Passports and war driving pregnant Russians to give birth in Argentina

Yahoo – AFP, Philippe BERNES-LASSERRE, 16 February 2023 

When migration officials detained six pregnant Russian women at a Buenos Aires airport last week, they exposed a phenomenon that has been growing in the country for a year: Russian birthing tourism. 

As Russia's President Vladimir Putin wages war in Ukraine, Argentina has gradually become the destination of choice for Russian expectant parents fleeing the threat of conscription and seeking new passports in the South American country. 

Pregnant Russian women and couples with a newborn baby have become increasingly visible in Buenos Aires over the last year, whether in cafes, parks, or buses, but especially in private clinics. 

The case of the six detained women sent alarm bells ringing at the Directorate of Migrations, worried that something underhand was afoot. 

The six heavily-pregnant women -- who traveled separately and were detained for only a few hours over two days -- had tourist visas but no return tickets and were unable to give any details about what they planned to visit. 

Authorities were worried criminal gangs were involved but in truth, the Russians just wanted to give birth in the country. 

Argentina's quality medical facilities and the ease with which nationality is obtained are part of the draw. 

'I want my son to live' 

But many are driven by fear that one day their children could be conscripted into the army and sent to wage a bloody war, like Putin is doing in Ukraine with the current generation. 

"Some 90 percent of the women who come are looking for a better future," interpreter Elena Shkitenkova, who has lived in Argentina for 20 years and helps expectant mothers in their administrative processes, told AFP. 

"There have been cases of women that when they have discovered they are expecting a boy, they decided to come to Argentina." 

The South American country bestows nationality on anyone born in Argentina, meaning those Russian boys born here would be able to avoid any eventual conscription when they become men. 

"They tell me: 'I want my son to live, I want peace for my son, I want a better future'," added Shkitenkova. 

The parents too are desperate to escape the war. 

"The war in Ukraine influenced our decision to come to Argentina, although that was not the only reason," Elena, 32, a mother of three girls who did not give her surname, told AFP. 

"It is certain that if we had stayed in Russia, my husband probably would have been conscripted," she added. 

The parents of Argentine babies are afforded residency rights and an accelerated process to apply for citizenship. 

Elena's youngest daughter, Severina, was born in Buenos Aires in May. 

"We want to stay here and assimilate. Our residency application is in progress," she said. 

At the Sanatorio Finochietto clinic, there is a noticeable presence of Russian families and pregnant women. 

Guillermo Capuya, who is in charge of the clinic's institutional relations, says the arrival of pregnant Russians "began very slowly" about a year ago, around the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

"We did not imagine it would become a phenomenon, but in the last quarter it started to increase exponentially" to the point that in December a quarter of the 200 births in the clinic were to Russian mothers. 

'It's an avalanche' 

Most of the Russians do not speak Spanish and almost none have ever visited Argentina before. 

But what is happening now "is an avalanche," said Florencia Carignano, the migration agency director. 

They mostly arrive on flights from Amsterdam, Istanbul and Addis Ababa. 

Carignano says there are 14 or 15 pregnant Russians on each of those flights. 

More than 5,800 have arrived in the last three months. 

There is nothing new about Russians seeking dual nationality for their children, a man who created an agency to help expectant parents in Argentina told AFP under condition of anonymity. 

Before, the preferred destination was the United States. 

The "package" deal for giving birth in Argentina can cost up to $15,000, he said. 

"If you have a bit of money and are able to have your child born outside Russia, you will do it. It's easy to acquire Argentine citizenship and you get treated a lot better than with the red Russian passport," he said. 

According to the federal police, some networks charge up to $35,000 for birthing tourism. 

Authorities are worried mafia organizations could be trying to get access to Argentine passports. 

Police conducted a raid in Buenos Aires last week, seizing telephones, documents and several currencies, although no arrests were made. 

The Argentine passport allows you to travel to 175 countries without a visa, around 50 more than with a Russian passport.

Sealed with a kiss: Chile celebrates first same-sex weddings

Yahoo – AFP, March 10, 2022 

Jaime Nazar (L) and Javier Silva became the firs same-sex couple to legally
tie the knot in Chile (AFP/CLAUDIO REYES)

Two same-sex couples became the first Thursday to legally tie the knot in Chile, which joined a handful of countries in majority Catholic Latin America to allow LGBTQ couples to marry. 

Under a law approved by Congress in December and signed by outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, they can also now adopt children. 

"We never imagined we would experience this moment in Chile," Jaime Nazar, 39, declared proudly after marrying his partner of seven years Javier Silva, 38, in a Santiago suburb. 

The pair's two young children were there for the historic event. 

"Now, yes, we can say we are a family," said Silva. 

"Our children have the same conditions (as those of straight couples) and will have a better future without discrimination for having two dads who love each other," he added. 

Silva carried the couple's 18-month-old son in his arms, while Nazar bore their daughter of four months. 

The children are the product of surrogate pregnancies abroad that used the sperm of one of the couple. Until now, they had only one legally recognized father -- the biological donor. 

'Super proud' 

From 2015 until Thursday, same-sex couples wishing to formalize their relationship had only the option of civil union agreements, which confer most of the same rights that marriage does, but without the possibility of legal adoption. 

Jaime Nazar (L) and Javier Silva became the firs same-sex couple to legally tie
the knot in Chile (AFP/CLAUDIO REYES)

"This is a very important step for the country. We feel super proud, privileged to be here," said Nazar, who is a dentist. 

Consuelo Morales and Pabla Heuser, both 38, said they decided to get married mainly for their two-year-old daughter Josefa. 

"Today Josefa ceases to be an illegitimate daughter," said Morales. Heuser, who carried the child in her womb, had been the girl's sole legal parent until now. 

In total, three same-sex weddings took place in Chile Thursday -- the day the law took effect. 

It came on the eve of the swearing-in of leftist Gabriel Boric as Chile's youngest-ever president. 

Chile had been awaiting the passage of the marriage bill since then-president Michelle Bachelet sent it to Congress in 2017. 

In a surprise move, her conservative successor Pinera announced last year he would seek the urgent passage of the bill -- supported by a majority of Chileans -- through Congress. 

Pinera signed it into law just two days after lawmakers gave the green light ahead of presidential elections in which Boric and his far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast polled neck-and neck. 

Kast vehemently opposed broadening access to marriage rights, unlike Boric who supported the move. 

Chile is now one of 30 countries in the world that allow same-sex marriage, and seven in Latin America along with Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and some states in Mexico.

Pollution turns Argentina lake bright pink

Yahoo –AFP, July 25, 2021 

An Argentina lagoon turned a bright pink color caused by sodium sulfite,
an anti-bacterial product used in fish factories

A lagoon in Argentina's southern Patagonia region has turned bright pink in a striking, but frightful phenomenon experts and activists blame on pollution by a chemical used to preserve prawns for export. 

The color is caused by sodium sulfite, an anti-bacterial product used in fish factories, whose waste is blamed for contaminating the Chubut river that feeds the Corfo lagoon and other water sources in the region, according to activists. 

Residents have long complained of foul smells and other environmental issues around the river and lagoon. 

"Those who should be in control are the ones who authorize the poisoning of people," environmental activist Pablo Lada told AFP, blaming the government for the mess. 

The lagoon turned pink last week and remained the abnormal color on Sunday, said Lada, who lives in the city of Trelew, not far from the lagoon and some 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) south of Buenos Aires. 

Environmental engineer and virologist Federico Restrepo told AFP the coloration was due to sodium sulfite in fish waste, which by law, should be treated before being dumped. 

The lagoon, which is not used for recreation, receives runoff from the Trelew industrial park and has turned the color of fuchsia before. 

The Corfo lagoon in Patagonia, which is not used for recreation, receives runoff
from the Trelew industrial park, and it is not the first time it has turned this unnatura; color

But residents of the area are fed up. 

In recent weeks, residents of Rawson, neighboring Trelew, blocked roads used by trucks carrying processed fish waste through their streets to treatment plants on the city's outskirts. 

"We get dozens of trucks daily, the residents are getting tired of it," said Lada. 

With Rawson off limits due to the protest, provincial authorities granted authorization for factories to dump their waste instead in the Corfo lagoon. 

"The reddish color does not cause damage and will disappear in a few days," environmental control chief for Chubut province, Juan Micheloud, told AFP last week. 

Sebastian de la Vallina, planning secretary for the city of Trelew disagreed: "It is not possible to minimize something so serious." 

Plants that process fish for export, mainly prawns and hake, generate thousands of jobs for Chubut province, home to some 600,000 people. 

Dozens of foreign fishing companies operate in the area in waters under Argentina's Atlantic jurisdiction. 

"Fish processing generates work... it's true. But these are multi-million-dollar profit companies that don't want to pay freight to take the waste to a treatment plant that already exists in Puerto Madryn, 35 miles away, or build a plant closer," said Lada.

Argentines celebrate approval of landmark abortion law

Yahoo – AFP, Daniel MEROLLA, December 29, 2020 

Argentina's Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (R) opens
the session at the Senate to decide whether to legalize abortion

Pro-choice activists celebrated on the streets on Wednesday as Argentina joined a handful of South American nations to legalize abortion, a landmark decision in a country where the Catholic Church has long held sway. 

Senate president Cristina Kirchner confirmed the vote after more than twelve hours of debate that began Tuesday, sparking scenes of jubilation in the capital Buenos Aires. 

"Safe, legal and free abortion is law ... Now we're a better society that is increasing women's rights and safeguarding public health," President Alberto Fernandez, who sponsored the original bill, wrote on Twitter. 

Hundreds of thousands of illegal terminations are carried out every year in Argentina with at least 3,000 women dying after backstreet abortions since the 1980s, said Fernandez, who is Catholic. 

Before the vote he said the law was necessary "to legislate for everyone." 

"After so many attempts and years of struggle that cost us blood and lives, today we finally made history," protester Sandra Lujan, a 41-year-old psychologist, said after the vote in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday. 

"Today we leave a better place for our sons and daughters." 

The bill in the country of 44 million succeeded despite strong opposition from Evangelical Christians and traditional Roman Catholics -- with Pope Francis tweeting his tacit disapproval of change ahead of the vote. 

Human Rights Watch Americas Director Jose Miguel Vivanco hailed the decision as historic, and hoped it would energize other governments in the region to follow in the footsteps of one of Latin America's largest nations. 

"The criminalization of abortion has failed. It's time to end it," he tweeted. 

The new legislation will allow voluntary terminations up to 14 weeks of pregnancy, and was approved 38 to 29 with one abstention. 

The vote overturns a similar one in 2018 which -- although also passed the lower house -- ultimately foundered in the Senate by 38 votes to 31. 

Only Uruguay, Cuba and Guyana allow voluntary terminations in South America, which has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. 

In El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, it is banned, and women can be sentenced to jail even for having a miscarriage. 

In Argentina, terminations were previously allowed in only two instances: rape, and danger to the mother's life. 

Thousands of pro-choice activists celebrated the vote on the streets
of capital Buenos Aires

'Gift of life' 

The bill passed the Chamber of Deputies on December 11. 

Francis, who is Argentine, has not commented directly on the vote but many felt he indirectly addressed the issue in a speech on Wednesday morning.

 "Christians, as all believers, bless God for the gift of life. To live is above all to have received," he said in his last speech before the New Year. 

"All of us are born because someone wanted us to have life." 

More than 60 percent of Argentines call themselves Catholic, according to a 2019 survey by the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (Conicet). 

Another Conicet survey this year found more than half of Argentina's Catholics supported abortion only in limited circumstances -- with around 22 percent supporting it, and roughly 17 percent rejecting it in all cases. 

"The interruption of a pregnancy is a tragedy. It abruptly ends another developing life," said Ines Blas, a senator from the ruling coalition. 

However, Senator Silvina Garcia Larraburu, from the same coalition, had said she would vote for the bill this time despite being against it in 2018. 

'Centuries of regression' 

Despite measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of pro-choice and anti-abortion demonstrators had gathered outside parliament ahead of the vote, following the debate on giant screens. 

Pro-choice activists have campaigned for years to change the abortion laws that date from 1921, adopting a green scarf as their symbol. 

Anti-abortion activists, who recently started wearing light blue scarves, expressed sadness after the vote passed. 

The alliance of evangelical churches issued a statement calling it "a sad day." 

"Today Argentina regressed centuries in terms of civilization and respect for the supreme right to life," said the alliance. 

Social law changes have always been slow in Argentina: divorce was legalized only in 1987, sex education introduced in 2006, gay marriage approved in 2010 and a gender identity law passed in 2012.

New president promises to put Argentines before debt repayments

Yahoo – AFP, Nina NEGRON, December 10, 2019

Argentina's new president, Alberto Fernandez, waves next to Vice President
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, after receiving the presidential sash from outgoing
leader Mauricio Macri (AFP Photo/Alejandro PAGNI)

Buenos Aires (AFP) - Center-leftist Alberto Fernandez vowed to put his people first ahead of debt repayments after he was sworn in as Argentina's president on Tuesday to singing and applause from lawmakers and supporters.

After taking over from the market-friendly Mauricio Macri, Fernandez sent a message to the International Monetary Fund, saying "it's impossible to pay external debt without growth."

Fernandez, whose vice president is controversial former leader Cristina Kirchner, will govern until 2023, presiding over a country beset by recession, high inflation, rising unemployment and poverty.

While the South American country wants to pay back its debt, it doesn't have "the means to do so," he said, promising to deal with Argentina's social emergency.

Fernandez was swept to power in large part due to a public backlash over the terms of a $57 billion loan Macri negotiated with the IMF last year.

With Argentina's rising debt came deeply unpopular austerity measures.

Argentina has so far received $44 billion of the agreed IMF loan, taking its external debt to $315 billion, around 100 percent of gross domestic product.

"We want to have a good relationship with the IMF but without growth we won't be able to pay," said Fernandez, accusing Macri of leaving the country in "virtual default" following 18 months of economic turmoil triggered by a currency crisis.

Speaking in a televised address, the Peronist leader promised a "new, fraternal and caring social contract."

Fernandez also said Argentina needs to "overcome the rancor and hate" that has become a feature of its increasingly polarized political landscape.

He twice hugged Macri tightly during the ceremony.

Notable absentee

The new head of state will host a lunch for fellow Latin American presidents -- including Cuba's Miguel Diaz-Canel -- before addressing a crowd at the Plaza de Mayo in the evening.

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera was due to attend but canceled after a Chilean Air Force plane went missing with 38 people onboard. It would have been Pinera's first foreign trip since the outbreak of social unrest in Chile in early October.

Another notable absentee was Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist who has recoiled at Argentina's swing to the left.

Argentina's Alberto Fernandez receives the presidential sash from outgoing leader 

Mauricio Macri during his inauguration ceremony in Buenos Aires (AFP Photo/

Ronaldo SCHEMIDT)

Bolsonaro at first declined to send a cabinet minister to represent him, but in the end sent Vice President Hamilton Mourao to represent his government.

Ahead of Fernandez's election victory, Bolsonaro had said that his government would turn Argentina into the new Venezuela, with Brazil likely to face a flood of Argentine refugees.

Fernandez's was among the loudest voices to call for the release of leftist icon and Bolsonaro adversary Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from jail.

Backroom strategist

Moderate and pragmatic, Fernandez has never served in elected office but brings years of experience as a former top aide to late president Nestor Kirchner from 2003-2007, and briefly for his wife Cristina after she succeeded him.

After joining forces with Cristina Kirchner to unite a fragmented Peronist camp to win October's elections, his main challenge will be to deliver on his promises to improve the economy, according to analysts Eurasia Group.

"He was elected to improve economic conditions, and there is a large share of the electorate that will be actively opposed to Fernandez and the Peronists," said Eurasia.

"If he fails to deliver on the economy, they will become more active and popular support for him could drop quickly."

His pick for economy minister, Martin Guzman, 37, will have the task of negotiating with the IMF and other international creditors on restructuring Argentina's massive debt.

Guzman, an academic at Columbia University in the United States, has criticized the use of austerity policies to solve debt crises, signalling a sharp shift from Macri's belt-tightening.

"We are already working with the IMF. It's work that must be done quietly, so Argentines can rest assured that we have been dealing with the issue for weeks," Fernandez said over the weekend.

"We have opened a negotiation process, we are satisfied with how it's going."

Monetary controls

Economist Hector Rubini of the University of Salvador said the government is likely to maintain the strict exchange controls put in place by the Macri government in October, at least initially.

He said a new budget law will likely reallocate funds to fight poverty, which Fernandez called "a moral imperative."

Fernandez has also pledged to move to legalize abortion, a bitterly divisive issue in Roman Catholic Argentina, pledging last month to send a bill to Congress as soon as possible.

He inherits a dismal economy that is projected to shrink 3.1 percent this year, with inflation running at 55 percent, poverty near 40 percent, and unemployment at over 10 percent.

Despite the bleak outlook, Fernandez is likely to be able to count on a period of calm from the powerful unions, and will have Congress and debt timetables on his side.

Priests who abused deaf children get 40-year jail terms in Argentina

Yahoo – AFP, November 25, 2019

Victims and relatives celebrate outside the court after hearing their abusers
get lengthy jail sentences for years of sexual abuse at the Provolo institute
for deaf children in Mendoza, Argentina (AFP Photo/Andres Larrovere)

Mendoza (Argentina) (AFP) - Two Roman Catholic priests were each sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in Argentina for the sexual abuse, including rape, of deaf children, a court in the western city of Mendoza ruled Monday.

Argentine priest Horacio Corbacho was sentenced to 45 years in jail, while a 42-year sentence was imposed on Italian Nicola Corradi for the abuse of some 20 children at the Provolo Institute for deaf and hearing-impaired children between 2004 and 2016.

The trial, one of several involving the school that have yet to begin, has sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church in the homeland of Pope Francis.

The court said the sentences took into account the aggravating circumstances that the priests were responsible for the children's wellbeing, as well as the fact that the victims were minors living at the boarding school.

Italian Catholic priest Nicola Corradi being wheeled into court before being 

sentenced to 42 years for sexually abusing minors at a school for the

deaf in Mendoza, Argentina (AFP Photo/Andres Larrovere)

The victims were children and adolescents aged between four and 17.

The school's gardener, Armando Gomez, was also jailed for 18 years for sexual abuse.

Neither of the three defendants made any response when their sentences were read out. Corradi, the eldest, had been brought into court on a wheelchair.

Outside the court a group of young people waited for the ruling, holding up banners which said "Support for the Survivors of Provolo."

Ezequiel Villalonga (L), 18, who accused Italian priest Nicola Corradi and two 

others of sexual abuse at the Provolo Institute in Mendoza, celebrates with 

other victims and relatives after they received lengthy jail sentences (AFP

 Photo/Andres Larrovere)

Some burst into wild celebrations when the sentence was read out in court. Some of the victims' mothers simply embraced and wept.

School shut down

Corbacho, 59, and 83-year-old Corradi had been held in preventive detention since their arrest three years ago on charges of child sex abuse at the school.

Apart from the gardener, several other staff at the school were taken into custody after the allegations of abuse first came to light in 2016, and the institute, 1,000 kilometers west of Buenos Aires, was shut down.

Italian Catholic priest Nicola Corradi being wheeled into court

ahead of his sentencing Monday (AFP Photo/Andres Larrovere)

They included a 42-year-old Japanese nun, Kosaka Kumiko, who was arrested later after surrendering to authorities. She was charged with complicity with the two priests.

The trial began on August 5 and heard evidence from 13 victims from the institute during in camera hearings.

In a fast-tracked trial last year, a former altar boy, Jorge Bordon, 50, received a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to the sexual abuse of five children.

Another of the defendants was deemed mentally incompetent by the court for being disabled and having suffered sexual abuse himself as a child.

A woman holds posters of people accused of sexual abuse, corruption of children 

and mistreatment during a demonstration outside the Mendoza court (AFP Photo/

Andres Larrovere)

Fourteen more defendants are facing trial in two other separate cases involving the school.

Corradi arrived in Argentina in 1970 from the Provolo Institute in Verona, Italy, and took over the institution in the South American country, initially in La Plata near Buenos Aires, and then, from 1998, in Mendoza.

Other cases

Prosecutors have investigated other cases of abuse at the La Plata branch of the Provolo Institute which will also go to trial.

Argentine Catholic priest Horacio Corbacho at court before being 

sentenced to 45 years in prison for the sexual abuse of deaf 

children in his care in Mendoza (AFP Photo/Andres Larrovere)

"Life was very bad in there," one of the victims, 18-year-old Ezequiel Villalonga, told AFP at the beginning of the trial, highlighting the vulnerability of the children at the Mendoza school.

"We didn't learn anything. We didn't have any communication," Villalonga said of the school, set up to educate children with impaired hearing or speech disorders.

"We didn't know sign language, we didn't know what we were writing, we asked other classmates and, also, nobody understood anything."

Rescued circus elephant Ramba arrives at Brazil sanctuary

Yahoo – AFP, October 20, 2019

An elephant named Ramba that used to perform in circuses rests after arriving
at the Brazilian Elephant Sanctuary (AFP Photo/Rogerio Florentino)

Chapada dos Guimarães (Brazil) (AFP) - An Asian elephant that spent decades performing in South American circuses has started a new life in an open-air sanctuary in Brazil, after travelling thousands of kilometers by plane and truck from a Chilean zoo.

Ramba's much-anticipated arrival at the 1,133-hectare (2,800-acre) Elephant Sanctuary Brazil in the central west state of Mato Grosso late Friday was broadcast live on Facebook and viewed thousands of times.

The elephant, estimated to be more than 52 years old, worked in circuses in Argentina and Chile before she was rescued by activists in 2012.

She was then kept in a roadside zoo in Rancagua, in central Chile, while her rescuers searched for a new home.

Her ordeal left her with abscesses as well as kidney and liver problems.

Ramba was flown to the Viracopos international airport near Sao Paulo on Wednesday -- a day before heavily armed gunmen raided the cargo terminal in a daring heist.

She was then transported by flat-bed truck to the sanctuary in Chapada dos Guimaraes, which was opened in 2016 with the help of US-based Global Sanctuary for Elephants (GSE) -- the first of its kind in Latin America.

Ramba joins two other female Asian elephants, Rana and Maia, also former circus performers.

Videos of Ramba's road trip in Brazil were posted online. One shows her munching on watermelons in a metal crate on the back of a truck.

Ramba was accompanied by GSE chief Scott Blais as well as a veterinarian, volunteers and Brazilian federal police.

"Ramba needs a quiet place, one where she feels safe and is not on display, where she is surrounded by others of her kind who truly understand her and can help her to open her heart fully," Blais said in a statement.

"She needs sanctuary."

Argentine peso, stock exchange plummet after crushing Macri vote defeat

Yahoo – AFP, Sonia AVALOS, August 12, 2019

Argentina's peso has plunged after primary elections dealt a blow to pro-business
President Mauricio Macri's hopes for re-election (AFP Photo/RONALDO SCHEMIDT)

Buenos Aires (AFP) - Argentina's peso and the Buenos Aires stock exchange plunged on Monday after populist center-left candidate Alberto Fernandez crushed pro-business President Mauricio Macri in a party primary election over the weekend.

Nervousness reigned as the peso opened at 53 to the dollar, a drop of 14 percent from its closing figure of 46.55 on Friday, before plummeting further to 60.

And the Merval index crashed 30 percent, too, as markets reacted with jitters to Macri's rout.

Macri called a meeting with Central Bank president Guido Sandleris before the markets opened on Monday, while putting back his morning cabinet meeting to 3:30 pm (1830 GMT.)

The Central Bank bought $50 million in pesos to try to halt the slide, but to no avail.

On Sunday, center-right Macri was dealt a huge blow in his bid for re-election in October when he polled 15 points less than center-left Peronist candidate Fernandez.

"The president cannot have peace of mind. The markets are giving warning that the government has put itself in a position it cannot respond to," Fernandez told Radio 10 on Monday.

Argentina is currently in a recession and posted 22 percent inflation for the first half of the year -- one of the highest rates in the world.

Poverty now affects 32 percent of the population.

Alberto Fernandez, candidate of the Frente de Todos (Front for All) party, (L) was
 the top vote-getter in Argentina's presidential primaries, dealing a major blow to President
Mauricio Macri, who is running for re-election (AFP Photo/Juan MABROMATA,
Alejandro PAGNI)

'Profound dissatisfaction'

Backed by the International Monetary Fund, Macri has initiated an austerity plan that is deeply unpopular among ordinary Argentines, who have seen their spending power diminished dramatically.

The peso lost half its value against the dollar last year.

But the Buenos Aires stock exchange shot up eight percent on Friday amid expectation that Macri would do well in Sunday's vote.

Those hopes were quickly quashed as it lost 10 percent when operations opened on Monday, before plunging further during the first two hours of trading.

The worst hit shares lost 46 percent of their value.

Macri now faces a daunting task of trying to overturn a huge deficit in just two and a half months.

"The vote shows a profound dissatisfaction with the economic situation (and) the worry within society that the government is disconnected from reality and wasn't up to tackling the problems," political analyst Carlos Fara told AFP.

Macri managed only 32 percent in the party primaries that effectively acted as a nationwide pre-election opinion poll as all of the South American country's major parties had already chosen their presidential candidates.

Main economic indicators for Argentina. (AFP Photo/Nicolas RAMALLO)

"We've had a bad election and that forces us to redouble our efforts from tomorrow," said Macri, whose popularity has plunged since last year's currency crisis and the much-criticized $56 billion IMF bail-out loan he secured.

"It hurts that we haven't had the support we'd hoped for," admitted Macri.

Political analyst Sergio Berensztein described it as the government's "worst political crisis."

Fernandez scored 47 percent and if he repeats that result in the October 27 general election first round, he would win outright without need for a November 24 run-off.

Argentina's electoral law requires a candidate to gain 45 percent for outright victory, or 40 percent and a lead of at least 10 points over the nearest challenger.

"We're going to begin a new stage. We always fix the problems that others create," said Fernandez to thousands of cheering supporters in Buenos Aires on Sunday night.

Analyst Rosendo Fraga said Macri and Fernandez need to come to a bipartisan "governability agreement," otherwise "it's going to be very difficult to build confidence" in the markets between now and October's vote.