Articles and notes about Argentina.
In Atlanta the secretary of state said Washington did not facilitate Flávio Bolsonaro’s departure. Hours later the president said the decision to let him in was his and that the senator can stay as long as he wants, while the Brazilian files describe an exfiltration assembled before the runoff.
The White House had a congratulatory statement ready at the State Department and held it after Flávio Bolsonaro called for the annulment of the election, proclaimed by the Superior Electoral Court at 8:08 p.m. (Washington time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)-4) on October 25, 2026. Right-wing presidents in South America congratulated Lula, and Washington’s bet on the tenth aligned Latin American president was left unresolved.
About 32,300 companies, equivalent to 6% of all firms in the country, closed in Argentina between December 2023 and July 2026, according to a survey by the Fundar research center. Industrial output fell 3.2% in August from the same month in 2025, according to the national statistics institute (Indec). Economists say the country probably entered a technical recession in the third quarter of 2026, after two consecutive quarters of contracting activity.
Cristina Kirchner did not rule out running for Argentina’s presidency in 2027 against Javier Milei, provided she can overturn the lifetime ban on holding public office handed down in the Vialidad case. She summed up the condition: “When I recover my political rights, why not?”. The six-year prison sentence and the lifetime ban have already been upheld by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.
A former agent of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, reportedly accompanied Senator Flávio Bolsonaro on his flight from Brazil to Argentina, according to Opera Mundi. The information was published in Israel this Sunday, November 1, by The Jerusalem Post, based on a Brazilian Federal Police investigation obtained by CNN Brasil.
An investigation by a Brazilian security agency, revealed by CNN Brasil on Friday, found that a former Mossad agent who became a naturalized US citizen helped Flavio Bolsonaro leave the country in violation of a judicial order, according to the Jerusalem Post, which cites the report. According to the newspaper, the former agent arrived in Brazil on October 19 and accompanied the senator from Brasilia to the border, crossing the Tancredo Neves Bridge between Foz do Iguaçu and Puerto Iguazú in a van; the family then boarded a Gulfstream G400 jet operated by the Argentine airline Baires Fly, which refueled in Guayaquil and landed on Wednesday morning at Opa-locka Executive Airport near Miami. The State Department had said Flavio and his family would be granted US visas before his arrival in Miami. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes had ordered the senator’s passports seized and barred him from leaving the country, and the Federal Police said it found no official record of his departure at border checkpoints. Brazil’s Foreign Ministry summoned Argentina’s representative to demand clarifications about possible involvement by Javier Milei’s government, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Ambassador Celso Amorim, international adviser to the president of Brazil, told UOL that Brazil and Argentina are experiencing the worst moment in the history of their relations and that Javier Milei’s government “broke the minimum protocol for diplomatic relations”. In the interview with UOL, Amorim said there would be no “shouting match” with Milei and that the downgrading of Brazil’s diplomatic representation in Buenos Aires, and vice versa, should not be reversed in the short term. “Look, it is all unprecedented and terrible. It is the worst moment in the Argentina-Brazil relationship, but not because of us. We did not commit any aggression against Argentina,” he said.
Brazil's foreign ministry asked Argentina for explanations on Thursday afternoon after the defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro passed through the country on his way to Miami, according to a diplomatic source who requested anonymity as they were not allowed to discuss the matter publicly. João Marcelo, the ministry's director of the South America department, received Argentina's chargé d'affaires, María Emilia Cortés, in a brief meeting.
Argentina's foreign minister denied that Brazil had formally requested explanations over the escape of Flávio Bolsonaro, according to Carta Capital. Brazil's foreign ministry, for its part, summoned the chargé d'affaires of the Argentine embassy in Brasília, Maria Emília Cortés, to explain her government's role in the escape, two Brazilian government sources confirmed to Reuters, in a report republished by UOL.
Brazil’s foreign ministry summoned on Thursday (October 29) Argentina’s chargé d’affaires in Brasília, minister-counselor Emilia Cortés, to demand explanations about the possible involvement of Javier Milei’s government in Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s flight to the United States (US), with a stopover on Argentine territory. The diplomat was received on the afternoon of the same Thursday by the head of the ministry’s Mercosur Department, João Marcelo Galvão de Queiroz, in Brasília, according to G1. The route began on the night of Tuesday (27), when Flávio and his family entered Argentina after crossing the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, which links Foz do Iguaçu, in Paraná state, to Puerto Iguazú, in Argentina’s Misiones province.
The Baires Fly airline says the flight that took Flávio Bolsonaro to the United States was paid for with $150,000 transferred from a company’s account at a US bank to an Argentine bank, according to The Hindu, in an AFP text. The intermediary holds US and Argentine passports, and the company’s head, Luis Grande, declined to reveal his identity. Grande, speaking by phone from Florida, said he was hired by a broker he has known for 10 years who lives in the US: “I was hired by a broker that I’ve known for 10 years, who lives in the United States.” The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that the plane was chartered by Jason Miller, an adviser to Donald Trump, the report added.
Workers’ Party (PT) lawmakers asked Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) to investigate who organized, financed and facilitated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s departure from the country, despite an order from the Supreme Federal Court (STF), according to Opera Mundi. According to Brasil de Fato, the senator crossed the Tancredo Neves International Bridge between Foz do Iguaçu and Puerto Iguazú at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday and boarded a private jet 40 minutes later that made a stopover in Ecuador. Also according to Brasil de Fato, Argentine opposition lawmakers accused Javier Milei’s government of facilitating the escape and demanded recognition of Lula’s victory.
The Brasil 247 blog says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio named the logistical movement Operation Alba, which took Flávio Bolsonaro out of Brazil, via Argentina, to Miami, where he arrived with his wife and two daughters. According to the Argentine newspaper La Nación, cited by the blog, Milei's strategist Santiago Caputo was in the province of Misiones when the private aircraft departed.
Deputy Myriam Bregman of the Left Front told Opera Mundi that the opposition is filing a public information request in Congress on Wednesday over Flávio Bolsonaro's passage through Argentina. “It is clear that Milei collaborated,” she said. Argentina's National Directorate of Migration said in the early hours of Wednesday that Flávio, his wife and their two daughters crossed the Tancredo Neves International Bridge between Foz do Iguaçu and Puerto Iguazú at 22:50 on Tuesday.
The Argentine government confirmed that Senator Flávio Bolsonaro crossed the Brazilian border on the night of Tuesday, October 27 and boarded a private plane bound for Ecuador, according to Opera Mundi. Forty minutes later, at 11:30 p.m., the senator, his wife and their two daughters boarded a Gulfstream G400 from Baires Fly in Puerto Iguazú, with Guayaquil listed as the destination, according to Brasil de Fato. From Guayaquil, the jet took off at 6:22 a.m. Brasília time, with an expected arrival at the executive airport in Opa-locka, Miami, around 10:40 a.m., according to flight-tracking site FlightAware, cited by Brasil de Fato.
Flávio Bolsonaro and three relatives were recorded by Argentine migration authorities crossing the border at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday, according to G1 — the new development after the departure from Brazil, the US visas and the canceled passports. At 11:30 p.m., the group boarded a private Baires Fly flight with Guayaquil, Ecuador, as its declared destination. US President Donald Trump said he would approve Flávio’s travel to the US: “Well, I would approve. I think they are good people. The election was very strange, and I thought it was terrible”.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Argentina reached an agreement on Tuesday (27) that could release about US$900 million to the country, according to G1. The disbursement still depends on approval by the institution's executive board. The money is part of the US$20 billion financing program signed between Argentina and the IMF in 2025 and is tied to the program's third review, in which the fund checks compliance with the targets agreed with the country. The IMF said net international reserves exceeded the end-June target by about US$4 billion and that the Central Bank had bought almost US$16 billion so far this year.
Argentina’s government said on Tuesday that it will issue no recognition of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s victory in the second round of Brazil’s election, according to Opera Mundi. In response, the government argued that when Javier Milei was elected in 2023, “there was no gesture from President Lula to congratulate him personally or anything”, and that, for now, “there is no statement we are going to make,” according to Carta Capital. The government also said trade and Mercosur should not be affected: “They are two brotherly peoples, they trade, they work in Mercosur, it should not be affected.”
Javier Milei is the only South American president who did not recognize Lula’s victory over Flávio Bolsonaro, according to G1. Presidents of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela spoke about the result of last Sunday’s election. Right-wing governments in South America recognized Lula’s reelection despite political differences, according to UOL.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided that Israel should support Argentina on the Falkland Islands issue, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph, as reported by Ynetnews. The decision was prompted by sanctions Britain imposed about a month ago on Israeli settlements, and the newspaper stressed that the move amounts to support for negotiations, without formal recognition of Argentina’s sovereignty.
Argentina declared five criminal groups and guerrilla organizations from Latin America as terrorist organizations, including Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, according to the Associated Press (AP). The resolution also covers the Nueva Familia Michoacana, also of Mexico, and Ecuador's Los Tiguerones. AP notes that the move follows the security policy of the United States, Argentina's main ally in the region.
Argentine President Javier Milei called Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a “dictator” during a visit to Madrid on Wednesday and urged voters to oust the Socialist leader in upcoming elections, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. Spain’s foreign ministry “strongly” condemned Milei’s insults and alleged defamatory remarks against Sánchez, Spain and its citizens, according to TRT World.
Argentina’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 2.3% in the first quarter of 2026 and 2% in the second from a year earlier, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) — a picture that entered the first debate of Brazil’s runoff, when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) asked Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) whether he intended to reproduce Javier Milei’s economic policy in Brazil, according to G1.
More than 100 British soldiers and local reservists trained for six days in the Falkland Islands in early October, in an exercise that included an approximately 32-kilometer night march and an amphibious assault operation, with troops landing from the sea, according to the British newspaper The Times, in a text published by G1. Argentine President Javier Milei again said the territory is under “illegal foreign occupation” and threatened to take measures to advance the dispute.
Britain has appealed to Interpol to reject Argentina’s requests for the arrest of individuals involved in the Sea Lion oil project off the Falkland Islands, according to The Guardian. Javier Milei’s government has initiated criminal proceedings against the Israeli company Navitas and its British partner Rockhopper Exploration, the core companies in the project.
Argentina’s government said it had filed a request for provisional measures with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) seeking to halt British-authorized hydrocarbon activity near the Falkland Islands, according to The Jerusalem Post. The government said in a statement that the request aims to prevent the United Kingdom from exploiting hydrocarbon resources on the continental shelf of the Northern Falklands Basin.
Brazilian journalist Rogério Tomaz Jr., known for his criticism of the government of Argentine President Javier Milei, was barred from entering Argentina on Monday upon landing at Aeroparque airport in Buenos Aires, according to Agência Brasil. Migration authorities cancelled his permanent residence and imposed a five-year re-entry ban.
Argentina's Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said that preventing the Falkland Islands from exploiting their offshore oil is part of a strategy to recover sovereignty peacefully, in a speech to an audience that included the British ambassador. Quirno accused the UK of refusing to negotiate and of advancing the Sea Lion project in the North Falkland Basin. On 28 September, Milei gave the UK a two-week deadline to stop the oil project or face arbitration and a binding decision under annex VII of the UN convention on the law of the sea (UNCLOS).
Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, congratulated Senator Flávio Bolsonaro on his first-round performance in Brazil’s presidential election and said he hopes to work with him if elected, backing closer ties between Brazil and Argentina, calling the result a historic election.
The Argentine government launched a citizenship-by-investment program, presented by Economy Minister Luis Caputo and Cabinet chief Diego Santilli during the Argentina Week business event in Paris, with applications starting in the fourth quarter of 2026, according to DW. In a statement, the Economy Ministry said the announcement is part of Argentina's drive toward international openness and reforms aimed at attracting capital.
Argentina's president, Milei, has threatened to launch a legal challenge against the British government unless oil exploration off the coast of the Falkland Islands is halted, the BBC reported. Milei said he had instructed the Foreign Ministry and legal teams to initiate arbitration proceedings against the United Kingdom for what he called the illegal sacking of resources through the Sea Lion Project in the North Falklands Basin, France 24 reported. The project's companies, Israel's Navitas and Britain's Rockhopper, shrugged off Argentina's threats, insisting they have valid exploration licenses issued by the United Kingdom.