¡Buenos días from Greenway Parks! This is the Rorshok Argentina Update from the 2nd of April twenty twenty-six. A quick summary of what's going down in Argentina.

We start with a story that has sent shockwaves through the national healthcare system this week. The death of Alejandro Salazar, a young medical resident, has exposed a ring of doctors who stole high-end drugs from the Hospital Italiano to throw private “Propofol Parties.” Investigators found that Hernán Boveri and Delfina Lanusse, two professionals, allegedly took fentanyl and propofol to fuel these events.

These parties had two versions: private sexual encounters and controlled trips sold to clients who wanted a medical high. The organizers even brought respiratory equipment and infusion pumps to the apartments to prevent guests from stopping breathing. While the doctors involved have lost their jobs and face charges for fraud, the Hospital Italiano is now overhauling how it tracks every single vial of medicine. This case has triggered a massive internal investigation across several Buenos Aires hospitals to see if this recreational use of surgical drugs is a more widespread habit among medical staff.

Speaking of legal trouble for high-ranking officials, Manuel Adorni, the Cabinet Chief, is facing a significant escalation in the investigations against him. Last week, we mentioned that he was laughing off allegations about his finances. The laughter might be fading, as a Federal Prosecutor formally charged him with illicit enrichment this week. The case focuses on a two-hundred-square-meter apartment in Buenos Aires City that Adorni bought for 230,000 dollars just fourteen days after taking office.

The paperwork shows a very strange deal: two retirees sold him the place and supposedly lent him nearly 90% of the money themselves. However, those same women now say they don’t even know who Adorni is. While the Chief of Staff insists he is just a victim of his own filing deadlines, a judge is now looking into his wife’s state contracts and a second luxury home in a golf club in Exaltación de la Cruz, a rural district located about eighty kilometers north of Buenos Aires City.

In brighter news for the government, it just scored a big win on the international stage. A US Appeals Court in New York completely overturned the sixteen-billion-dollar judgment against Argentina over the twenty-twelve nationalization of the oil company YPF. President Milei celebrated the news with a national broadcast, arguing that the ruling saved the country from a payout equivalent to seventy million retirement checks.

The judges decided that the previous court misinterpreted Argentine law and that the state didn’t actually owe that massive sum to the Burford Capital hedge fund. While the fund might still try to take the case to the US Supreme Court, the ruling removes a massive weight from the national treasury and sent YPF shares climbing.

On the socioeconomic front, the numbers are giving everyone something to talk about. The national statistics bureau, INDEC, reported that the poverty rate dropped sharply to 28% in the second half of last year. That is a ten-point fall in just twelve months. Extreme poverty also fell to just over 6%, which the government is holding up as proof that their chainsaw budget cuts are finally stabilizing the economy.

However, a new study from the University of Buenos Aires paints a more complicated picture for workers. It shows that eight out of ten low-income earners are stuck in insecure jobs without any benefits or legal protections. Even though poverty is down, four in ten Argentines still work in the informal market.

The study points out that most people living in poverty are actually working more hours than those who aren’t, but their wages simply don’t keep up with the cost of living.

Since we mentioned the struggle to balance the books, you’ll want to check your balance before heading out this week. April is starting with a wave of price hikes across the board. If you live in Buenos Aires, your water bill is going up by 4%, while electricity and gas will see smaller increases of around 2%.

Getting around is also getting pricier. Subte rides in the capital just jumped to over 1,400 pesos (about one US dollar), which represents nearly a 5% increase, just like the hikes for tolls on major highways. On top of that, private health insurance companies announced a 3% increase, and those still under the old rent law with yearly updates will see their rent jump by 31%.

While families deal with these bills, a small community in the central Santa Fe province is dealing with a tragedy that has no precedent in the country. In the town of San Cristóbal, a fifteen-year-old student hid a shotgun in a guitar case and opened fire inside a school. The attack killed Ian Cabrera, a thirteen-year-old boy, and injured eight other students as they tried to jump through windows to escape.

The local government says the shooter had no history of violence at school but was dealing with a very difficult family situation at home. Because the boy is only fifteen, he cannot be punished under current Argentine law. This has reignited an intense debate in Congress about lowering the age of criminal responsibility, as the governor’s team admitted they have no legal tools to keep the minor in custody.

On that note about legal tools, the government’s plan to rewrite the rules of the workplace has hit a major roadblock. A federal labor court suspended over eighty articles of the new labor reform this week after the CGT union (the country’s largest and most powerful union) filed an injunction. The judges ruled that the changes—which included cutting severance pay and extending trial periods—might violate the constitution.

This wasn't the only setback in the courts for President Milei. The judiciary also ordered the Executive branch to stop ignoring the University Financing Law. For months, the government has refused to release funds for public colleges, arguing it would break their zero deficit goal, even after the President unsuccessfully tried to veto a law passed by Congress to protect that funding. The court now says the government must update teacher salaries and student scholarships immediately. Students and professors even took their protest to Manuel Adorni’s front door in Buenos Aires City this week to make sure the message was heard.

Also on the topic of protests, a new essay by the collective Feminismo Gráfico is shedding light on a different kind of resistance through art. Writing for the Tricontinental Institute, designer Dani Ruggeri explores how women and non-binary artists have used comics to challenge myths and document Argentine history for over a century. The piece highlights a digital archive that recovers the stories of creators who were often hidden behind male pseudonyms or paid less than their peers.

You can check out the full piece in English with the link in the show notes.

In other news, the government is officially moving to sell off more state assets. They just launched the tender process to privatize Intercargo, the company that handles luggage and ramps at all major airports. They are also looking for buyers for the Belgrano Cargas freight rail network, which covers over seven thousand kilometers of track across sixteen provinces.

The goal is to bring in fresh dollars and private investment, and it seems to be working in the energy sector. Phoenix Global Resources announced a six-billion-dollar expansion in the Vaca Muerta shale fields this week. They credited the government’s new RIGI incentive program for the move, which offers long-term tax breaks and legal guarantees to big investors.

To end on a higher note—literally—Argentina just reached a major milestone in space. A small satellite called Atenea, built entirely by Argentine scientists and universities, launched as a passenger on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission. This makes Argentina the only Latin American country involved in the project. The microsatellite is currently testing deep-space communications from seventy thousand kilometers away, sending data back to stations in Córdoba in central Argentina and Tierra del Fuego in the South.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Anything to tell us, info@rorshok.com.

¡Nos vemos la próxima semana!