The Argentinian government harshly condemned Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, for warning of a potential economic crisis in the country. The country's foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador to Buenos Aires "to explain the lamentable statements" made by Panetta, describing them as "unacceptable interference" in its affairs.

Authorities in Argentina Feb. 19 gave a "traditionalist" Catholic bishop 10 days to leave the country or be expelled after he caused an international imbroglio by denying the extent of the Holocaust. Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X headed a seminary near Buenos Aires until he was removed this month. He has said he believes that there were no gas chambers and that no more than 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the widely accepted 6 million. The Vatican has ordered him to retract his comments; Bishop Williamson said in response that he needs more time to review the evidence. (Reuters, Feb. 20)

On Feb. 14 a court in Temuco in the southern Chilean region of La Araucania formally charged indigenous Mapuche activist Miguel Angel Tapia Huenulef with six counts of possession of firearms and explosives under the Anti-terrorism Law. Police agents said they had found the weapons and explosives during raids the night of Feb. 11 at Tapia Huenulef's home in Lo Prado community in Santiago and in a house in the Huallalin sector of Padre las Casas in Novena region. The court ordered Tapia Huenulef held in prison during the investigation, which it said should be completed in four months. He also faces drug possession charges in Santiago and charges of arson and assault from a Jan. 12 attack on the San Leandro estate in Lautaro in La Araucania.

Brazilian police arrested 51 members of two supposed narcotics gangs Feb. 11 in simultaneous raids in eight states involving 300 federal officers and another 200 from the Rio de Janeiro police force. Most of those arrested were members of the middle class who communicated among themselves by Internet to elude wiretaps. Police seized ecstasy, LSD, cocaine, hashish and an inhalant drug made from chloroform and ether. Police said weapons were seized, including assault rifles. (LAHT, Feb. 11)

On Feb. 6, former Argentine president Carlos Menem (1989-1999), now a senator from La Rioja province, made his first appearance at an arms smuggling trial that began in Buenos Aires on Oct. 16. Menem and 17 other defendants are charged with involvement in the government's clandestine sale of arms to Ecuador and Croatia from 1991 to 1995 in violation of international agreements. He declined to attend previously, claiming health problems. In his Feb. 6 appearance—before federal judges Luis Imas, Horacio Artabe and Gustavo Losada—Menem failed to make any declaration on the smuggling charges, citing "pending questions, including appeals." He could face 12 years in prison if convicted, although the Senate would have to vote to lift the immunity he enjoys as a legislator.

On Dec. 22 the second chamber of Argentina's federal appeals court confirmed that "there is no medical examination that would justify" releasing Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, the first president of the 1976-1983 military regime, from prison. The ruling upholds an Oct. 10 decision by federal judge Norberto Oyarbide removing Videla from house arrest and sending him to the Campo de Mayo Federal Prison under the supervision of the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF). Videla is being held on charges that the military regime had a systematic plan to keep pregnant detainees in secret detention centers until they gave birth. The babies were then adopted by military or police families or their friends; the mothers were killed.

The Argentine government, the opposition and grassroots organizations all marked Dec. 10 as the 25th anniversary of the return of democratic rule after a bloody 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The Mothers (Founding Line) and the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo—organizations of women demanding the return of youths disappeared during the dictatorship's "dirty war" against suspected leftists—demonstrated in the Plaza de Mayo to demand justice for the crimes of the period. "Let's look after democracy," said Tati Almayda, one of the leaders of the movement. "And let's get justice now, also, because the perpetrators of genocide are dying of old age—and the mothers are too."

On Nov. 25 Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced an economic stimulus package that includes tax breaks for Argentines who repatriate money they've sent abroad and invest it in infrastructure, real estate, agriculture, industry or government bonds; tax breaks for firms that create new jobs; an amnesty on unpaid taxes for the smallest employers if they give formal employment status to off-the-books workers; and a $21 billion public works plan intended to double the number of jobs in construction.