Sorry, but I don't remember the name of the milonga. We had to climb some stairs to a second floor. There were tables and chairs in a large empty room downstairs. The milonga was in a busy downtown-like area. Dante parked us on the street right in front of the milonga. There were some street guys who had blocked off parking in order to get tipped to allow street parking. It seems it's a scam type way to make a living, but Dante knew the score and tipped.

Apparently the milongas are at different times during the day and night and different locations on different days.

Dante gave us interesting commentary during the milonga dances . . . until he and my boyfriend got involved with my boyfriend's iPhone. 8-)

I thought the same about making Dante too popular to be available for my next trip (whenever); however, if he's not successful in this business, he wouldn't be in it for long.

Bloomberg: Venezuelan Valise With $790,550 Roils U.S.-Argentina Relations

More here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...Dho&refer=home

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a73rBCz3iDho

I agree that the suitcase full of $$$ is a huge scandal, and its also clear that the current government (both Nestors and Cristina's administration) are involved in this illegal campaign funding scheme.... however, it must also be said that the FBI and the US Justice system is in its own way playing the game of the crooks in this issue, because its highly unlikely that the US will extradite the folks involved in the execution of this shady deal.... together with their best friend Hugo from Caracas.

What will probably happen in the end is that those jailed in the US will strike a deal with US authorities, agree to collaborate with the US investigation and get reduced time & never be extradited to Argentina. This way, those in the Argentine government will never face the music, since they have the excuse of wanting to get to the bottom of this but not being able to do so blaming the US for not sending over the "bad guys".... its all a bloody circus... :rolleyes:

Its clear that the US investigation will get to the bottom of this, although I doubt the full and complete results will ever get published in the press, as the US has nothing to gain from tarnishing the current Argentine government with the details of how Cristina financed her election.... after all, the US interests in Argentina are minor and as long as the long term strategic interests of Washington are not put in check, then they will play ball with the Casa Rosada and this scandal will be forgotten in about 8-10 weeks... and back to business as usual.

Interesting analysis, gaucho. As I said last month, the Kirchners weren't behaving like they were innocent! A month later, it sure looks like they (or someone close to them) was in on this illegal deal. I agree that Washington has no reason to destabilize Argentina here. I certainly can't predict what Argentines themselves will make of this as more of the facts come out.

That's not enough money to help the Kirchneristas to try to sustain the inflationary economy that they have created. By the end of this year, they will have either printed themselves into hyperinflation or have run the country out of money. In the first case, they will try to paper it over with phony statistics as long as they can. In the second, they will again go to the IMF with their hands out for loans that as usual they do not intend to repay. In neither case, do many observers give the Argentine economy more than about a year before it again implodes.

Although it's a charter, I didn't realize they could fly to AEP. Is that a typo? Do any published commercial international flights go there?

Yes, flights to/from Uruguay use AEP, as do governmental charter flights. You can check commercial arrivals and departures at:

http://www.aa2000.com.ar/index.php

John

According to GSM World, Argentina is on GSM 850/1900. Like here! Waaaah...

More information about the Antonini Wilson Case
 

...What is clear is that soon after leaving Argentina he agreed to be recorded, photographed and videotaped by F.B.I. agents as he talked to a number of Venezuelans in Florida, who coaxed, cajoled and outright threatened him to keep quiet and accept falsified documents about the origin and intent of the money, American investigators contend. The government made 41 audio recordings and eight videotapes, documents in the case show...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/wo...2venez.html?hp
(registration required)

John

As I said from the beginning, both the Venezuelans and Argentine officials have been behaving like they're guilty. It reminds me of Watergate -- there were obvious efforts at cover-up. The Kirchners should have said they had nothing to do with it -- the men were simply "rogue" individuals acting by themselves to bring money from Venezuela.

It will be interesting (but probably sad) to see how this story ends.

As Ive said before, Im very skeptical that any of the real details of what happened will every surface.... those responsible for the hands on dealings of this case seem to have struck some sort of deal with the US authorities and my read of the case is that Washington has decided to tread water very slowly and somehow not let this become a huge scandal for Cristina.... I sincerely hope Im wrong, but we will have to wait and see.

The consensus is that this money was a small part of what came from varous sources to get Cristina elected.... not $$$ to sustain the current economic status-quo. Also, the IMF as a lender is not in the cards anytime soon, as Argentina has repaid all IMF loans in full and the fund has closed its Buenos Aires offices... these two players are not talking. Argentina will continue to tap the domestic capital markets for funding, at least for the time being. What is outstanding in terms of the multi-lateral debt is the Paris Club... and then there is the relatively small group of hold-out creditors, but the IMF is settled. As things stand today, they are a non-issue.

As for a short term implosing.... I see that as highly unlikely. The international macro-economic scenario is still way too favorable for Argentina... with Soyabeans and other commodities at or close to record highs, Argentina is assured strong tax revenues from exports of those products, and even though its gotten smaller, at the end of the day the government is running a fiscal surplus. Please dont get me wrong... Im a huge critic of this government and I have a very long list of structural issues that are wrong with this economy (and nothing is being done about them), but to say that this economy will implode in about one year is, in my opinion, not reading the overall picture with enough detail.

Stay tuned..... things change rapidly down here but for now, the above is my assessment.

Be careful, though. Even with a multi-band Verizon phone like the Blackberry World Edition, you will not be able to use your phone in Argentina--it seems Verizon just doesn't have the appropriate roaming agreement.

That comment about Verizon is four years old, man. (This is a long-running thread.) But yeah, if you're traveling to BA a lot, it's probably time to upgrade to a quad-band phone. I think all of AT&T's PDA-style phones, including the iPhone and BlackBerry, are quad-band now.

Gaucho:

Where is your wine store in BA? We would like to stop by and purchase some wine.

We drink a bunch of Argentine vino here in NYC, but finding any one retailer with a wide selection is hard. We buy at Astor, Garnett and Sherry-Lehman but none of those has a very broad choice, though they are now carrying more Argentine Roses and more then just one Torrontes as their white selection.
Gracias.