“Extractivism destroys everything and leaves nothing”, says Mercedes, forty years old, with a sign in her hands which reads “Water for life, not for mining”, as people arrive at the demonstration, in Plaza del Congreso in Buenos Aires, against the modification of the glacier law, promoted by Javier Milei's government. The deputies were discussing the modification of a 2010 text that prevented mining and hydrocarbon activity to protect the natural dynamics of ice and water quality in areas with glaciers and periglacial areas – frozen ground –. After twelve hours of debate, the law reform was approved with 137 votes in favor, 111 against, and three abstentions. “This only serves mining companies: it serves no Argentinian”, states Mercedes.Argentina has nearly 17,000 bodies of ice, covering almost 8,500 square kilometers (more than forty times the city of Buenos Aires). This was calculated by the Argentine Institute of Nivology, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences in the so-called National Inventory of Glaciers. "It is only 0.3% of Argentine territory," environmental lawyer Enrique Viale tells ARA. "It is a small surface area – he acknowledges – but mining is very voracious." Glaciers supply the hydrographic basins of a large part of the territory and constitute an important reserve of fresh water, suitable for human consumption. In this sense, both glaciers and periglacial areas are key to the balance of ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity.The 2010 law offered broad protection to all glaciers and the periglacial environment, cataloged as "strategic reserves" of water; but the modification aims to conserve only ice bodies that fulfill an "effective hydrological function". If previously any glacier was protected by default, with exceptions, from now on it will be necessary to prove that the glacier deserves protection. "I'm here for the water," says Camila, 26, in Congress Square, as she pushes her bicycle. Camila, moreover, acknowledged to ARA that she feels "anxiety" about what might happen with "the gamble," which is being played with our most essential resource. “I would advise many of these people who make ideological use of glaciers to inform themselves well about what the modification of the law entails”, Roberto Cacciola, president of the Argentine Chamber of Mining Companies (CAEM), tells ARA. This businessman, who is dedicated to the extraction of gold and silver in the province of Santa Cruz, argues that, before intervening in territories, mining companies must pass several environmental impact studies and, if they do not, “the project is not carried out, period”. “Mining is a key economic activity –he adds–, not going any further, your mobile phone is full of metals and minerals”.Blank check to multinationals

One of the first measures Javier Milei approved upon becoming president was the regime of incentives for large investments (RIGI), with which it is intended to make Argentina an attractive country for large capitals, particularly in the mining sector, with tax benefits and deregulation. The majority of mining companies operating in the country are foreign, mainly from Canada, Australia, the United States, and China. “We are totally aligned with the national government,” says Cacciola, who argues that mining not only attracts investments but also brings jobs and prosperity to the territories.The other key point of the law modification is to give more decision-making power to the provinces: if until now the national government established environmental minimums for the whole country, now each provincial government will be able to define which areas are to be protected and in which mining activity is enabled. This, according to the government, reinforces the federal character of Argentina, but some experts, like Enrique Viale, warn that conflicts between jurisdictions may arise over access to water: “The mining lobby, which is one of the most powerful in the world, is responsible for silencing the consequences of its activity, because if people really knew them, there would be significant rejection”.In Congress Square, an eighty-year-old man carries a sign that says "Think like a glacier". "Glaciers, like mountains, are not dead beings, they are not a decoration, but they provide us with water and life". His name is Nilo Cayuqueos and he is of Mapuche origin. The Mapuche are one of the original communities historically in open conflict with public administration over land tenure and resource exploitation. "Mother Earth is wise, but Western culture has twisted everything for the benefit of money –he says–. It is fundamental that people become aware of what is at stake".

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“We do not forget, we do not forgive, we do not reconcile”, said dozens of banners last Tuesday in Plaza de Mayo, in the center of Buenos Aires, in a historic demonstration for the Day of Memory for Truth and Justice in Argentina. Although March 24 is always a marked date on the calendar, this year’s was not just another appointment, as it marked 50 years since the civic-military coup d’état that led to the cruelest dictatorship in the country’s recent history, from 1976 to 1983.the cruelest dictatorship in the country’s recent history, from 1976 to 1983.Human rights organizations, such as the Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, had called to fill the square, as always, and the response was massive. Hours earlier, the Casa Rosada had published a video of an hour and a quarter in length, in which it claimed, as it has every March 24 since Javier Milei has been in government, a "Day of Complete Memory," in an insistent – and so far, unsuccessful – exercise to reconfigure the narrative and relativize the crimes committed by the State during the dictatorship.The Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), an organization dedicated to safeguarding human rights and democracy in Argentina, has recently published the report Retrospective glances at the Argentine dictatorship: 50 years later, which confirms that 70% of the population rejects the 1976 coup d'état. While it is true that the official government condemns the assault on democracy itself – the day after the demonstration, spokesperson Manuel Adorni reiterated at a press conference that it is an event that "should never have taken place" – it also justifies it indirectly, as it points to left-wing terrorist organizations as the creators of a context of violence that needed to be controlled. Faced with this, the CELS study once again reveals the population's non-negotiable stance on the motives for the coup: 45% consider that there were no reasons to justify it, and 18% that there were "few".Regarding what happened with the military government, 61% consider that the so-called “National Reorganization Process” was a dictatorship that carried out a systematic plan of disappearances of people and violation of human rights, and not a government that faced a fight against terrorism, in which there would have been “excesses”, as the government of Javier Milei maintains. In this case, the differences between one vision and the other are notable, and they widen even more when we delve into the management of memory policies: according to Milei's government, they are “bias and revengeful”, and require a review that incorporates the so-called “complete memory” where victims and relatives of victims of terrorist guerrillas are taken into account, to help “reconcile” Argentine society.Only 1,600 bodies recovered

“If they want «complete memory», let them tell us where the disappeared and appropriated babies are”, Francisco, 44, told ARA, who went to the demonstration with his wife and his 5-year-old son: “We continue to wait for those missing to appear”. So far, the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropology has recovered 1,600 bodies of people disappeared during the dictatorship, of which it has been able to identify around 800 – the last 12, this March in the excavations at the former clandestine center of detention and torture La Perla, in the province of Córdoba–. According to human rights organizations, the total number of disappeared by the dictatorship exceeds 30,000, a figure that the Milei government also disputes.“More than a denialist government, we have a government that advocates for the dictatorship”, Verónica Castelli, a militant of the organization HIJOS, tells ARA, “and it does so because it needs to continue the economic plan of that time, which is based on the destruction of national industry”. According to data from the Center for Argentine Political Economy, more than 20,000 companies have closed in the country during Milei's government. In fact, the slogan established for March 24th of this year has been “The same plan, the same struggle”, thus weaving a timeline between past and present that, on the one hand, equates the economic strategies of the dictatorship with the current ones, and on the other hand, vindicates and recovers the ideas that led the militants of that time to organize politically.Precisely in this juncture between the past and the present is where Castelli finds a key opening: young people. Part of her work as a member of HIJOS is to give talks about the dictatorship to children and adolescents in schools. “When they listen to you, and they see a first-person testimony, they understand many things and disbelieve what they receive through social networks.” This activist, who found her sister Milagros – illegally appropriated by the military – thanks to the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, finds it important to distinguish the reason for young people's support for Milei: “We all know that this government comes to power, in large part, thanks to the youth vote, dazzled by economic promises – but I doubt that the young people who voted for Milei have massively thrown themselves into vindicating the dictatorship or rejecting a process of Memory, Truth, and Justice in Argentina.” Sol, 27 years old, had not seen the video that Casa Rosada posted in the morning, but she is not interested. She looks at the square, full of people, and smiles: “It’s simple: we are a lot of people looking at history in an active way to decide how we want our present to be.”

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Three months have passed since the United States government began its siege of Venezuela with a military policy that, while not new in Latin America, is certainly novel in these times. It had been 36 years—since the 1989 invasion of Panama, led by George H.W. Bush—since the northern power had last intervened militarily in the region. Now, the country targeted is different, as are the leaders and motivations for intervention: Venezuela, governed by Nicolás Maduro, who refuses to negotiate or loosen his grip, and besieged by Donald Trump, determined to end drug trafficking, is currently mired in a conflict that cannot be resolved through either diplomatic or military means. Meanwhile, life goes on in the Caribbean nation, with nearly 900 political prisoners, rampant inflation, and an underlying tension and uncertainty that, day after day, exhausts Venezuelans.

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In late November 1975, barely 50 years ago, a secret meeting took place in Santiago, Chile, between members of the intelligence services of Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. At this meeting, a transnational system of coordinated repression was formalized among these countries, with the objective of suppressing leftist opposition through the persecution and disappearance of people. The strategy, which Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil would later join, was called "Operation Condor," named after the emblematic Andean condor that watches over the continent from the heights and which, in the military sphere, is used to convey strength and dominance. Operation Condor sought to "complete the domination of the right," explains researcher John Dinges, who lived in Chile, working as a journalist, during the last year of Salvador Allende's government and for five years of Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship: "Condor was an alliance between civilians that embraced fascist ideas for building totalitarian governments." In the context of the Cold War, in which the United States and the Soviet Union vied for ideological hegemony, the right wing in Latin America deployed all its resources to ensure that communism did not spread in the region: "the objective of eliminating the left was international, therefore the solution had to be international as well." The targets were members of revolutionary movements, guerrilla groups, labor unions, and, in some countries, members of the Church who supported progressive movements more than conservative ones. Because this was a coordinated strategy between states, exile ceased to be a safe haven for dissent: Federico Jorge Tatter Radice is the son of Federico Jorge Tatter Morinigo, a Paraguayan communist activist who went into exile in Buenos Aires with his wife and three children, fleeing the dictatorship of Alfredo Videla and the Argentine armed forces under his regime.

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Progressive Jeannette Jara and far-right candidate José Antonio Kast will face each other in a runoff election for the presidency of Chile on December 14. This is the result of Sunday's elections, in which the communist candidate won with 26.8% of the vote, lower than predicted by the polls. Kast obtained 23.9%, a result that positions him as the favorite to unite the conservative vote. The surprise of the day was Franco Parisi, a candidate outsiderThe candidate campaigning against traditional parties and the establishment, promising "bullet or prison" for criminals, garnered nearly 20% of the vote. The biggest loser was the traditional right wing, led by Evelyn Matthei, which failed to surpass 12.4%. Election day was peaceful and saw very high voter turnout (86.5%, a figure attributed to the reinstatement of mandatory voting). The right turn is confirmed.

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More than 15 million Chileans are called to the polls this Sunday to elect a new president to succeed the current one. progressive Gabriel Boric The first round of voting will take place on March 11. According to the latest polls, no candidate will secure enough support—more than 50% of the vote—to become president, necessitating a runoff election scheduled for December 14. However, Sunday's results will be crucial in understanding Chile's future, as they will confirm the composition of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and resolve the biggest question so far: which of the three right-wing candidates will advance to the second round?

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In a week in which the US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, has formally announced the start of a military operation in Latin America to "expel the narco-terrorists" of the Western Hemisphere, in which the twentieth attack on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean has been confirmed – with a death toll of 80 unidentified since September 2 – and in which Donald Trump has deployed the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier – the largest and most equipped in the world – to Latin America imminently.

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Javier Milei's electoral drubbing in the last legislative elections in ArgentinaLast Sunday's victory surprised everyone, including Milei himself and his cabinet. Polls had not predicted 40% of the national vote and a win in 16 of the 24 districts, which will allow La Libertad Avanza, the president's party, to gain more than 60 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and triple its representation in the Senate. This represents a paradigm shift for the second half of Milei's term, as during the first half, the legislature has been his Achilles' heel: the Peronist majority, with occasional support from other political forces, has been able to block numerous legislative initiatives, which Milei has circumvented with decrees or presidential vetoes, effectively rendering them democratic. After Sunday's victory, Milei faces the next two years in a very different light: with greater governability in the institutions and with reinforced social legitimacy.

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"Today has clearly been a historic day for Argentina. The Argentine people have decided to leave behind 100 years of decadence and persist on the path of freedom, progress, and growth." These were the words of President Javier Milei to his electorate upon learning the results of the legislative elections, which consolidate the presence of his party, La Libertad Avanza, in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, where Milei has been in the minority for nearly two years of his term. This Sunday, 36 million Argentines were called to vote to finalize the composition of the chambers, and to everyone's surprise—including Milei himself and his cabinet—the support was massive and the victory resounding: 40% of the votes went to the Violeta party, which will be able to improve its policies once again."

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Javier Milei faces key legislative elections this Sunday in Argentina. The elections will redefine the composition of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, where half and one-third of the seats, respectively, are up for renewal. While midterm elections don't usually garner much attention in Argentina, this time they are being read as a plebiscite in the first two years of the chainsaw, and will prove decisive for Milei's governability heading into the second half of his term. As a minority in the legislature, the ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA) party has seen numerous legislative initiatives blocked, given that the Peronist majority in both chambers—with occasional support from other political forces—has managed to gradually put the brakes on Milei's austerity plan. which has also been brutal for the most vulnerable sectors of societyMilei, who was sworn in with his back to the Congress building in December 2023, has frequently resorted to the presidential veto, a measure that has called into question the democratic nature of his administration, especially in the eyes of critical sectors who, beyond his style and manner, perceive him as an authoritarian leader. The accusations have inevitably influenced his image and projection, not only among the Argentine electorate but also among his international partners.

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After twenty years of governments of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), party led by Evo Morales, who was the first indigenous president of Latin America (2006-2019), Bolivia has shifted towards the center-right in presidential elections that mark a change in the political cycle: the president-elect, Rodrigo Paz, together with the vice-president-elect, Edmand Lara – known as Captain Lara – has surpassed his opponent by nine points (54.5%) in the second round of elections. Tutorial Quiroga, who along with his vice presidential candidate, Juan Pablo Velasco, received 45.5% of the vote.

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More than fifty years have passed since the start of the so-called "war on drugs" launched by Richard Nixon's administration from Washington. Now, Latin America is experiencing a new wave of extreme violence related to drug trafficking. If, for decades, the business had been concentrated mainly in Mexico and Colombia, in the hands of large cartels such as Sinaloa or Medellín, today the reality is very different: firstly, new countries have joined the drug trafficking network, and apart from that, criminal groups have divided, multiplied and multiplied. record cocaine production in the world. In addition, the proliferation of new synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl, or the coronavirus pandemic itself, have transformed the dynamics of the business, now addressed by the Donald Trump administration as a problem of international terrorism, or of narcoterrorism.

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The brutal murder of three girls near Buenos Aires has shaken the country's society and even brought it to the streets. The bodies of Morena Verdi and Brenda del Castillo, 20, and Lara Gutiérrez, 15, were found by police on Wednesday, buried in the garden of a house in the Florencio Varela municipality, in southern Buenos Aires. The girls were invited to a private party on Friday night and never returned. Police have confirmed that they were tortured and mutilated before being murdered, dismembered, and dumped in plastic bags.

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On his twelfth trip to the United States since becoming president of Argentina, Javier Milei held a bilateral meeting with Donald Trump in New York, within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly. Aside from the summit, Milei urgently needed to address the rescue of the serious economic and financial crisis that Argentina is going throughAfter the electoral setback in the province of Buenos Aires, a legislative setback in Congress and an intervention in extremis of the Central Bank to maintain a fictitious price of the dollar – added to the backdrop of the corruption case that involves the core of the government's power – the macroeconomic values that, until now, had supported the ultra-liberal's management (and, in some way, justified the chainsaw plan), have been falling in a way

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Javier Milei is facing one of his worst moments since taking office as president of Argentina twenty months ago. Last Sunday, a clear defeat for the ruling party in the province of Buenos Aires, against a Peronist party that—despite internal divisions—went to the polls united, taking the pulse of a country and, above all, of an economic situation that is being affected in disparate ways: within Argentina's social majority, a portion is secure thanks, in part, to stable prices; while another portion cannot make ends meet and lives with an increasingly precarious quality of life.

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Javier Milei has suffered his first electoral setback since assuming the presidency of Argentina in December 2023. The province of Buenos Aires, the most populous in the country, voted this Sunday in legislative elections in which the ruling party obtained very poor results: it remained with around 34% of the votes, compared to . A result that was surprising, not because of the victory of Peronism - which is the most rooted political movement in this district - but because of the difference of almost 13 points between one force and the other, in a key pre-electoral context for Milei, who on October 26th will be playing to obtain a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, in legislative elections in which, he claims, he has made Argentina.

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Since Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, in passing, at a press conference, that They had just "shot at a drug-carrying boat" in the southern Caribbean Sea, that the boat came from Venezuela and that eleven people were killed in the operation, the focus has been on the reaction of President Nicolás Maduro: not only as president of an attacked country, but as a member of a region, Latin America and the Caribbean, that has not been intervened in for decades.

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The 66th Mercosur Presidential Summit took place this Thursday in Buenos Aires, during one of the blog's most uncertain times. Brazil and Argentina, the region's two largest economies, have differing views on the organization's purpose and usefulness. The meeting of heads of state in Buenos Aires highlighted the well-known differences between Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, who has passed on the six-month presidency of the blog to him.

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Since the Argentine Supreme Court ratified on June 10 The six-year prison sentence and lifelong ban from holding public office for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the bases of Peronism have raised the flag of lawfare or the instrumentalization of justice for political ends. Throughout the week, hundreds of people have gathered daily at the door of the former president's home in the Constitución neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where Kirchner will serve her sentence, having been granted house arrest given the former president's age. Javier Milei, who is expected to be elected in 2023, has come out onto the balcony every day to greet supporters who fervently defend her against what they consider a clear case of ideological persecution by the state. The court upheld the sentence just a week after Kirchner announced her return to active politics: she is planning the September elections.

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The Italian Parliament has passed into law a decree promoted by Giorgia Meloni's government that modifies the process for recognizing Italian citizenship. The Tajani decree—named after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani— limits the blood vessels (right of blood) to two generations of foreigners with Italian ancestry; that is, from now on only those who have parents or grandparents born in Italy will be able to receive a passport. Until last week, the legal principle of blood vessels included the descendants of anyone born in Italy after 1861, the date of the unification process. The news has fallen like a bucket of cold water in Argentina, where some 25 million people—more than half the population—have Italian surnames, and where it is estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 applications for citizenship will now be discarded or, at least, put on hold.

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