Free Republic

DARIEN GAP, Panama—The grind of heavy machinery breaks the silence of the Darién jungle, where the Pan American Highway ends at Yaviza in Panama. Construction workers have cleared towering trees to make way for a steel and concrete bridge mighty enough to withstand flooding from the Chucunaque River. An onsite worker for the construction company Cusa told The Epoch Times the construction project will cut 4 miles into the Darién jungle at a cost of $42 million and includes a second bridge crossing the Tuira River. That would leave some 55 miles to finish the Pan American Highway, also known...

We’re seeing a lot of fuss and bother over the 2024 presidential election. But do we even need a president? I ask because we don’t have one now. And we haven’t had one for all practical purposes for something between a few months and three years. Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald recently tweeted, “The US has no functional president and has not had one for months, and it’s barely noticeable and barely matters because there’s a permanent unelected machine that runs the government.” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ken.) replied, “Where’s the lie?” Elon Musk commented, “Bingo.” Joe Biden may be capable of...

A free market for housing is one that benefits both renters and landlords.It should go without saying, but the United States became the world's most-prosperous large nation by generally allowing the market economy to work. By contrast, Argentina has remained a poor backwater thanks in part to its far-reaching price controls. So it's ironic that "free-market" America needs to learn a key economic lesson from down south, at least on the issue of rental housing. Argentina's governments have since the 1940s reflected to some degree the Perón-ista worldview, named after Juan Domingo Perón and his authoritarian-populist government. Last November,...

Argentine President Javier Milei posted a message on social media in Hebrew to mark the anniversary of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, demanding the return of Israel’s hostages to freedom. Milei’s message was both a declaration of support for Israel as it continues its self-defense operations against the Hamas jihadist organization in Gaza and its allies in Lebanon and a reminder to the world that Argentina lost citizens to the mass abductions that took place on October 7. At least seven Argentines are believed to be among the 101 people abducted from Israel on October 7, 2023,...

In June, the two most important heads of state in the Western Hemisphere met in San Salvador. Merco Press reported at the time, “On his way back from California, Argentine President Javier Milei stopped in El Salvador for Nayib Bukele's new inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by other heads of state and government, such as King Felipe VI of Spain with whom he exchanged a brief moment that caught the eye given the recent diplomatic crisis with the Socialist administration of Pedro Sánchez.” The two men have emerged as reformers of sloppy governments in their country. They threw down...

During his remarks, Milei criticized the UN for its hypocrisies in criticizing Israel. . Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon thanked Argentine President Javier Milei for defending Israel in his speech before the General Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, the two leaders embracing for a handshake following Milei's speech. "Thank you, President Milei! You are a true friend of the State of Israel," Danon said in a statement. "In this hall where they slandered Israel all day, you showed courage and supported Israel!" During his remarks, Milei criticized the UN for its hypocrisies in criticizing Israel. "In this same house,...

The elements of an economic plan presented by Kamala Harris consist of price controls, higher taxes, greater government spending, interventions, regulations, and subsidies paid for by printing a currency devalued by high inflation. These elements constitute “21st-century socialism.” The Kamala Harris–Tim Walz economic plan is the most radical socialist economic plan ever announced by the Democrats. It was Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana who said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Why cite him? Because Harris and Walz don’t seem to be able to remember the past, much less learn from it. They want to take...

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Argentine authorities have quarantined a cargo ship in the Parana River over a suspected case of mpox onboard, the government said on Tuesday, as global public health authorities remain on alert for a new faster-spreading variant of the virus. The quarantined Liberian-flagged ship was sailing from Santos, Brazil - also a major commodities hub - to pick up soy cargo, according to the health ministry and industry body the Argentine Naval League. The World Health Organization (WHO) last week declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as...

Argentina’s Federal Police forces dismantled this weekend what they described as an Islamic terrorist cell allegedly planning attacks against the Jewish community in the western province of Mendoza. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced on Friday evening that federal police officers carried out eight raids on the homes of the group’s members to dismantle the radical Islamic terror cell, resulting in the arrest of seven individuals. The terrorist cell was identified after it issued threats against a local Jewish journalist, who denounced the threats to the Delegation of Israelite Associations of Argentina (DAIA), prompting local authorities to launch an investigation. Bullrich...

“State intervention is always bad, because it’s based on coercion, on force, and nothing based on coercion can be good.”~ Javier Milei, speaking at The Hoover Institution in May, 2024Today we take a break from our road-tripping adventure to offer a quick update from the other End of the World...Long time readers will recall our fascination over what we’ve been calling, with immodest grandiloquence, The Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age. The story so far is that, down at the southern end of the Americas, in our chosen country of self-exile, Argentina, the locals have sensibly chosen to “throw the...

Javier Milei’s triumph in the first round of the Argentine elections last year—the first of three that make up our tortuous process of electing a president—provoked not just shock, but confusion. Immediately, WhatsApp threads were bursting with different versions of the same question: Was he “far right”? Or was he something more bizarre—the first libertarian candidate in the world with a chance to win? The question was—and is—far from foolish. Milei presented himself as a central part of a new right-wing international, expressing solidarity with world leaders like Donald Trump and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro. Everyone was happy then: The global...

The discovery of butchered bones belonging to a glyptodont, a giant relative of the armadillo, suggests that humans were living in Argentina 20,000 years ago. Ancient humans may have butchered and eaten a giant armadillo-like creature around 20,000 years ago in what is now Argentina, a new study finds. The discovery of the butchered bones supports a growing body of evidence that people spread throughout the Americas much earlier than previously assumed. During the Late Pleistocene epoch (129,000 to 11,700 years ago), ice sheets and glaciers covered much of the planet, particularly during the Last Glacial Maximum, a period around...

ROME — Pope Francis warned Sunday democracy is in “crisis” around the world, likely with an eye to a rise in right-wing parties across Italy, Austria, Argentina, Netherlands, and Germany. It is evident that in today’s world, democracy “is not in good health,” the pontiff told a group of 900 participants in the 50th annual Social Week, celebrated in the northern Italian city of Trieste. The pope went on to compare the modern “crisis of democracy” to a wounded heart that has suffered a heart attack, manifested by “various forms of social exclusion” that “limit participation.”

Argentina’s Senate narrowly passed President Javier Milei’s sweeping economic reform bill, delivering a tentative legislative victory to the right-wing leader even as protesters clashed with riot police. Lawmakers in Argentina’s upper house on Wednesday voted 37 to 36 to approve the bill after a marathon debate, with Vice President and head of the Senate Victoria Villarruel casting the deciding vote in favor of Milei’s economic measures. The bill, which was initially backed by the lower house in April, will now be studied point by point before it is expected to be fully approved on Thursday. The reform bill is a...

Hundreds of security forces fired tear gas and water cannons at rioting demonstrators outside the National Congress building in Buenos Aires on Wednesday as protesters called on senators to reject President Javier Milei’s sweeping reform plan. Demonstrators who were protesting against the proposed reforms, which are being debated by lawmakers in the lower house, were dealt with aggressively by riot police and Border Guard officers. As the protest turned ugly, two cars were set alight by what appeared to be protesters. Police later said that at least 18 people, 16 men and two women, had been arrested amid the disturbances....

Democrat US Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania at fault in that accident... In Buenos Aires clashes between demonstrators and police with at least 33 arrests... Politics in Washington US Attorney General Merrick Garland held in contempt by a vote of the Republican-controlled US House... At least 80 dead following a boat accident in Congo... The United States Treasury expanding economic warfare against Russia targeting trading on the Moscow Exchange... In the Red Sea off Yemen a merchant vessel attacked and sinking... US politics in the latest mix of polls and Economist/YouGov national poll giving Donald Trump 42 percent... The US...

Just six months into his term, we're running out of accolades for Argentinian President Javier ' El Loco' Milei, but as long as he keeps governing the way he campaigned -- a.k.a, by taking a chainsaw to wasteful and pointless government agencies -- we'll keep a Thesaurus handy to congratulate him even more. In March, Milei announced plans to fire 70,000 government workers. By April, he had already fired more than 24,000, and all recent signs indicate that he has every intention of following through on his promise. The latest agency to feel the chainsaw's cut? Argentina's Ministry of Women,...

[Catholic Caucus] "Ecclesiastical Oddities": Héctor Agüer, Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata, tries to understand what is going on in the Argentine episcopate under Francis[La Plata, Argentina: Immaculate Conception Cathedral in central Moreno Square]The corresponding adjective is "odd" ("rare"), which has several meanings in the dictionary; I choose one: odd is that which has little density and consistency. Although it also refers to extraordinary and extravagant things. I mean: it is an oddity that the Pope is Argentinian, what is also odd is the fact that in over a decade he has not had the concern to visit his homeland. John...

Argentine authorities are working with El Salvador, a pioneering nation in bitcoin adoption, aiming to boost cryptocurrency adoption in Argentina. High-ranking officials from Argentina's National Securities Commission (CNV), the country's securities regulator, met with El Salvador's National Commission of Digital Assets on May 23 to discuss the use of cryptocurrencies, according to an official announcement by the CNV. The talks focused on El Salvador's experience in adopting bitcoin and its regulatory framework. "El Salvador has emerged as one of the leading countries, not only in the use of bitcoin, but it has also stood out in the world of crypto...

The creature's shape is striking, as it has not been connected with any known animal. Residents of Totoras in the province of Santa Fe report that a creature is wandering the streets and has even slain two dogs. The photograph, taken and night and somewhat blurry, has already made the rounds of social media to warn against the possible danger. An audio broadcast expains that the beast squared ofrf against a Pitbull and a German Shepherd who lost the encounter and died. The creature subsequently vanished. ... Dentro Irime Cydar noticed that the image matches that of a character appearing...