Argentine prosecutor considered call for president’s arrest

February 04, 2015

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Investigators examining the death of a prosecutor who accused Argentine President Cristina Fernandez of agreeing to shield the alleged masterminds of a 1994 terror bombing said Tuesday they have found a draft document he wrote requesting her arrest.

Chief investigator Viviana Fein said the draft detention request was found in a trash bin of the apartment where Alberto Nisman’s body was discovered on Jan. 18. It was not included in a complaint the prosecutor had filed in federal court days earlier.

“To formally go after a sitting president like this, especially somebody like Cristina, is a huge deal,” said James Cooper, professor at California Western School of Law and an expert on legal reform in Latin America. “It makes you wonder if Fein is getting pressure not to press the case further?”

Nisman was found dead of a gunshot wound in his bathroom hours before he was to appear in Congress to detail his allegations that Fernandez agreed to protect those responsible for the 1994 bombing of Buenos Aires’ largest Jewish community center. The attack, which killed 85 people, remains unsolved. Fernandez has dismissed the allegations against her.

Fein at first denied the existence of the document requesting the president’s arrest after Argentina’s Clarin newspaper published an article about it on Sunday. Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich ripped up the article in front of reporters on Monday and said it was a lie produced by the “opposition media.”

But Clarin then published a copy of the draft, which was dated from June 2014. It said Nisman also had considered requesting arrest orders against Fernandez’s foreign minister, Hector Timerman, and other officials in the government.

Fernandez’s government and Clarin often clash, and the Nisman case has reignited the dispute. For years, Fernandez has been trying to break up Grupo Clarin, one of the leading media conglomerates in Latin America, while her government works to build up a large media presence of its own.

On Tuesday, Fein clarified her earlier statement, acknowledging the existence of the draft document and saying she made an error of “terminology and interpretation,” and there had been a miscommunication with her office.

“The words I should have used are: ‘I know that there was a draft'” of a document, she said. But she said its existence “is not important enough to change the course of the investigation.” The final complaint Nisman submitted to judicial authorities called for Fernandez and Timerman to face questions in court instead.

Why Nisman may have changed tack is unclear, but it brings the focus back to Fernandez, who has tried to distance herself from the case, in part by suggesting rogue elements in intelligence services were behind Nisman’s death.

She is currently in China seeking investments, and before she left she submitted a proposal to Congress to reform the Secretary of Intelligence. A Senate committee took up the bill on Tuesday. Conspiracy theories have swirled around Nisman’s death since his body was found. Authorities initially said he likely committed suicide, but his supporters insisted the prosecutor would not have killed himself and even Fernandez has said that, contrary to initial findings, his death could not have been a suicide.

Nisman had spent almost a decade building up a case that Iran was behind the 1994 attack on the Jewish center. Iran’s government has repeatedly denied the allegation. Nisman had feared for his safety and 10 federal police were assigned to protect him. The officers were suspended as part of the investigation but none have been named as suspects.

Nisman alleged that Fernandez agreed to cover up Iran involvement in the bombing in exchange for trade benefits, especially in oil. Fernandez has argued Argentina had nothing to gain from such a deal.

Argentina launches its first telecom satellite

Moscow (RIA Novosti)

Oct 21, 2014

Argentina has successfully launched its first domestically designed and developed geostationary communications satellite Thursday, USA Today reported.

“ARSAT-1 is on its way to space. What a thrill,” Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner wrote on her Twitter account.

The satellite will occupy the 81 West orbital slot, 36,000 km away from earth.

ARSAT-1 is the first satellite of its type constructed and orbited by a Latin American country. It is the product of seven years of work of 500 scientists. The cost of the satellite was about $250 million, and it will be operational for the next 15 years.

The ARSAT-1 satellite is developed to provide digital television and cellphone services to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. It will also improve telephone and Internet connections in remote regions.

Fernandez said that through ARSAT-1, Argentina joins an “elite club”, able to build rockets capable of space flight, whose members include the United States, Russia, China, Japan, Israel and the European Union countries.

ARSAT-1 is the first stage of a program by Argentina’s government to orbit a fleet of satellites able to transmit and relay signals to all of Latin America. A second satellite is planned to be launched in 2015.

Source: Space Mart.

Link: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Argentina_Successfully_Launches_Its_First_Telecom_Satellite_999.html.

Argentine town faces ghosts of its Dirty War

October 20, 2014

OLAVARRIA, Argentina (AP) — Shade trees hide the crumbling farm house outside of Olavarria. Hidden at the end of a dirt path, the white plaster coating is falling away from the brick foundation like scabs peeling off an unhealed wound.

Araceli Gutierrez guards the memories of this place like a fragile keepsake. A voluntary caretaker, the 61-year-old with faded blonde curls watches over the house known as Monte Peloni where, as a young woman, she was tortured and raped by her military captors.

“This is a faithful reflection of the memory,” she says, walking through the decaying rooms, her expression lost in time. “If it collapsed, it would be as if the most important part of my life were to collapse.”

The events that took place in 1977 now are coming to light, forcing residents of this pastoral community to examine their role in Argentina’s Dirty War against those who challenged the military regime.

One secret unearthed this summer already cracked Olavarria’s facade of quiet rural life. In August, residents learned an Olavarria music teacher named Ignacio Hurban was, in fact, Guido Montoya Carlotto, the lost grandson of Estela de Carlotta, whose Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo group searches for children taken by the regime.

Now, Olavarria is learning about the secrets of Monte Peloni. Gutierrez is among the witnesses testifying before a judicial panel investigating the detentions of 21 people taken there by military officials.

A hearing set for next year will uncover abuses allegedly committed against 40 other people at Monte Peloni by 70 defendants, including former police officers, prison officials and town leaders who served as advisers to the regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

“With this tribunal, plus the appearance of Guido,” Gutierrez said, “Olavarria has woken up.” But it has been a difficult awakening. Olavarria, some 220 miles (350 kilometers) southwest of Buenos Aires, is a prosperous farming and industrial town that holds onto tradition. The afternoon siesta is still a part of life for many of the 90,000 residents. The twin steeples of the Catholic church stand over Olavarria’s tree-lined central square, right next to city hall.

The process is exposing secrets long buried by Olavarria, where victims and the accused share the same streets and know the same people. Four aging military men could be sent to prison for life as a result of the tribunal that opened Sept. 22 and is expected to conclude before the close of the year.

The four defendants are Omar “Pajaro” Ferreyra, 64, an army sergeant who went on to serve as Olavarria’s director of urban control; retired Gen. Ignacio Verdura, 82, who commanded the regiment that controlled the region; former Capt. Walter Grosse, 69; and former Lt. Horacio Leite, 64.

Townspeople old and young crowd into a room at the local state university, or gather outside at the windows, to hear recollections of kidnapping and torture, of being taken to the bathroom of the old farmhouse, where the most sensitive parts of one’s body were fastened to electrical cables and shocked.

Tales of Monte Peloni, named for the Swiss family who built the home in the 1800s, long passed from one resident to another like ghost stories. “I had one friend who would tell us that it scared him to walk by there at night,” said Facundo Carlucho, an industrial engineering student in Olavarria.

“I think it’s good that justice is being done for what happened in this country. I didn’t live through that time but, from what my parents told me, I know enough.” Other communities in Argentina launched investigations into their Dirty War-era abuses years ago, but in Olavarria, there was “resistance” by longstanding social groups that continue to hold influence, according to Walter Romero, the prosecutor leading the Monte Peloni tribunal.

“It’s a small town with a conservative profile,” said Rafael Curtoni, dean of social science faculty at Central University of Buenos Aires province. Curtoni said Olavarria continues to guard “certain secrets of the business sector and of people in power” who cooperated with the dictatorship.

“We all know who they are and where they are,” he said. Many in Olavarria were stunned by the story of Hurban, who learned his true identity after volunteering to have his DNA tested. Shortly after his birth in 1978, he was taken from his mother, who died in military captivity, and given to a couple who raised him on a local farm.

Hurban has said his adoptive parents are “an extraordinary couple” who cared for him “with the greatest of love.” The Plaza de Mayo group opposes any effort by authorities to question the couple, concerned such an interrogation would discourage other lost children from coming forward.

As many are realizing, examination of the past is a delicate endeavor. Carmelo Vinci, a former Monte Peloni detainee who now heads the Commission for the Memory of Olavarria, says local business owners participated in the repression of dissidents, noting that the people they employed in local factories were among the first to be detained. The tribunal has said it will investigate allegations that local Rotary Club members were given advance knowledge of who the military intended to pick up.

But Oscar Unzaga, president of the city’s main Rotary Club, denied that any such collusion occurred. After consulting with the club’s oldest members, he told The Associated Press, “we decided not to say anything (about the charge) because that would give importance to an embittered testimony that does not deserve a response.”

The whole process of the tribunal, he said, is “a circus where the result is already decided.” All of the charges should be dismissed, he said, “because we are suffering attacks” perpetrated by guerrillas.

The airing of Olavarria’s secrets has made for uncomfortable encounters, said Vinci, who owns a printing shop in town. A former military officer connected to the regime occasionally passes his store, he said. “Before, he would greet me very cordially. … But since the hearings began, he is not so friendly.”

A confrontation Gutierrez had with Ferreyra while he led the city’s urban control department some years ago was recorded by a television program and broadcast nationwide. The camera recorded Gutierrez as she chased him down the corridor of city hall shouting, “Come and tell me that you don’t know me.”

Ferreyra simply walked away, leaving her demand to hang in silence.

Putin signs nuclear energy deal with Argentina

July 12, 2014

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed agreements on nuclear energy generation with Argentina on Saturday as part of a Latin American tour aimed at building Russia’s influence in the region.

Argentina has been building nuclear-powered electricity plants to revive its nuclear program and reduce its dependence on fossil fuels amid an energy crunch. Putin and President Cristina Fernandez said the Russian atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, would be involved with the construction of units in Argentina’s Atucha III nuclear power plant.

“These are very important agreements,” said Fernandez, who had been out of the public eye for a week due to a throat infection. “Argentina is a leader in Latin America in terms of nuclear energy generation,” Fernandez said at a joint news conference at the presidential palace. “They reaffirm our bonds of friendship and strategic links.”

Argentina has one of the world’s largest deposits of shale oil and gas, but only a few companies have made commitments to develop the fields as many fear the government’s interventionist energy policies.

Although a deal on the shale deposits was not announced Saturday, Fernandez said members of the Russian delegation traveling with Putin will visit Argentina’s Vaca Muerta (Dead Cow) deposit in Neuquen province.

“We’re talking about Russia — one of the world’s top producers of gas and oil in the world. But we Argentines also have our own and it seems like others have noticed,” Fernandez said. After a dinner, the Russian leader was heading to Brazil for a summit of leaders from the BRICS nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

“Argentina is one of Russia’s top strategic partners in Latin America. We cooperate in vast sectors and I’m in constant contact with the president,” Putin said. “We also have similar positions in the international arena.”

About 150 members of the local Ukrainian community waved flags and held large banners outside the Pink House presidential palace to protest Russia’s annexation of Crimea and alleged support for separatists elsewhere in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande urged Russia this week to use its influence on rebels in eastern Ukraine so a meeting on a possible cease-fire can take place as soon as possible.

Merkel is due to watch her country’s team play Argentina in the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Putin, whose country is hosting the 2018 tournament, also is attending the game, and Brazil’s Foreign Ministry announced Saturday that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also would be there.

So far, the countries on Putin’s itinerary have been sympathetic or uncritical of Russia’s position on the conflict. Fernandez has accused the United States and Britain of a double standard for criticizing a pro-Russian secession vote held in Crimea while backing a status referendum in the Falkland Islands claimed by Argentina.

A few dozen activists also turned out to protest anti-gay laws and prejudice in Russia, which does not recognize gay marriages or civil unions. Putin approved a law last year banning what it calls gay “propaganda” from reaching minors.

“It’s not only the government’s problem but the Russian society, which discriminates against us. I have friends who have committed suicide because of this,” said Marina Mironova, a teacher who said she lost her job in Russia because of her sexual orientation and who is now seeking asylum in Argentina with her partner.

“We want to stay here and marry legally. There’s freedom, nice people and the president is tolerant.” Argentina is the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage. Two Russian homosexuals married in Argentina earlier this year and are also seeking asylum.

Putin in Argentina, building Russian ties

July 12, 2014

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin met Argentina’s president on Saturday as part of a Latin American tour aimed at building Russia’s influence and investments in the region.

Putin and President Cristina Fernandez, who has been out of the public eye for a week due to an acute throat infection, were expected to sign a series of agreements, including cooperation on nuclear energy generation.

The Russian leader then was heading to Brazil for a summit of leaders from the so-called BRICS nations: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. About 150 members of the local Ukrainian community waved flags and held large banners outside the Pink House presidential palace to protest Russia’s annexation of Crimea and alleged support for separatists elsewhere in the country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande urged Russia this week to use its influence on rebels in eastern Ukraine so that a meeting on a possible cease-fire can take place as soon as possible.

Merkel is due to watch her country’s team play in the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, the same day Putin is expected to be in the city. So far, the countries on Putin’s itinerary have been sympathetic or uncritical of Russia’s position on the conflict. Fernandez has accused the United States and Britain a double standard for criticizing a pro-Russian secession vote held in Crimea while backing a status referendum in the Falkland Islands claimed by Argentina.

A few dozen activists also turned out to protest anti-gay laws and prejudice in Russia, which does not recognize gay marriages or civil unions. Putin approved a law last year banning what it calls gay “propaganda” from reaching minors.

“It’s not only the government’s problem but the Russian society, which discriminates against us. I have friends who have committed suicide because of this,” said Marina Mironova, 38, a teacher who said she lost her job in Russia because of her sexual orientation and who is now seeking asylum in Argentina with her partner.

“We want to stay here and marry legally. There’s freedom, nice people and the president is tolerant.” Argentina is the first country in Latin America to legalize gay marriage. Two Russian homosexuals married in Argentina earlier this year and are also seeking asylum.

Argentina successfully launches research rocket

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Dec 23, 2013

Argentina has successfully launched a research rocket as part of its space program, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.

The launch took place on Wednesday in the city of Chamical, in La Rioja province, 880 km northwest of the capital.

The rocket was “launched through the joint efforts of the Air Force, the state-owned military manufacturing company, universities and companies related to the field,” Defense Minister Agustin Rossi said.

“This launch is another step toward the recovery of scientific-technological capabilities for defense,” Rossi said.

Describing the launch as “a milestone,” the minister said, “We have recovered a capability that is of the utmost importance to us.”

Argentina’s Air Force said the rocket is expected to reach a maximum speed of 3,978 km per hour “until it runs out of fuel,” then continue its non-propelled flight, and will later separate from its payload when it reaches an altitude of 49,000 meters.

Argentina has launched three rockets in five years after a 30-year suspension of research and development, according to Rossi.

The first one was launched in 2009 from Serrezuela, province of Cordoba, and the second one was launched in 2011, also in Chamical.

Argentina is expected to launch a Gradicom III rocket in 2014.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Argentina_successfully_launches_research_rocket_999.html.

Violence kills 7 as Argentina celebrates democracy

December 11, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Many Argentines armed and barricaded themselves in their homes and stores in fear of looting mobs Tuesday as the nation’s celebration of 30 years of uninterrupted democracy was marred by police strikes for higher pay.

Politicians struggled to assert their authority over security forces even as they agreed to salary increases so steep that many provinces won’t be able to pay their debts at month’s end, adding stress to an economy already suffering from 25 percent inflation.

President Cristina Fernandez sought to contain the crisis Tuesday night, charging that anti-democratic elements were trying to undo Argentina’s hard-won gains. “We must condemn the extortion of those who carry arms to defend society,” she declared.

The speech was her first response to a weeklong series of provincial police strikes. As officers abandoned their posts, and in some cases allegedly encouraged violence to pressure authorities, many of Argentina’s 23 provinces have endured long nights of chaos as roving groups smashed through storefronts and fought over the merchandise inside.

Hospital and political authorities said at least seven people had been killed, including a police officer in northern Chaco province who was struck by a bullet below his protective vest Tuesday and a store owner whose burned body was found last week in his looted and torched market in Buenos Aires province.

The others allegedly died while looting. One young man was electrocuted while stealing from an appliance store in a rainstorm. Another fell off a motorcycle while carting off a television. A third died in a fistfight over stolen goods inside a ruined store.

Hundreds have been injured and thousands of businesses damaged in the scattered violence. While most officers were back at work after securing new deals, police uprisings continued Tuesday in several cities. Commerce has been shut down in many places, and even some public hospitals have turned away non-emergency patients for fear of being looted.

With consumer prices soaring, Argentines are accustomed to annual labor protests in which workers threaten chaos if they don’t get their way. But strikes by armed police are more ominous in a country where social chaos, police crackdowns and spiraling violence ushered in the 1976 military coup and a world-record debt default in 2001.

“This was executed and planned with surgical precision,” Fernandez said in her speech marking the end of the last military junta. She claimed many people became unwitting instruments of extortion by police who “liberated” areas where looting could happen.

“We have promoted the integration of the armed forces into democratic processes, and the same must be done with provincial police, once and for all,” she said. To free up cash for the raises, her Cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, announced a three-month delay in payments most Argentine provinces owe this month to the federal government on debts refinanced two years ago.

For their part, police complained that their unions aren’t legally recognized, leaving them ill-equipped to negotiate for cost of living adjustments. “There are police who are in extreme poverty,” said Salvador Barratta, who runs an unofficial union of police and prison guards. “Here we police are second-class citizens.”

Human rights groups warned against giving in too easily to the security forces’ demands. The deal Buenos Aires Gov. Daniel Scioli reached with rebellious officers Monday night includes an amnesty for rule-breaking officers, making them eligible for 14,000 promised promotions this month that will raise salaries far above the base pay he promised. The deal also lets officers who retired on 90 percent pay to return to work at twice their old salaries.

“The weapons given to security forces to protect citizens’ life and property cannot be used to force decisions by constitutional powers,” warned the human rights group Center for Legal and Social Studies. “We think it’s urgent that the security forces stop intensifying the violence and feeding incidents that pose very high risks to our society and its institutions.”

Tuesday marked three decades since President Raul Alfonsin’s inauguration ended the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Fernandez invited all political parties to assemble on a huge stage in front of the presidential palace for a long night of speeches and music to celebrate democracy’s consolidation.

The late president’s son, legislator Ricardo Alfonsin, and Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri both said the party should be called off, given the potential for another night of violence. Alfonsin called for “all political sectors to commit together to defend the democracy and its institutions.”

The event went on as scheduled, however, and shortly after the president spoke, word spread that deals had been struck with police in Tucuman and Santa Fe, two of the last provinces where officers were holding out for higher pay.

Still, even governors who restored calm by agreeing to steep police pay raises days earlier seemed wary of declaring victory. Strikes by public health workers are spreading, and other public employees are clamoring for raises, too.

Gov. Jose de la Sota, who effectively doubled police salaries in Cordoba to about $1,915 a month at the official exchange rate, said governors should agree on single national pay scale to avoid more trouble.

Entre Rios Gov. Sergio Urribarri accused officers of “sedition, a crime against the democratic system.”

Police strikes, mob rule testing Argentine cities

December 10, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Mobs of looters are swarming into the streets of more cities across Argentina as police officers abandon their posts in spreading copycat strikes called to pressure provincial governors into raising their pay.

While officers gather outside negotiating sessions, people are smashing storefronts and hauling out anything they can carry, from mattresses to baby carriages to beer. One group of six men in rural Tucuman province hauled an entire freezer unit from an ice cream store and loaded it onto a donkey cart.

The death toll climbed to at least five by Monday — four suspected looters and one shop owner, who died inside his market after a mob set it on fire. Hundreds of people have been injured, and thousands of stores and homes robbed as the violence spread to at least 19 of Argentina’s 23 provinces.

As a heat wave raised tempers in the southern hemisphere summer, banks, supermarkets, retail businesses and public transportation shut down in many cities. President Cristina Fernandez was silent, but her Cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, described the crimes as “treason” aimed at creating a sense of chaos on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Argentina’s return to democracy.

Tuesday marks three decades since the swearing-in of President Raul Alfonsin ended Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship, and a huge stage constructed in front of the government palace in Buenos Aires awaited a celebration to which all political parties were invited and expected to attend.

But the late president’s son, legislator Ricardo Alfonsin, said the event should probably be postponed, “given what’s happening in the country.” “I wonder if it wouldn’t be healthier to take advantage of this formal act of memory and have the government and all political sectors commit together to defend the democracy and its institutions and work without speculations to ensure domestic peace,” Alfonsin said.

The government sent federal security forces to hot spots, and prosecutors were put on alert to build criminal cases against looters. Justice Minister Julio Alak warned that people coordinating violence through social networks would be charged.

Many called the surge of strikes and violence “the Cordoba effect” — for the city where looting first erupted last week after provincial police refused to leave their quarters until their pay was raised to match inflation.

Gov. Jose de la Sota, a Fernandez rival, settled the walkout by effectively doubling police salaries to 12,000 pesos a month, or about $1,915 at the official exchange rate. Officers elsewhere took notice and began staging their own walkouts, leaving citizens around the country undefended.

As the violence kept spreading Monday, even close presidential allies struggled to find money for police earning base salaries of less than 6,000 pesos ($960) a month. Two people died in the initial violence in Cordoba. Firefighters then found a shopkeeper’s body in the burned wreckage of his store in Almirante Brown, in Buenos Aires province, where Fernandez loyalist Gov. Daniel Scioli appealed for calm. The fourth and fifth victims were young men who were inside stores being looted in Entre Rios and Jujuy provinces.

Most Buenos Aires officers agreed to a raise that brought entry-level salaries up to what Scioli called a “fair and reasonable” 8,570 pesos ($1400), but some were still on strike Monday night holding out for 12,500 pesos.

With consumer prices rising at more than 25 percent a year, other public employees were aiming to get raises, too. Public health workers were preparing actions in a dozen provinces, their union said.

Pope meets FIFA chief, Italy-Argentine rugby teams

November 22, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis met Friday with the head of FIFA and members of the Italian and Argentine national rugby teams.

Francis told the rugby players in town for a match on Saturday that theirs was a “tough” sport but one without violence, where individual and team greatness complement one another. Francis also met Friday with FIFA chief Joseph Blatter.

“We spoke the same language and it was language of football,” Blatter said. “It was really a meeting between two sportsmen and two football fans.” Blatter said he responded to the pope’s request for FIFA to help the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro during the 2014 World Cup, with a promise to “do what we can.”

“We cannot do everything,” Blatter said. The soccer-mad Francis, a longtime member of his beloved San Lorenzo club in Buenos Aires, has amassed an impressive collection of soccer jerseys as gifts from visiting teams and players.

The two also unwittingly wound up confronting the relative strength in the numbers of active participants in their institutions, with those involved in football, including players and their families, slightly outnumbering Roman Catholics worldwide.

“We have 1.2 billion people and (the pope) said, ‘I have no more than 1 billion,'” Blatter said with a laugh.

Argentine ruling party holds onto Congress

October 28, 2013

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — President Cristina Fernandez’s governing bloc held onto control of Congress in Sunday’s congressional elections, but the results buried hopes of changing the constitution to let her run for a third term and a former loyalist proved himself a political threat.

The president’s former Cabinet chief, Sergio Massa, beat the candidate that Fernandez hand-picked to lead her slate for Congress, Martin Insaurralde, by a decisive 12-point margin in Buenos Aires province, where 37 percent of Argentina’s voters live.

With 72 percent of the votes counted nationwide, the governing Front for Victory won 33 percent of the congressional votes overall, far short of the 54 percent that Fernandez carried in her re-election in 2011.

Cabinet Chief Juan Manuel Abal Medina predicted that when all the votes were in, the front would gain five seats in the 257-seat Chamber of Deputies and maintain a “comfortable majority” in the 72-member senate.

The Front for Victory remains the only nationwide political force and still holds more seats in Congress than any other bloc. But its losses in Argentina’s most populous districts suggested growing unhappiness and a weakened presidency. And the increasing appeal of Fernandez’s rivals elected Sunday could pose new threats to her all-or-nothing style of governing.

The president’s opponents won more than enough seats to block any constitutional changes, ruling out a “re-re-election” in 2015. Without that threat, it might prove harder for Fernandez to keep rivals in check as Argentines begin marking the end of a government that she and her husband, the late President Nestor Kirchner, have led for a decade.

Massa, whose calls for consensus and rising popularity have already peeled away some Fernandez loyalists, will be sworn in Dec. 10 as a deputy in Congress after receiving the most votes of any politician running Sunday.

“We accept our differences, plurality, and as our Pope Francis says, harmony, which is the best way to build our society,” Massa said Sunday night in calling on all Argentine politicians to “please listen to the message of the people.”

For the moment at least, the results position Massa to make a presidential run in 2015. “This is an overwhelming response by the people to our times,” said Dario Giustozzi, a member of Massa’s Renewal Front who also won a seat in Congress. “This is the end of an era, a new space. Now the people have a place where they can be heard.”

Massa, however, will no longer be the successful mayor of the wealthy Tigre municipality, where many of Argentina’s rich and famous live in gated communities. Now he’ll need to make his voice heard while leading the third-largest force in Congress, with about 19 seats, compared to 131 for the ruling bloc.

Before Fernandez, 60, was diagnosed with a head injury Oct. 6, she had appeared with Insaurralde at every major campaign event, sometimes doing all the talking. But since her skull surgery, she has remained in seclusion, a very unusual situation for a country accustomed to seeing her on television every day. While her doctors say her condition is improving, they ordered her to rest for a month and avoid any stress.

Her vice president, Amado Boudou, is nominally in charge while she recuperates, but even top ministers have struggled to describe how decisions are being made, contradicting each other about how much she’s following the news. She was unable to vote or visit Kirchner’s tomb Sunday, which was the third anniversary of his death from a heart attack.

With Boudou’s political future clouded by corruption investigations, Fernandez could now spend her last two years struggling to keep rivals in line during an intense succession battle within the always fractious Peronist party, to which her center-left Front for Victory belongs.

Along with Massa, would-be presidents include the governor of Buenos Aires province, Daniel Scioli, and the mayor of the capital of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri. Both are seen as more business-friendly and centrist than Fernandez.