The Buenos Aires Herald relaunched on March 24 — and what a year to return!

Argentina is a country accustomed to political intrigue and socioeconomic hardship. But even by Argentine standards, 2023 kept the nation on the edge of its seat. Over the past year, we have melted in a five-month heatwave, seen a drought wipe out the harvest and Argentina’s international reserves, and looked on as inflation soared past the 100% mark for the first time in over three decades. 

It came to a head in election season, a rollercoaster ride in which far-right libertarian economist Javier Milei, a political outsider who rose to fame as a TV pundit, surprised everyone with a handy win in November’s presidential run-off.

The explosive final weeks of the year set a clear course for 2024. Milei spent the first days of his presidency busily announcing a constitutionally questionable presidential decree and a massive bill that seek to overhaul fundamental structures of Argentina’s economic and political system, sweeping away decades of Peronist tradition in favor of massive privatization and “flexible” labor legislation.

As we ring in 2024, a retrospective of the Herald’s 2023 coverage shows us that, while you can’t predict the future, especially here, looking back helps us to look forwards.

Politics

Even before the primaries, we were ready to explain everything you needed to know. We looked at your voting rights as a foreigner, why Argentine primaries are so important, which candidates were in the running, and whether Milei would be able to govern, faced with a Congress in which we knew months in advance that he was unlikely to have a majority.

And — since the tells are in the little things — we also looked at how the president managed to clone his dog.

On December 10, the Herald covered the presidential inauguration, with politics reporter Martina Jaureguy sending dispatches from the Casa Rosada and Congress. Just 10 days later, Milei faced his first protest: a decree was announced abolishing laws regulating the rental market, supermarket supplies and state purchases, and people started a cacerolazo against the announcement.

The decree and 664-article “omnibus bill,” as it is known, together set the political agenda for months to come, so watch this space.

Economics

You can’t talk about politics in Argentina without talking about economics, and our financial dream team, editor-in-chief Estefanía Pozzo and reporter Facundo Iglesia, have more than risen to the occasion. They kept a hawk-like watch as ex-Economy Minister Sergio Massa went on the charm offensive to hold Argentina’s beleaguered IMF deal together and drum up support from further afield. 

Argentina has faced challenging rulings in international courts this year. In September, U.S. Judge Loretta Preska ordered the country to pay over US$16 billion for the nationalization of YPF. The country is also awaiting permission to appeal to the British judiciary in a case in which it is accused of changing how it calculated its GDP to avoid paying an extra sum for euro-denominated bonds.

Closer to home, Estefanía took a look at the dispute with Paraguay over charges Argentina levied on the Hidrovía, the 3,700km international river trade route.

Economic reporting isn’t just about big, international issues — it’s also about how you manage the money in your wallet. That’s why we compiled dollar exchange rate explainers to help tourists, digital nomads, and anyone else visiting Argentina to understand what their cash is worth. These days, you can get good rates on your cards, as Facundo explains. 

So popular is the underground dollar market that there’s even a movie exploring Argentines’ obsession with the US currency. 

Human rights

Human rights is in the Herald’s DNA — and in that regard, 2023 was a poignant year for the country. It marked 10 years since former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla died in a common prison and 40 years of democracy for Argentina, as well as 50 years since the Pinochet coup in neighboring Chile. But the anniversaries were bittersweet, at a time when denialism over the dictatorship’s atrocities, long consigned to the fringes, is rearing its head and Argentina has elected a vice president who visited Videla in jail.

For the anniversary of Videla’s death, we looked at how U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent him a letter speaking of “public concern” for the Deutsch family, who had been kidnapped by the regime. In doing so, he saved their lives. 

Martina also spoke to the Uruguayan artist who, while searching on Google, discovered a plane used in Operation Condor — a plan coordinated brutality between Latin American dictatorships, with U.S. backing. His finding could serve as evidence in ongoing trials for crimes against humanity.

Threats to human rights are widespread in Latin America and staying informed is paramount. So, managing editor Amy Booth created a map of the issues we’re following around the region, including everything from Indigenous people’s rights in Canada to land disputes in Brazil.

Editor Valen Iricíbar also covered Argentina’s first ever non-binary march. The non-binary community is usually grouped with the transgender community, particularly regarding human rights demands. However, not all non-binary people identify as transgender, which is what made this march so significant.

Argentine culture

Argentina’s stock in trade is outstripping hardship to showcase excellence, so we didn’t need to cheat and include the 2022 FIFA World Cup in this year’s list to show readers what this country’s made of. Champions have received medals for chess, bakery, bars, cheeses, film, and the list goes on — including Michelin stars.

Film historian Fernando Peña invited Herald translator and resident cinema expert, Agustín Mango, to the national cinematheque at his house. His preservation efforts first gained international visibility in 2008 when he showed the only existing print of Fritz Lang’s original version of Metropolis, the 1927 sci-fi silent masterpiece. 

This is also the country with the most psychologists per capita in the world — unsurprising given the anxiety induced by 160% inflation and a pervasive sense of political omnicrisis. Our lifestyle editor, Jacob Sugarman, took a look at why the mental health crisis keeps on growing.

Palacio Barolo, the revolutionary 1920s building and tourist attraction, turned 100 in 1923. It was the tallest building in Latin America at the time, and architectural theorist Carlos Hilger theorized that Palacio Barolo is really an ode to Dante’s Divine Comedy, wrote our editor Juan Décima. 

And, because culture and language are inextricably linked, Valen has been cataloging the newsroom’s attempts to translate the untranslatable in their weekly Translation Trouble column. Rowing in dulce de leche, anyone?

Sport and entertainment

No Argentine publication would be complete without some quality football content, and we netted some great pieces thanks to sports reporter Fernando Romero Nuñez. From Messi’s transfer and Scaloni’s coaching role to the U20 World Cup and the soap opera of Boca’s elections, Fernando kept his eye on the ball. Between all those breaking news stories, he compiled a quick guide to the nicknames of the 10 most popular football clubs and the reason behind every eccentric word, in case you were wondering. 

Argentina may be known best for its football, but we shared the story of Lee Aaliya, who surprised the international basketball scene. The 18-year-old has been cleared to play at US college level and has already been contacted by 20 top NCAA universities. 

Even older than Palacio Barolo is Argentina’s 200-year-old tradition of cricket, which is making a comeback. The sport was first played in Argentina in 1806 during the British invasions, while the country was still part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.

In November, Taylor Swift visited Argentina with the Latin American leg of her Eras Tour. Swifties from Argentina and beyond camped outside the venue for five months to get a better spot, suffered a rescheduled event after a storm, and spoke to social media strategist Judith Morales Del Barco about how they took over X with their collaborative planning.

Even if you have no desire to leave the house, Argentina has a burgeoning video games industry, touching on everything from Satan to Star Trek.

Here at the Herald, we will continue to report on politics, economics, sport, culture, and everything in between — so if you’re keen to know what the latest protests in Argentina are about, how much the peso is worth, or even where to travel in 2024, we have you covered. Happy New Year!