In brief

AFIP controls soybean stocks

The Argentine Farmers Federation (FAA) said yesterday that “the national government persecutes, once more, farmers, sending the tax agency AFIP to control soybean stocks, with an inexplicable pressure operation.”

Astiz attacks Oyarbide

Convicted human rights criminal and former Navy commander Alfredo Astiz testified yesterday in court and accused federal judge Norberto Oyarbide of being “corrupt” due to his “unabashed work in favour of Kirchnerism” and his “haste to put an opposition figure on trial,” referring to Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri.

Tribilín had full licence

Hernando Sirera, the defence lawyer representing the women accused of physically and verbally abusing infants aged between 45 days and four at the Tribilín day care centre in the Buenos Aires province neighbourhood of San Isidro, will today present a document in court to prove that the municipality granted it a licence in Decree 874 in 2002. Sirera thus refuted allegations that the centre was illegal.

School lessons in ‘jeopardy’

The national government together with the Buenos Aires provincial government said yesterday that the 30 percent wage hike demanded by the teachers association won’t be possible. Teachers unions warned that the date school is meant to start could be in jeopardy, after Buenos Aires Governor Daniel Scioli said he couldn’t pay the wage increase.

Marita Verón lookalike spotted

On the same day that a woman with amnesia, claiming to be from Tucumán and of similar appearance to Marita Verón was spotted in Salta, the judges presiding over Room II of the Tucumán Criminal Court, who at the end of last year acquitted all the suspects indicted over Verón’s disappearance, refused to deal with an appeal filed by the human-trafficking victim’s mother. Replacements have reportedly been appointed.

Formosa drought causes water rationing

A long drought affecting the west of Formosa province, where there has been no serious rainfall since last winter, is forcing the implementation of rationing on drinking water for the population. Some farmers have announced that cattle have started to die.