Buenos Aires News: Edition 4

Seems like our new Buenos Aires News idea was popular enough to be “borrowed” on another site, so I guess we’re doing something right.  (Though some credit would have been nice.)

Argentina Playboy Bunny Campaigns for Whales in Chile  [Merco Press]
Argentine top model Vanesa Carbone cat-walked topless in front of the Japanese embassy in Santiago de Chile to protest Japan’s indiscriminate whale hunting and the use of animal skins in human clothing. Save the whales! (And yes, there is a photo on their site too.)

Spain’s Bets Sour in Latin America [Wall Street Journal]
Argentine lawmakers Wednesday approved a draft law to seize back the country’s largest airline Aerolineas Argentinas and its subsidiary Austral from its owners, the Spanish group Marsans. The measure approved by Argentina’s lower house of Congress Wednesday declared Marsans’ properties to be “of public utility,” which is enough under Argentine law to allow expropriation. Marsans claims the airline is worth $250 – $450 million while the Argentine government wants to pay 1 peso (.30 cents) for the airline.

Argentine political soap opera bubbles along [San Francisco Chronicle]
Argentine Vice-President Julio Cobos has become an outcast in the government after he cast the tie-breaking vote in July’s farmer’s strike against his boss President Cristina Fernandez, but his popularity soared.  His approval rating is twice that of the president in some approval polls, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to come to work for him.

Yes, We Have No Monedas! [Slate]
Subtitled “Inside the world’s most annoying economic crisis,” this is yet another story about the shortage of coins in Buenos Aires and the many interesting ways people are dealing with it. Michelle and Tom’s blog has their own interesting experiences with the Argentine coin shortage. Truly a strange problem to see…

Fernandez Unveils Stimulus Plan for Argentine Economy [Bloomberg]
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has unveiled a 13.2 billion-peso ($3.9 billion) plan to spur the country’s consumption and exports in a bid to counter the effects of the global financial crisis. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.