaders across Latin America denounced the ruling as a “judicial coup.” It is eerily similar to the fraudulent case that led to the imprisonment of Brazil’s left-wing former President Lula da Silva in the lead-up to the 2018 elections, which the United Nations Human Rights Committee later denounced as an illegal show trial that lacked due process and violated his rights. Leaked messages, photos, and videos show that corrupt Argentine prosecutors involved in the case conspired with right-wing opposition politicians, conservative media corporations, and former intelligence officers to wage lawfare (judicial warfare) against Kirchner and her progressive movement.

Lawfare in Argentina: Cristina Fernández Sentenced To Prison

December 8, 2022 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. Educate! Argentina, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Lawfare, Regime Change

On Tuesday, December 6, Argentina’s Federal Oral Court 2 sentenced Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in prison and disqualified her for life from holding public office on corruption and fraud charges. A three-judge panel found Fernández de Kirchner –who was Argentina’s president for two terms between 2007 and 2015– guilty of “fraudulent administration” and diverting nearly 1 billion USD in government funds through public works contracts during her presidency, but rejected another charge of running a criminal organization. The verdict corresponds to the trial known as the Road Management Case, in which VP Kirchner was accused of having formed an “illicit association” with 13 others to irregularly award 51 overpriced public works contacts in the province of Santa Cruz between 2003-2015 to a company belonging to businessman Lázaro Báez and share that surplus. Báez was a friend and business associate of Fernández’s late husband and former president, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).

Regional Leaders Express Solidarity With Argentina’s Cristina Fernández

December 8, 2022 Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Argentina, Latin American, Media, Solidarity

This Wednesday, December 7, Latin American leaders rejected the judicial and media persecution against the vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, that prevent her from participating in the elections and prevent Peronism from remaining in power. The expressions of support Fernández de Kirchner received, after her conviction for the alleged crime of corruption, were joined by expressions of solidarity sent by the president-elect of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as well as the presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro; Bolivia, Luis Arce; and Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, in addition to the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. “My solidarity with the vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández,” Lula, a victim of legal persecution himself, wrote on his social media account.

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