It seems that Argentines online are generally more interested in “porno” than football, politics or tango, puncturing the cultural clichés promoted by tourist boards and travel guides everywhere. Perhaps less surprising is that the particularly Argentine obsession with WhatsApp extends to every part of life — 31% of respondents had either received or sent porn via the messaging application. Moreover the Observatory chose to ask its survey questions via Facebook, a platform which less than half of all Argentines use. And, to be clear, it’s not as if Argentines are some kind of porn fiends in general. The director of the OIA acknowledged to La Nación that Argentina is only ranked 18th in the world for internet porn consumption.

September 06, 2016 16:21 UTC

It’s only been nine months since the last elections, but the country is already heading to a key mid-term elections and politicians have taken notice. There is little doubt about what they’re doing: shaping up their candidacies in order to strengthen their positions in Congress. Macri responded with some unusually harsh words for Massa: “It’s not good to say things without any basis. Many who financed Macri’s presidential campaign were importers.”“We want to prevent jobs from being destroyed. But this sure looks like the start of what will be an intense year of back-and-forths for alliances and new enemies.

September 06, 2016 15:00 UTC

After all the headaches and back-and-forth on gas prices, it seems President Mauricio Macri’s administration now has a plan. The government will be proposing an average increase in gas prices of 203 percent, Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren said. Eventually, the Federal Court of La Plata ruled banned gas price increases across the country: the administration appealed and in August, the Supreme Court unanimously decided to halt the increase in gas prices for residential consumers. Aranguren has proposed a change in wellhead gas prices, which will in turn affect consumer gas bills. Aranguren stipulated that the original plan was to increase that to US $4.72, but it will now be US$3.42 per million Btu in October and increase every six months.

September 06, 2016 14:37 UTC

There is a little slice of art history hidden in plain sight on Libertador. Luis Wells: De La Destrucción Al Juego (destruction game) opened September 1st at Maman Fine Art Gallery. Who is Luis Wells? An education certainly, to the lay person and art history major alike. Luis Wells: De La Destruccion Al JuegoWhere?

September 06, 2016 03:00 UTC

Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio today determined that former Planning Minister Julio De Vido stand trial for the 2012 Buenos Aires railway disaster, also known as the Once Tragedy, in which 51 people were killed and 789 injured. De Vido is also being investigated in money laundering and embezzlement cases. In December, the federal court investigating the case read the verdicts for 29 people involved in the Once Tragedy. But if the verdict is unfavorable, De Vido will still have to opportunity to appeal it to both the Federal Court of Appeals overseeing the tribunal’s actions and, if necessary, the highest criminal court in the country, the Cassation Court. If he get a less severe sentence, he can request to go on probation and thus avoid doing any actual time behind bars.

September 05, 2016 21:11 UTC





There was lots of expectations surrounding the public tender to develop renewable energy projects in the country. The tender received bids to collectively generate more than 6,000 megawatts of energy, when the initial goal of the initiative was 1,000MW, Energy Minister Juan José Aranguren said. “We received 123 proposals.” The Macri administration expected to get between 60 and 70 proposals. Aranguren went on to note that the administration expects to receive between US$1.5 billion and US$2 billion on renewable energy projects, which would translate into as many as 8,000 jobs. Argentina is one of the countries in the region that produces the least amount of renewable energy.

September 05, 2016 20:48 UTC

The charges that have engulfed the vice president have had a knock-on effect and suddenly other foundations under the management of multiple officials from President Mauricio Macri’s administration are under scrutiny. The shocking aspect about these presentations is that none of these organizations had presented balance sheets before. Although foundations don’t pay taxes, they do have to declare where their donations come from and cannot accept cash. In addition, there are suspicions that the money might have come from contracts with the City of Buenos Aires government. The foundation only registered as an employer after the robbery in Michetti’s house.

September 05, 2016 20:36 UTC

Aerolíneas Argentinas cancelled flights to Venezuela on the 10th and 12th as a preventive measure ahead of possible demonstrations against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The political and social conflict in Venezuela had its peak on Thursday with hundreds of thousand of people taking to the streets of Caracas demanding a recall referendum for President Nicolás Maduro. Aerolíneas Argentinas is hardly alone in suspending flights to Venezuela. There have been numerous cancellations this past few months due to economic difficulties in the country and security reasons, coming from Lufthansa, LATAM and Aeroméxico. Venezuela has the world’s highest inflation rate at 180% and there are shortages of basic goods as well as power shortages.

September 05, 2016 19:41 UTC

At least two US prosecutors have been snooping around the Argentine Football Association’s headquarters in Buenos Aires since August 25, French news agency AFP and Clarín both confirmed this weekend. She is the person most closely associated with “FIFAGate,” the international corruption scandal which hit the governing body of international football in May last year, exacerbating an ongoing political crisis within the ranks of the Argentine Football Association. Meiszner, though now in disgrace, spent three decades at the head of Quilmes football club, whose stadium still bears his name, and was until recently both President of the Argentine Football Association and secretary-general of the South American Football Confederation CONMEBOL. American prosecutors may be particularly interested in Meizner’s close ties to Aníbal Fernández. Read more: Looks Like The Argentine Football Association Won’t Be Kicked Out Of FIFA After All

September 05, 2016 19:30 UTC

The ultimate goal of the effort is to lower the cost of buying computers by no longer assembling them in Argentina. The government is adamant that this will not lead to mass firings because the workers will be reassigned to other products. This is good news for consumers: as anyone who has ever had the misfortune of having to buy a laptop, buying laptops in Argentina is way more expensive than many other countries in the world. By opening up the imports, the idea is that the domestic market will receive high-end laptops that are cheaper and better quality than those produced in the country. The government allegedly considers that the supply of good computers is essential for heightened productivity of businesses and individuals.

September 05, 2016 18:56 UTC

It means that, according to the InterNations survey, in which 14,272 expatriates took part, Argentina is among THE WORST countries to be a foreigner — worse than Peru and almost as bad as Kazakhstan. The indices where Argentina does worst in are the Working Abroad Index and the Personal Finance Index, where it ranks 62nd and 63rd, respectively, out of 67 countries. Having a plethora of leisure options never seems to be an issue at least here in the City of Buenos Aires. And, hey, if you want to be healthy there’s tons of green spaces to get your running on plus the City of Buenos Aires government lends you bikes.) Read More: On “Survival Guides”: Falling In Love With Buenos Aires One Quilombo At A Time.

September 05, 2016 18:45 UTC

Drinking yerba mate is good for youAccording to Examine.com, an independent source of nutritional information with a team of health professionals analyzing the peer reviewed research on the subject feeling comfortable saying that there are positive indicators that yerba mate is a healthy tea with a unique composition of nutrients. Yerba mate also contains theobromine and theophylline at a ratio different than coffee and tea, which could be one of the factors behind its trademark “cleaner” energy buzz. It’s also pretty agreed upon that yerba mate has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It looks like yerba mate is pretty good for your heart. Moreover, according to another study, an increase in HDL-C (the “good cholesterol”) has been noted with regular mate consumption.

September 05, 2016 18:45 UTC

As we said, it consisted in concentrating the largest sum of state funds destined to public works in one place: Santa Cruz,” notes the request. The prosecutors allege that it’s likely at least some of this AR$16 billion ended up in the pockets of the former presidents’ family. Initially flagged for not paying taxes, later investigations refocused the case around an alleged money laundering scheme by businessman Lázaro Báez. Báez is currently behind bars and is awaiting trial for the “K Money Trail” case. Báez is also being investigated in the Hotesur and “K Money Trail” cases.

September 05, 2016 17:48 UTC

Some of the aggression was caught on video and has been making the rounds on social media since last night. Here is a small sample of the videos that recall some of the darkest times in Brazil’s history:Abuse of power. – Police car running over protesters as they run in São Paulo. The below video is from September 1 but continues to receive a lot of play on social media because it is so downright shocking. Even though protesters were left in the dark during a part of the protest (some say the Sao Paulo city government cut the power as protesters hit the Paulista-Rebouças Tunnel) protesters carried on and used lights from their mobile phones to guide the way.

September 05, 2016 16:52 UTC

The G20 Summit taking place in China served to reassure President Mauricio Macri that he is set to position himself as a regional leader, as he received direct public praises from the heads of state of the United States, China and Spain. All three praises shared a common message: under his leadership, Argentina managed to “reinsert” itself into the world. Macri, on his end, assured that Argentina has made “revolutionary changes” to open up the country’s economy but called for “clear rules, long-term and low-cost financing” in order to achieve sustained economic growth. Moreover, when speaking before the other presidents during the session, Obama made a direct reference to Macri, calling him one of several presidents “who are taking the right measures,” including Indonesia and Italy. #G20 pic.twitter.com/hd1Au7osyM — Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri) September 5, 2016Earlier, he also held a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two agreed to deepen bilateral ties between the countries.

September 05, 2016 15:11 UTC