International
Rising Argentine inflation ends 2021 over 50%

AFP
Argentine inflation continued to rise in 2021, ending the year at more than 50 percent, the state statistics institute said on Thursday,
It was grim news for the South American country, given cumulative inflation in 2020 — a year when the economy was almost paralyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic — was just 36 percent.
The largest price increases in 2021 were in hotels and restaurants (65.4 percent), transport (57.6) and food (50.3).
“During 2021, the government tried to anchor inflation and to do so basically used the regulation of the price of utility rates and the exchange rate,” Hernan Fletcher of the Argentine Center of Economic Policy, told AFP.
“Although it certainly was not a success, without this, inflation would have been higher.”
Since 2019, Argentina has imposed ever stricter currency exchange controls, meaning citizens can only withdraw $200 a month at the official rate.
For 2022, the government predicted in its budget — which was rejected by the opposition-dominated parliament — an inflation of 33 percent.
Opposition figures derided the budget as unrealistic.
According to a Central Bank survey, inflation in 2022 will be 55 percent.
The news comes with the government embroiled in a tricky renegotiation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the repayment structure of a $44 billion loan agreed in 2018.
Argentina is due to pay back $19 billion to the IMF this year, another $20 billion in 2023 and $4 billion the following year.
Yet analysts estimate that the country has just $4 billion in international reserves.
“A deal with the IMF could improve the economy in terms of expectations, but in terms of inflation I don’t see 2022 being very different to 2021,” said economist Pablo Tigani.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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