Buenos Aires Herald returns after six-year hiatus
The Buenos Aires Herald, closely associated with Argentina’s British and American communities, as well as tourists, returned as an online daily after shutting down in 2017.
The English-language journal, founded in 1876, later earned internal renown for its coverage of the “disappeared” – people who were forcibly abducted, tortured and murdered by the state during Argentina's last dictatorship in the late 1970s – when much of the country’s media stayed silent.
The Herald, which - like most Argentine newspapers - had suffered steadily-declining circulation since the 1970s, was purchased by the owners of the country's largest business daily, Ámbito Financiero, in 2008 - and in 2015 by the Indalo Group, which owns Argentina's top-rated progressive cable news network, C5N.
The Indalo Group is currently pursuing litigation against members of the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration (2015-19) for political persecution, including alleged attempts to use pro-Macri courts to seize the group.
A key defendant in the case, Macri fixer Fabián “Pepín” Rodríguez Simón, has had an Interpol Red Notice issued against him in 2021 for avoiding subpoenas to testify. Rodríguez Simón, 64, is reportedly living in neighboring Uruguay - whose courts are still mulling his extradition.
The Herald's main competition in this new chapter will be the centrist Buenos Aires Times, owned by the Perfil Group.
At: https://buenosairesherald.com/op-ed/editorial/the-buenos-aires-herald-is-back
A sign of the times, a 2016 headline in the Buenos Aires Herald, Argentina's best-known English-language daily, presages its closure a year later.
Its owners revived the daily - long a favorite among Argentina's English-speaking community - this Friday.
The Herald earned international renown for helping expose Nazi activities in Argentina in the 1930s and '40s - and for raising awareness of the country's disappeared during the last dictatorship in the late 1970s.
It later earned the ire of Argentina's largely right-wing media for its criticism of former President Mauricio Macri, whose sharp utility rate hikes - and alleged use of allied courts against the Herald's owners - helped lead to its closure in 2017.
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The Herald is a very good, well-written Argentine news resource for English-language readers - and has been for many years.
The Buenos Aires Times is as well - though the Herald currently leans a somewhat more to the left. Both are good reads.
It's good to see them back - and I hope they can soon return in print to the hotels, where for many years it was a favorite of foreign tourists.
As far as Macri, it would've no doubt been better to have him run - an all-but sure defeat for his party.
And it's obvious from his tone, face, and demeanor in the video that he wanted to run - but was forced to opt out by the only people who could prevail on him to do so: big donors.
Macri has nothing but contempt for that lush Bullrich, the clownish Larreta, or that bumpkin Morales (the one from Jujuy Province who railroaded Milagro Sala, you'll recall) - so I'm sure none of them were able to persuade him.
But big money? Ah - that's another matter.
Like Trump, Macri never could manage his (or anyone else's) - so has a deep admiration, even fixation, for the truly wealthy. He did the smart thing by his party by bowing out, in any case.
That said, I do think at this point that President Fernández should do the same. His approval rating never recovered from the 'birthday-gate' scandal - where he was shown celebrating his wife's b-day with a few friends (in July 2020, when crowding restrictions were still in force).
Should Fernández run, he would probably not win in the general (or even in the primary). Personally, I think he deserves credit for preventing an all-out collapse in Argentina - like the kind Lebanon and Sri Lanka had.
But the voters don't see it that way - and such is life.
Thanks as always, Judi. Happy Spring - and Happy... dawn...of...the Age of Aquarius (pa-ra pa!)... 