Vice-president Mike Pence arrived in Buenos Aires last night, after visiting Colombia. His next stops are Santiago, Chile, and Panama City, Panama.
Colombia is one of the United States’ closest allies in the Western Hemisphere, yet, as he stood next to Pence, Santos denounced Trump’s threat of military action, and told the visiting vice president that such a possibility “shouldn’t even be considered” and would be “unacceptable.”
Mr. Pence replied that the U.S. was confident that peaceful solutions could be found, and that Mr. Trump’s remarks on Friday had merely reflected his resolve to address the situation.
Mr. Pence arrived in Buenos Aires the day after the primary:
The nationwide primary, where voters cast a single ballot for their choice among a raft of candidates from each party, determines which parties are eligible to run for midterm congressional elections in October, providing an indication of voter preference ahead of the midterms.
With more than 97% of votes counted early Monday, Mr. Macri’s Let’s Change coalition beat opponents in half of Argentina’s provinces, dealing a setback to former President Cristina Kirchner’s plans for a political comeback.
Cristina came in second, but
Although Kirchner lost Sunday’s vote, she can still win a seat in October. In Argentina’s Buenos Aires province, the party of the first-place finisher wins two seats and the second-place finisher gets one.
This may be unlikely; Macri’s Cambiemos coalition beat opponents in half of Argentina’s provinces,
not only in Buenos Aires but also in Argentina’s four other most-populated provinces, including Cordoba, Mendoza and Santa Fe. They also won in San Luis, which has for decades been dominated by the Peronist Saa family.
Markets reacted favorably,
Argentina’s peso rallied 3.2% Monday morning, its best gain of the year. Its stock market, the MERVAL, gained 3.6% after opening, one of its best rallies of the year.
Pence arrived at the right time.
Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.
