Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentines were voting Sunday in a primary election that will act as a bellwether ahead of October general elections and give a hint at how eager citizens are for a change in a country that is suffering one of the world’s worst inflation rates.

The primary will determine who will be the presidential candidate in the main center-right opposition coalition in which Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta is facing off against former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich.

BUENOS AIRES, July 31 (Reuters) - Argentina's Economy Minister Sergio Massa said on Monday the country will not use "a single dollar" of its own reserves to make a $2.7 billion repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due this week.

Massa, who is also a presidential candidate in this October's election, said in a speech that it would be possible because of an extended swap deal with China and a new loan from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).

BUENOS AIRES, July 23 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentine President Alberto Fernández spoke with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss a new understanding ahead of this year’s elections, it was reported in Buenos Aires.

BUENOS AIRES, July 16 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — A total of 17 Argentine provinces are under yellow alert due to weather forecasts heralding extremely cold temperatures, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) announced.

The SMN also said these temperatures reaching -10.8 degrees Celsius in El Calafate, Santa Cruz (south), and -8.9 degrees in La Quiaca, Jujuy (north), might be dangerous for children and elderly or chronically ill people.

PUERTO IGUAZU (Argentina), July 5 (NNN-XINHUA) — Bolivian President Luis Arce on Tuesday rejected constraints imposed by the US financial system, urging the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) to “reduce dependence on the US dollar.”

In a speech at the 62nd Summit of Heads of State of Mercosur and Associated States in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, Arce said the region “is seriously impacted by the restrictions and regulations imposed by the US financial system, which limit financing options and chances to access international markets.”

PUERTO IGUAZU (Argentine), July 5 (NNN-MERCOSUR) — Argentina Economy Minister Sergio Massa said during a conference with his Mercosur peers on the opening day of the bloc’s 62nd Summit in the province of Misiones, that “in order to strengthen intra-Mercosur trade, it is essential to consolidate local currency agreements among our countries.”

Massa, one of the leading candidates to become Argentina’s president by the end of the year, insisted on “coordinating the use of local currencies in trade within the bloc.”

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A federal judge in Argentina has called on Interpol to detain four Lebanese citizens, so they can be questioned for their suspected role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that killed 85 people.

“Regarding these individuals, there are well-founded suspicions that they are collaborators or operational agents of the … armed wing of Hezbollah,” judge Daniel Rafecas wrote in a resolution dated June 13 that the Associated Press obtained Thursday.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández made it official Tuesday that she will not be running for president again, putting the brakes on an effort by members of her party to push her to become a candidate in October elections.

Fernández, who was president 2007-2015, made her decision public through a statement on her website in which she slammed the judiciary, accusing the courts of trying to forbid her from running for office again as part of an alliance with the opposition.

BUENOS AIRES, May 15 (Xinhua) -- The Argentine central bank on Monday again raised the benchmark interest rate, this time by 600 basis points, pushing the rate from 91 percent to 97 percent annually.

The decision aims to promote "positive real returns on investments in local currency" and "prevent financial volatility from acting as a driver of inflation expectations," the bank said in a press release.

In April, monthly inflation rose 8.4 percent compared to March, according to the bank.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — At the start of the long Easter weekend, the airport in Argentina’s capital is eerily quiet before dawn, hours before it will fill with travelers. About 100 people who sleep inside the facility are getting ready to start their day.

One of them is Ángel Gómez, who has been living in the Jorge Newbery International Airport for two years and has seen how the number of people joining him has soared.