local news from other places
Twenty-thirteen was a banner year for bad news in Córdoba. When I arrived in December the local newsstand was plastered with headlines announcing another burst of inflation. A magazine cover featured a photo of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner posing nude (on purpose) and across the street municipal workers were still sweeping up broken glass from a 35-hour strike…
After standing for nearly 18 hours in the Plaza 9 de Julio in downtown Salta, Argentina, the pilgrims finally ceased their songs of prayer and I repaired to a small cafe to read the reportages of Alma Guillermoprieto, a Mexican journalist who covered this region for the New Yorker magazine in the early 1990s. Being here…
In the 1990s articles about government corruption and scandal sold a lot of newspapers in Argentina. However, over the last two decades, as most major Latin American countries passed their first freedom of information laws, Argentina’s Congress has yet to be sold on government transparency. This cultured country of 41 million people remains, along with…
BUENOS AIRES – Argentines have long been known for their passion for wine, steak and tango. But the unspoken object of desire for the past few decades has been the cash U.S. dollar, which sells for about double the official exchange rate on the black market here. On a brief stroll down Calle Florida in…