US scientists rescued in Antarctica by Argentina icebreaker

Source: Buenos Aires Times

A group of U.S. scientists who were stranded in an ice-bound island off the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula were rescued Sunday by an Argentine icebreaker, US and Argentine authorities announced Monday.

The four scientists and a support staff member, who were conducting research at Joinville Island, were airlifted by helicopter to the Almirante Irizar icebreaker.

Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said that the U.S. icebreaker Laurence M. Gould was unable to carry out the evacuation because the ice barrier was too dense on the Weddell Sea in front of the island that is south of the Argentine mainland. The US Antarctic Program then requested assistance from Argentina.

Argentina’s Armed Forces said that the five are in good health and will be transferred to the US vessel when weather conditions improve.

Read more: http://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/us-scientists-rescued-in-antarctica-by-argentina-icebreaker.phtml

The icebreaker Almirante Irizar

With over 29,000 homicides, 2017 was Mexico's most violent year on record

Mexico has recorded its highest homicide rate in years, with the government’s interior ministry reporting there were 29,168 murders in 2017, more than in 2011 at the peak of Mexico’s drug cartel-stoked violence.

The death toll is Mexico’s highest since the government began keeping records in 1997, and shot past 2011’s tally of 27,213 homicides, the Associated Press reports. According to the Interior Department, Mexico’s homicide rate this past year equated with 20.5 murders per 100,000 residents.

The homicide rate is still significantly below those of Brazil and Colombia (both 27), Honduras (42.8), Venezuela (57), or El Salvador (60.8), AP reports.

The figure, however, is based on the number of police investigations, rather than individual deaths, Mexico security analyst Alejandro Hope noted - meaning the total real rate is likely far higher.

“The violence in Mexico has many causes. Drug trafficking is one of them, of course, but it is not the only one,” Hope told AP.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had campaigned pledging to end the epidemic of drug cartel violence that plagued the country between 2006 and 2012; but his administration saw only a temporary dip in homicides between 2012 and 2014.

At: http://time.com/5111972/mexico-murder-rate-record-2017/

Oscar for 'A Fantastic Woman' highlights Chile's long battle for LGBTI rights

The Oscars success of Sebastián Lelio’s film, 'A Fantastic Woman', couldn’t be more opportune in its timing.

Released in February 2017, the movie’s impact has been gradually gathering pace. Since being awarded the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2017, the film has won a dozen awards and been nominated for plenty more, including for best picture in a foreign language at the Golden Globes.

But it is the Academy Award that brings with it the most international recognition – and this may be critical for gender politics in Chile, where the outgoing president, Michelle Bachelet, has vowed to pass a Gender Identity Bill before she leaves office on March 11 this year.

The incoming president elect, Sebastián Piñera, meanwhile, has already pledged to block the bill’s passage through Congress when he takes office.

"My ID has a name on it that's not my name," trans actress Daniela Vega, the star of the Academy Award-winning film, said. "Because the country I was born in doesn't allow me that."

A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) trails Marina, a trans woman – played by Daniela Vega – in the days following her partner’s sudden death.

It places particular emphasis on her exclusion from the funeral and wake; but also presents some of the brutality she faces at the hands of her lover’s family members and the police. As such, the film gives some insight into the violence that trans people face in their daily lives in socially conservative countries such as Chile.

Prior to Chile's passing its anti-discrimination law in 2012 and a law recognising same-sex unions in 2015, the country had been considered a laggard in relation to advancing LGBTQ rights, in comparison to its more progressive neighbours. Argentina had passed similar legislation in 1987 and 2010, respectively.

At: http://theconversation.com/oscar-for-a-fantastic-woman-highlights-chiles-long-battle-for-lgbti-rights-92956



Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, with the director and cast of 'A Fantastic Woman'. Her incoming successor, Sebastián Piñera, has pledged to block the Gender Identity Bill when he takes office next week.

Reynaldo Bignone, the last Argentine dictator, dead at 90

Reynaldo Bignone, the last military dictator of Argentina, has died at Buenos Aires' Central Military Hospital. He was 90.

Bignone, who had been serving a life sentence for his role in the 1970s Dirty War, led Argentina for 18 months between July 1982 and December 10, 1983, when he turned over the presidency to a democratically-elected civilian, Raúl Alfonsín.

An Army General and former head of the National Military College, Bignone was appointed to succeed Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri after the latter's defeat in the Falklands War.

He was credited for partially restoring labor union rights and the freedom of assembly - and for ultimately yielding to popular calls for free elections, which were held for the first time in a decade in October 1983.

While Bignone's domestic team oversaw a recovery in real wages, his tenure was also marked by a Central Bank bailout of some $15 billion in private foreign debt - including some $124 million owed by Franco Macri, the father of current President Mauricio Macri.

Bignone's "self-amnesty" decree, moreover, granted a blanket pardon to all involved in human rights abuses during the Dirty War, when up to 30,000 dissidents, most of them known to be non-violent, were murdered.

The self-amnesty was overturned by Congress just days after President Alfonsín took office; but Bignone's order for the systematic destruction of evidence made prosecuting the those implicated - as well as determining the true scope of the atrocities - a challenging task that is still ongoing.

Imprisoned in 1984, Bignone, like many dictatorship officials, was given amnesty - first by the 1987 Law of Due Obedience, which Alfonsín signed due to military pressure, and later by a blanket pardon issued by President Carlos Menem in 1990.

He was arrested in 2007 for his role in the kidnapping of 40 people at the Alejandro Posadas Hospital, west of Buenos Aires, and the trafficking of infants born to and abducted from the roughly 500 pregnant women who were among the disappeared.

Bignone was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2010 for his involvement in the torture and murder of 56 people at the Campo de Mayo Army Base, which he headed. He was sentenced on April 14, 2011, to life in prison for crimes against humanity.

His detention was part of President Néstor Kirchner's renewed drive to investigate past human rights abuses, and since then neary 3,000 others have been prosecuted, with over 1,000 convictions.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infobae.com%2Fpolitica%2F2018%2F03%2F07%2Fmurio-el-dictador-reynaldo-bignone-el-ultimo-presidente-de-la-dictadura%2F

Reynaldo Bignone (1928-2018).

Rajoy's Spain: Country of thieves wrestles with corruption

The stench of corruption clings to Spanish politics — and especially to the ruling Popular Party (PP) of Mariano Rajoy.

Between July 2015 and September 2016, 1,378 officials or politicians from across the spectrum faced trial on corruption charges, according to the General Council for the Judiciary.

The right-wing PP is desperately trying to keep its litany of scandals off the political agenda. But, with the liberal Ciudadanos party breathing down its neck in polls and high-profile cases rarely out of the headlines, the party has been forced to shift its position:

Where it previously insisted allegations were either unfounded or politically motivated, Rajoy’s PP now acknowledges there has been a problem.

Yet in a country frequently wracked by scandal, one particular case promised to shed new light on the shady wheelings and dealings of the ruling party.

Ricardo Costa, former secretary general of the PP in Valencia, appeared before the Spanish High Court in January. He was accused of having helped run a massive network of bribes-for-contracts in the region during the decade-long economic boom.

“It’s true that the PP financed its 2007 election campaign with dirty money,” he said at one point. “I didn’t denounce that and I am willing to assume responsibility for it. I acknowledge the accusations and I apologize.”

Costa, who could face up to eight years in prison if found guilty, went on to incriminate his former boss, Francisco Camps — who resigned in 2011 amid similar allegations despite being absolved by the courts — for overseeing the kickbacks scheme.

“The winter of 2018 is turning out to be a particularly cold one for the PP in the courts,” wrote El País newspaper, which said that Rajoy’s party is currently facing over 50 investigations for allegedly corrupt practices.

At: https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-corruption-country-of-thieves-high-court-trial/

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and proof of kickbacks in his name. Former hardline IMF head Rodrigo Rato, currently in prison, is also listed.

New Argentine revenue head found to keep nearly all assets overseas

The newly-appointed director of Argentina's Federal Public Revenue Agency (AFIP), Leandro Cuccioli, was revealed to have at least 94% of his personal wealth overseas, according to public documents.

Financial disclosures filed while working under President Mauricio Macri's chief of staff show that Cuccioli's assets include real estate in London and Uruguay, U.S. mutual fund and savings accounts, as well as shares in two Cayman Islands investment funds and a Bermuda-domiciled firm.

Out of a total of $320,000 in declared net assets as of the end of last year, all but $25,000 were overseas - an unprecedented situation for an Argentine revenue head since financial disclosure statements became mandatory for all Argentine public officials in 1999.

Critics note Cuccioli may have dramatically understated some assets as well: An 170 m² (1830 ft²) apartment in London, of which Cuccioli stated having 50% ownership, was listed as being worth around $320,000 - an unlikely figure in a city where median home prices currently exceed $600 per square foot.

Cuccioli, 40, replaced Alberto Abad, who was reportedly forced out after firing the brother-in-law of a top Macri associate, Boca Juniors football club head Daniel Angelici.

Abad had been under pressure to resign since an AFIP leak last August revealed that relatives and close associates of Macri's used a 2016 tax amnesty program to "whitewash" a total of at least $132 million in undeclared offshore funds.

Argentine law forbids the use of tax amnesty benefits by family or close associates of sitting federal officials.

Numerous officials in the right-wing Macri administration - including the president - have been listed in the Panama and Paradise Papers offshoring scandals.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicargentina.com%2Fnotas%2F201803%2F24836-en-linea-con-el-gabinete-de-macri-el-nuevo-titular-de-la-afip-tiene-todo-su-patrimonio-fuera-del-pais.html

Argentina's new revenue head Leandro Cuccioli.

Polish group sues Argentine paper under new Holocaust law

A Polish campaign group is suing an Argentine newspaper it says breached a new law that makes it a criminal offence to suggest Poland was complicit in the Holocaust.

In what appeared to be the first legal action under the so-called Holocaust law, just hours after it took effect, the Polish League Against Defamation said it filed a complaint against Argentina's leading progressive daily, Página/12.

The dispute refers to a December 18, 2017, article by Federico Pavlovsky on the Jedwabne pogrom, ‘Familiar Faces’.

The 1941 incident, in which Polish locals colluded with Nazi occupiers, resulted in the massacre of at least 340 Jews.

A minister from Poland’s conservative government applauded the move to invoke the law which Warsaw says will protect it from slander - but which the United States and Israel said would suppress authentic historic research and free speech.

The League, a non-governmental group that campaigns to protect Poland’s historical reputation abroad, said that Página/12 used a photograph of Polish ‘doomed soldiers’ who fought against communists after the war to illustrate an article on the Jedwabne pogrom.

The ruling Law and Justice party has praised the ‘doomed soldiers’. While many are seen as national heroes in the struggle against Soviet domination, some led killings of Jews, Belarusians and other minorities.

Página/12 noted Saturday evening that “this newspaper did not receive any legal communication and only learned of the information through international news agency reports.”

“If successful, this attempt at international censorship could threaten freedom of expression worldwide,” the article read.

At: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-poland/polish-group-sues-argentine-paper-under-new-holocaust-law-idUSKCN1GF0RF

Link to Pavlovsky's article (in English): https://www.pagina12.com.ar/99401-familiar-faces

Activists mobilize against Argentina's Macri for defunding HIV prevention, treatment programs

Health and LGBT advocacy groups demonstrated in front of the Argentine Health Ministry in Buenos Aires yesterday in order to protest deep cutbacks enacted recently on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatments budgets.

The Health Ministry informed provincial health authorities on January 12, in a letter signed by the head of the Directorate of AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Sergio Maulen, that "due to various difficulties presented in the purchase process, Abacavir/Lamivudine, Darunavir, Zidovudine Syrup, Efavirenz, and Dolutegravir will suffer a delay in their acquisition of approximately one month."

"We ask that the policies of the Ministry of Health and the HIV Directorate be enforced," said Bruno Barletta, of the advocacy group Defense of the Human Rights of AIDS Patients (ADHES). "We are going to seek an answer from the Ministry, where they can reverse the situation so that people can continue with their treatment and sustain their quality of life."

Some 50,000 HIV-positive individuals in Argentina rely on state-subsidized anti-retroviral drugs and medicine, through a National AIDS Program established in 1993 - one of the first in the region.

A 2007 law expanded the program and included the free distribution of condoms, such that by 2015 free condoms were available in 2,900 locations nationwide and 75% of pharmacies reported having a full supply of HIV treatment medicines.

The program's success in curbing the growth of HIV/AIDS led the World Bank to applaud Argentina in 2014 as “the country that stopped AIDS with the word 'free'.”

Progress has slowed under the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration, however. The HIV directorate budget has been cut by approximately 15% a year in real terms since Macri took office two years ago. The Access to Anti-Retroviral Drugs Observatory denounced that the Health Ministry had virtually ceased buying anti-retrovirals as early as 2016.

Activists attribute the policy shift to far-right Health Ministry advisers such as Dr. Abel Albino, whose lucrative Health Ministry consultancy contract was recently renewed.

An abstinence advocate who considers sex "addictive" and homosexuality "a disease," Dr. Albino opposes free distribution of morning-after pills and condoms as "assisted fornication plans," while railing against "the tyranny of masturbation."

This policy shift against prevention and treatment has earned the rebuke of even some of Macri's allies.

Speaking during his popular cable news round table show Intratables, host Santiago del Moro revealed that he had reached out to Health Ministry officials for an explanation. "An administration official told me that it was because of the Church; (prevention programs) bother them," he said.

"It can't believe this! This is 2018!"

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diarioregistrado.com%2Fsociedad-%2Fmovilizacion-en-reclamo-al-gobierno-por-la-falta-de-medicamentos-para-pacientes-con-vih_a5a6b8f92a4d76178ffbd9441&edit-text=

Demonstrators protest suspension of HIV medication programs. "Health is not a business deal."

Argentina's Macri: "In South America we are all descendants of Europeans"

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier today, Argentine President Mauricio Macri created controversy by declaring that "in South America we are all descendants of Europeans."

The comment was made as part of a conversation regarding a possible alliance between the EU and the Mercosur trade bloc of five South American nations - an alliance Macri staunchly supports but whose negotiations are stalled.

"We are all the children of Europeans in Latin America, mainly, so I think it's natural that we (Europe and Latin America) work together," he added.

Latin America, however, has long been one of the world's most ethnically diverse regions.

A 2005 study by Mexican sociologist Francisco Lizcano Fernández, "Ethnic Composition of the Three Cultural Areas of the American Continent at the Beginning of the 21st Century," estimates that while 36% of Latin Americans are White or "Criollo" (at least half White), some 40% are Indigenous or Mestizo (at least half Indigenous), and 24% are Black or Mulatto (at least half Black). The study is largely based on census data from each nation.

Today's flap at Davos underscores longstanding accusations of racism against Macri himself, as well as his right-wing PRO.

One of his caucus' most vocal congressmen, Alfredo Olmedo, has frequently proposed building a wall along Argentina's northern border as a way to slow largely Indigenous immigration from Bolivia and Paraguay, and often quotes U.S. President Donald Trump.

Olmedo has never been rebuked or censured by his PRO caucus, and while the administration has downplayed his comments, President Macri attempted to enact one of the congressman's proposals in August 2016 by decreeing the creation of a migrant detention center in Buenos Aires.

Facing public outcry, as well as injunctions from affected neighborhood residents, the proposed migrant detention center was never opened.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infonews.com%2Fnota%2F313122%2Fen-sudamerica-todos-somos-descendientes&edit-text=

Record budget, trade deficits for 2017 in Argentina

Data released this week by Argentina's Statistics Institute (INDEC) yielded record budget and trade deficits for the country in 2017.

The nation's merchandise trade deficit reached $8.5 billion - a sharp reversal from the $2 billion surplus registered in 2016. Budget deficits, in turn, rose by 56% to a record 569 billion pesos ($34.4 billion, at the average 2017 exchange rate).

Excluding Central Bank intra-agency interest income, the federal budget deficit reached 629 billion pesos ($38 billion) - over 6% of GDP.

Revenues and primary spending each rose by 22% in peso terms (a 3% reduction after inflation); but debt interest outlays jumped by 71%. Higher interest outlays far outstripped savings from a 22% reduction in subsidies, whose cutbacks have led to utility rate hikes of 700 to 1400% and public transport hikes of over 200%.

Trade woes

The record trade deficit resulted from sharply higher imports, which rose nearly 20% to $66.9 billion. Imports were significantly higher last year in all major categories, with motor vehicle and parts imports in particular up 41%.

A sharp reduction in taxes on new cars, as well as a recovery in consumer credit, led to a 22% rise in new car and truck sales to 884,000 - the highest since 2013. Imports from Brazil, however, accounted for the entire improvement, such that motor vehicle output slipped 0.1% to 472,000 (the lowest since 2006).

Argentina's trade deficit with Brazil, its largest trading partner, rose by 87% to $8.7 billion. Deficits likewise worsened with China (by 33%, to $7.7 billion); with the U.S. (by 25%, to $3.1 billion); and the EU, which doubled to $2.8 billion.

Exports, in turn, grew 1% to $58.4 billion. This comes despite a slight improvement in export prices and despite around $1.5 billion in tax cuts for agricultural and mining exports - the second such tax cut since the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration took office with staunch support from these sectors two years ago.

Argentine export income remains virtually unchanged from 2015 levels, when a sharp fall in commodity prices affected earnings. Farm, agroindustrial, and mining exports - 64% of the nation's total - had risen by 6% in 2016; but fell by 4% last year.

While 4th quarter balance of payments data is still to be released, the current account deficit likely topped $32 billion when tourist outflows, foreign debt payments, profit offshoring, and other net debits are included.

Argentina has thus far financed this record shortfall by attracting short-term portfolio investment, mostly by borrowing through bond purchases by foreign banks - some $122 billion in the last two years.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diarioregistrado.com%2Feconomia%2Fel-deficit-financiero-asciende-hasta-629-050-millones-de-pesos_a5a5fe674a4d76178ffbd827f

And: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiempoar.com.ar%2Farticulo%2Fview%2F74093%2Fel-2017-cerra-con-da-ficit-comercial-ra-cord&edit-text=