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On May 4, the Banco Central de la Republica Argentina, the country’s central bank, raised policy interest rates to a whopping 40 percent to stem the rapid depreciation of the national currency, the peso. The surprise rate increase was the third in a week after the central bank failed to halt the decline in the peso by spending $4.3 billion of foreign exchange reserves in just one week. In addition, the Argentine authorities reduced fiscal deficit target and announced new measures to calm the markets.

Market observers were confident that rapid-fire rate hikes and other measures will restore currency stability, but the Argentine peso plunged more than 5 percent to a new all-time low at 23.5 against the US dollar on May 8, thereby prompted the government to seek financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It is yet unclear what kind of financial support will be sought from the IMF, but it may entail substantial political cost as many Argentines blame the IMF policies for exacerbating the financial crisis of 2001 which deepened the recession and triggered social unrest and political instability. Since the IMF loans usually come with tough conditions and policy surveillance, the Macri government will find it hard to garner popular support given the widespread scepticism in the country towards the IMF.

However, one thing is clear: the impacts of rates hike would be immediately felt by the real economy in terms of higher financing costs and contraction of economic activity in Argentina for some time.

What Caused the Currency Crisis?

The current bout of currency volatility in Argentina was triggered by a surge in the US dollar along with market expectations that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates more aggressively than previously expected ‒due to rise in bond yields and poor US inflation data. To some extent, the imposition of 5 percent capital gains tax on LEBACs (peso-denominated central bank notes) held by foreigners also added a downward pressure on the Argentine peso.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Argentine Peso Collapses To New Low Despite Massive Intervention

May 14, 2018

Argentine Peso Collapses To New Low Despite Massive Intervention

Update: *ARGENTINE CENBANK SAID TO OFFER $5B IN PESO MARKET AT 25/USD – That’s 10% of reserves!!

* * *

The Argentine Central Bank spent over $1 billion buying pesos on Friday (and another billion to buy short-term bonds back) to support the collapsing currency…

But… the weekend appears to have provided no confidence improvement for investors who are wary of this week’s maturing bills (traders see Tuesday as key day for the BCRA, when it is scheduled to faces maturity of ARS673mm in Lebacs) and the potential delays of any IMF bailout…

However, BNP Paribas says the Peso is too risky to even short, even taking into account the carry return…

“…we prudently decided to close our tactical short 1m NDF USDARS at 23.75,” strategists led by Gabriel Gersztein write in a report,

“If anything, this is not the time to be structurally positioned in ARS assets, in our view”

But JPMorgan is even more concerned, warning that the peso may face “disorder” this week if the nation’s central bank struggles to roll over about $30 billion of short-term notes set to expire.

As Bloomberg reports, the central bank is scheduled to auction notes known as Lebacs on Tuesday, in order to roll over about 674 billion pesos ($30 billion) of securities that mature on Wednesday.

The yield on Lebacs due June jumped to 58.1 percent in the secondary market today, forcing the central bank to intervene in secondary markets.

“A failure in rolling over the maturing Lebac stock would lead to a disorder bid on the dollar and renovated capital outflow,” JPMorgan analysts Diego Pereira and Lucila Barbeito wrote in a note.

“The recent measures by the central bank, together with Lebac rates above 40 percent suggest the authority would be able to roll a significant share of the stock.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Argentina Seeks IMF Financing Following Yesterday’s Hike in Rates to 40%.

May 9, 2018

Argentina Seeks IMF Financing Following Yesterday’s Hike in Rates to 40%.

Argentina once again seeks help from the IMF following yesterday’s 40% interest rate hike.

Last year, Argentina was a favorite destination for investors. This year, Argentina is facing yet another currency crisis.

A run on the Peso started last month as investors soured on the country. To combat the run, the Argentine central bank hiked rates to 40%.

“The market has been in total panic mode the last few days,” said Brendan Murphy, head of global and multisector fixed income at BNY Mellon Asset Management North America.

The declines are the latest sign that rising U.S. interest rates and a strengthening dollar are prompting investors to pull money out of some of the world’s riskiest markets, especially those with the largest trade and budget deficits.

Other higher-risk markets like Indonesia and Turkey also have suffered big declines in recent days. Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings on Tuesday cut Turkey’s sovereign-debt rating further into junk, citing the country’s debt, rising inflation and volatile currency. Turkey’s main stock market has fallen 4.7% last week, while its currency has declined 4.4%. Indonesia’s JSX Composite Index slumped 6.6% the week ending April 27—the most of any major index globally, according to FactSet—when foreigners fled the market.

Argentina Calls IMF

Once again, Argentina finds itself in a currency crisis. Reuters reports Argentina president says seeking financing from IMF.

“Just a few minutes ago I spoke with Director Christine Lagarde, and she confirmed we would start working on an agreement today,” Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri said in an address to the nation.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Argentina Hikes Rates To 40% To Stall Currency, Bond Market Collapse

May 4, 2018

Argentina Hikes Rates To 40% To Stall Currency, Bond Market Collapse

It may be time to cry for Argentina…

The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) just hiked its 7-day repo reference rate to 40.00% – up a stunning 1275bps in a week – in a desperate attempt to stall the collapse of the peso (and ARG bonds) this week.

BCRA hiked this week three times:

4/27 +300bps to 30.25%
5/03 +300bps to 33.25%
5/04 +675bps to 40.00%

The central bank said it will continue to use all tools at its disposal to avoid disruptions in the markets and guarantee a slowdown in inflation. The bank is ready to act again if necessary, it said in the statement.

As The FT reports, appetite for Argentine assets has been waning in recent months as concerns grow over the country’s painfully high level of inflation and large trade and fiscal deficits. A severe drought is also complicating President Mauricio Macri’s efforts to revive Latin America’s third-largest economy. Agricultural exports are one of Argentina’s main sources of hard currency, but the worst drought in decades is expected to hit this year’s soybean and corn harvests. The country’s famed cattle industry is also predicted to rack up millions in losses.

And, of course, adding to Argentina’s woes is the return of US dollar strength.

The peso has now plunged over 17% this year against the dollar, and plunged yesterday by the most since it began its free-float in December 2015. ARS is very modestly stronger as it opens this morning after the hike.

Furthermore, Argentina’s ‘infamous’ Century bonds have collapsed – selling off for 15 days straight as those who bought the 100-year bonds last year in the massively oversubscribed deal are likely regretting that ‘reach for yield’ choice now…

As we said at the time of issuance, while the bond was massively oversubscribed, investors questioned the wisdom of investing for a such a long term in a country as volatile as Argentina.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Future U.S. Oil Production Will Collapse Just As Quickly As It Increased

February 8, 2018

Future U.S. Oil Production Will Collapse Just As Quickly As It Increased

While U.S. oil production reached a new peak of 10.25 million barrels per day, the higher it goes, the more breathtaking will be the inevitable collapse. Thus, as the mainstream media touts the glorious new record in U.S. production that has both surpassed its previous peak in 1970 and Saudi Arabia’s current oil production, it’s a bittersweet victory.

Why? There are two critical reasons the current record level of U.S. oil production won’t last and is also, a house of cards. First of all, oil production profiles tend to be somewhat symmetrical. They rise and fall in the same manner. While this doesn’t happen in every country or every oil field, we do see similar patterns. For example, this similar trend is taking place in both Argentina and Norway:

Here we can see that oil production increased, peaked and declined in a similar pattern in both Argentina and Norway. However, many countries had their domestic oil industries impacted by wars, geopolitical events, and or enhanced oil recovery techniques that have resulted in altered production profiles. Regardless, the United States experienced a symmetrical oil production profile from 1930 to 2007:

As we can see in the chart, U.S. oil production from 1930 to 2007 increased and then declined in the same fashion. On the other hand, the new Shale Oil Production trend is much different. What took 23 years for U.S. oil production to double from 5 million barrels per day (mbd) in 1947 to a peak of nearly 10 mbd in 1970, was accomplished in less than a decade with the new shale oil industry. Total U.S. oil production doubled from 5 mbd in 2009 to over 10 mbd currently.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

In Argentina, an Innovative Traditional and Natural Medicine Initiative Sprouts from Urban Agriculture

June 4, 2016

In Argentina, an Innovative Traditional and Natural Medicine Initiative Sprouts from Urban Agriculture

Rodrigo Oleaga

Antonio Latucca, director and co-founder of Rosario’s Urban Agriculture Program, helps residents of the Medical Student House create their community garden in May 2015.

Trading jokes with his housemates as the sun sets over downtown Rosario, Argentina, nursing student Miguel Suarez drags a hose across the courtyard of the Medical Student House to water a leafy burrito plant (Aloysia polystachia). Leaning from a lawn chair to pick small leaves, agronomist Custodio “Lucho” Lemos explains that burrito herbal infusions are popular remedies for digestive and liver disorders in traditional Guaraní folk medicine in northern Argentina and Paraguay. A 2012 Brazilian study in the Journal of Medicinal Plants Research found burrito’s oil more effective against E. coli, Candida, and Trichophyton bacteria than first-line commercial drugs Gentomycin, Amphotericin B, and Terbinafine, respectively.¹

A block from the historic central avenue Boulevard Oroño, the Medical Student House is part of the Medical School at the National University of Rosario, a city of 1.3 million best known as the hometown of Leonel Messi and Che Guevara. But on Tuesday evenings like this one, the dozen residents have been putting textbooks aside and becoming urban farmers in the new community garden which opened in their courtyard last May.

“It’s called kenaf,” says a female speech therapy student in the Medical Student House garden. She holds out a long segment of pale green stalk, tugging at the fibers. “You know Ford uses it now inside car doors? It’s an acoustic insulator—and very light. I want to know if we can use it inside hearing aids? ” she says, tapping on the back of her ear.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Oil vs. Electricity: Argentina’s Impossible Emergency

February 5, 2016

Energy vs. Oil: Argentina’s Impossible Emergency

Argentina faces twin energy crises. The government ended electricity subsidies, resulting in 500 percent price increases. At the same time, the government is subsidizing exported crude oil to stop protests.

Argentina faces twin energy crises that literally and figuratively are screaming from the front of every newspaper in the country. The new government is ending electricity subsidies to consumers, which is resulting in 500 percent increases for families and consumers that meet fairly basic criteria. At the same time, world oil prices have dropped catastrophically over the past 18 months from close to US$100 per barrel all the way down to US$30. Yikes.

Requisite “plunging price” chart, courtesy of Nasdaq

This leaves President Mauricio Macri’s government in an almost laughable conundrum. While he is bearing the political brunt for the removal of consumer energy subsidies, he is simultaneously under fire from oil and gas companies demanding — that’s right — energy subsidies for exported oil. In short, these energy companies wanted the Argentine government to pay them an extra US$23 per barrel exported to make up the difference between the world price and the fixed price of US$55 they used to receive within Argentina.

More simply, the oil and gas sector of Chubut Province wanted Macri’s government to fork over US$500 million to save 5,000 jobs in jeopardy due to low oil prices. That would have been US$100,000 per job saved, and completely ridiculous. Today the government agreed to pay a subsidy of US$10 per barrel exported, amounting to a total of US$125 million, or US$25,000 per job saved, to save 5,000 jobs for a period of only six months. If oil prices haven’t recovered in six months, we’ll be in the same situation except US$125 million poorer.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Bringing Fracking to Argentina

January 28, 2016

Former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Bringing Fracking to Argentina

Aubrey McClendon, the embattled former CEO and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy, has announced his entrance into Argentina to begin hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the country’s Vaca Muerta Shale basin.

Though he retired as Chesapeake Energy’s CEO back in 2013 in the aftermath of a shareholder revolt, McClendon wasted little time in creating a new company called American Energy Partners (AEP). AEP, like Chesapeake, has found itself mired since its onset in legal snafus over its treatment of landowners. With AEPnot getting a red carpet roll-out in the U.S., McClendon has looked southward for other lucrative business adventures.

DeSmog reported in September that McClendon has also teamed up with a private equity company affiliated with former Mexican president Vicente Fox to begin tapping into Mexico’s portion of the Eagle Ford Shale basin. We also reported that he has begun doing business in Australia.

All of those countries have something in common that makes them different from the U.S.: lax royalty and land deal laws.

As McClendon boasted in an investor call — and as Chesapeake formerly acknowledged on a portion of its website, since taken down — the company chose the land grab as a key part of its business model.

Mexico, Australia and Argentina are still in the “land grab” phase of development, with zero production scale fracking taking place in any of the three countries.

AEP attempts to preempt “land grab” charges on its website.

“We work hard to earn – and maintain – your trust,” writes AEP. “We practice open, honest communication with our owner partners to strengthen those partnerships forged in mutual trust.”

Banana Republic Land Laws

In Mexico, unlike in the U.S. in which in most states’ landowners own the minerals underneath their land, the government maintains mineral rights. The same goes for Australia.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Capital Controls Are Coming

January 26, 2016

Capital Controls Are Coming

The carnage always comes by surprise, often on an otherwise ordinary Saturday morning…

The government declares a surprise bank holiday. It shuts all the banks. It imposes capital controls to stop citizens from taking their money out of the country. Cash-sniffing dogs, which make drug-sniffing dogs look friendly, show up at airports.

At that point, the government is free to help itself to as much of the country’s wealth as it wants. It’s an all-you-can-steal buffet.

This story has recently played out in Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, and Iceland. And those are only a few recent examples. It’s happened in scores of other countries throughout history. And I think it’s inevitable in the U.S.

I believe the U.S. dollar will lose its role as the world’s premier reserve currency. When that happens, capital controls are sure to follow.

This is why it’s crucial to your financial future to understand what capital controls are, how they are used, and what you can do to protect yourself.

Why Governments Impose Capital Controls

Think of the government as a thief trying to steal your wallet as you (understandably) try to run away. With capital controls, the thief is trying to block all the exits so you can’t reach safe ground.

A government only uses capital controls when it’s desperate…when it can no longer borrow, inflate the currency, tax, or steal money in one of the “normal” ways.

In most cases, governments use capital controls in severe crises. Think financial and banking collapses, wars, or chronic economic problems. In other cases, they’re just a way to control people. It’s much more difficult to leave a country when you can’t take your money with you.

Regardless of the initial catalyst, capital controls help a government trap money within its borders. This way, it has more money to confiscate.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“There Are No More Dollars In The Central Bank”: Argentina’s New President Confronts Liquidity Crisis

November 25, 2015

“There Are No More Dollars In The Central Bank”: Argentina’s New President Confronts Liquidity Crisis

On Monday, Mauricio Macri, the son of Italian-born construction tycoon Francesco Macri, beat out Cristina Kirchner’s handpicked successor Daniel Scioli for Argentina’s presidency in what amounted to a referendum on 12 years of Peronist rule.

A legacy of defaults combined with exceptionally high inflation and slow growth finally tipped the scales on the Leftists and now, Macri will try to clean up the mess.

As Citi noted in the wake of Macri’s victory (which was accompanied by some very bad dancing), “the most urgent challenge on the economic front is FX policy.” The President-elect wants to unify the official and parallel exchange rates (~9.60 and 15.50 ARS/USD, respectively) and that will of course entail a substantial devaluation. Just how overvalued is the peso, you ask? “Grossly” so, Citi says. Here’s their take:

Regarding the real overvaluation of the ARS, we estimate that real effective exchange rate has dropped (appreciated) 44% since 2011. Thus, for Argentina to have the same REER than four years ago, the USDARS should stand at 17. A different approach would be to compare the evolution of the real exchange rate vis-à-vis the USD in Argentina and other countries in the region. While the LatAm currencies (BRL, CLP, COP, MXN, PEN and UYU) real exchange rates relative to the USD have increased on average 36% since 2011, the USDARS has dropped 19% in real terms. Thus, from this point of view, the USDARS should stand 68% higher at 16.1.

A key figure in the execution of Macri’s currency plan is former JP Morgan global head of FX research Alfonso Prat-Gay who will be Argentina’s finance minister under the new Presdent. Prat-Gay was president of the country’s central bank beginning in 2002 and, as Reuters reminds us, “won widespread acclaim for swiftly taming runaway inflation and championing central bank independence.” If that sounds to you like characteristics that might rub a Peronist the wrong way, you’d be right, and Prat-Gay was ousted by the Kirchners.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Currency Controls Strangle Argentina, But Hey, “Take it up with the Next Government, We’re on Our Way Out”

November 3, 2015

Currency Controls Strangle Argentina, But Hey, “Take it up with the Next Government, We’re on Our Way Out”

Running out of money doesn’t care if you’re a socialist or neoliberal.

Last week wasn’t easy for President-on-her-way-out Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. On the political front, she treated us with deafening silence following her candidates’ poor performances in the general election. But on the economic front her government was not so quiet.

Remember how Argentina’s reserves, or how much foreign currency the Central Bank holds, has been creeping lower despite foreign currency controls? Last week the Central Bank (BCRA) and National Insurance Regulator jumped back in to keep the country from running out of money for just a little while longer.

First, the BCRA raised interest rates by three percent, the highest in 18 months, to try to make holding pesos more attractive. Shockingly, not many people rushed to buy peso notes. The government sold ARS $11.3 billion, five percent less than the previous week, despite the higher rate.

Next, the Insurance Regulator passed a new law forbidding insurance companies from holding dollar assets in excess of their dollar contracts. English translation: Insurance companies whose clients are in Argentina and thus likely have peso-denominated policies cannot hold dollars even though the peso is likely to depreciate before these policies are paid. Not good news for the peso policy holder.

Importers received informal calls from their banks informing them that the automatically-approved amount they are permitted to pay providers was cut in half, from US $150,000 to US $75,000. While that might seem like a reasonable number please be advised that you can’t buy very many car parts, air conditioner blades, or other industrial input with US $75,000. This adds to the US $9.5 billion (that’s right, billion) that the Central Bank is already in debt to importers. Commerce Ministry Sub-Secretary Paula Español reportedly told importers to, “take it up with the next government – we’re on our way out.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Argentina’s Ruling Party Eyes Bigger Banknotes amid Soaring Prices

October 16, 2015

Argentina’s Ruling Party Eyes Bigger Banknotes amid Soaring Prices

Congressman Claims Inflation Not a Motivating Factor

For the first time in years, lawmakers from Argentina’s ruling Front for Victory coalition have proposed upping the size of the country’s largest denomination banknote to AR$200.

Congressman Carlos Kunkel, author of the initiative, claims the measure has nothing to do with inflation, which runs at 25-35 percent annually, according to private estimates.

Instead, the larger bill — US$12.50 at the black-market rate — would “reduce the cost of printing and circulating money,” Kunkel told a local radio station on October 8. “It will be more convenient for the people.”

Opposition lawmakers have unsuccessfully lobbied for the printing of AR$200, AR$500, and AR$1,000 bills in the past to cope with mounting inflation.

Contrary to government figures, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Billion Prices Project found that the price of essential foods has increased six-fold in the South American nation since 2008.

The new banknote’s design features former President Hipólito Yrigoyen (1916-1922 and 1928-1930), a renowned leader of the opposition Radical Civic Union (UCR) party, and celebrates the Cry of Alcorta, an agrarian rebellion of the early 20th century.

The move, however, has UCR activists up in arms, who say they don’t want their leader associated with the loss of purchasing power. The party’s community manager derided the initiative by publishing an image of the former Radical president giving a bras d’honneur.

Gracias. Pero la inflación es toda de ustedes. pic.twitter.com/NotDAyUmqu

— Innova la UCR (@UCRINNOVA) October 8, 2015

“Thanks, but inflation is all yours.”

Inflation Begets Larger Bills

The Cristina Kirchner administration has ignored repeated requests by economists, banks, and other financial institutions to issue larger-denomination bills. Some 42 percent of Argentineans deemed it necessary in a 2014 survey by Argentina-based pollsters Poliarquía.+

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Did Argentina’s CNV Pass a Law to Avoid a Bond Payment?

October 3, 2015

Did Argentina’s CNV Pass a Law to Avoid a Bond Payment?

Last Tuesday, Argentina’s securities regulator, the CNV, shocked markets by announcing Resolution 646 requiring that mutual funds price dollar-denominated assets in pesos at the official government rate rather than the market rate that is closer to the parallel or blue dollar. Despite efforts from banks and industry organizations to organize a longer time period in which to react to this change, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof refused to meet with representatives and the law came into force on Friday.

Unlike other government interventions in the parallel market, this sudden “pesofication” of somewhere to the tune of US $15 billion worth of investor assets came as a real shock to the industry — as in no one saw it coming.

So what would entice this government to force the conversion of dollar-priced assets held by mutual funds into pesos at the official rate? Mutual funds are investment vehicles created for small and medium savers. They have a low minimum entry point and up until last week were a way for Argentines to save money without squirreling away physical dollar bills in boxes buried under stairs. This measure actually hurt small savers and helped no one.

Previous interventions in the market have served to bring both the blue dollar and the bond-linked contado con liquidacion (ccl) or “blue chip swap” rates down. This shock caused bond prices to temporarily plunge and the blue dollar rate to shoot up to record highs of 16.05 ARS/USD. Furthermore, the effects on the ccl market were short lived. Before the announcement, the ccl rate was at 14.05 ARS/USD. It dropped to 13.19 before and has rebounded back to 13.85 ARS/USD. So in this case, the government temporarily brought down bond prices at the expense of small savers and the blue dollar. What gives?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cristina Takes on Financial Times in Multi-Platform BRICS Tirade

September 12, 2015

Cristina Takes on Financial Times in Multi-Platform BRICS Tirade

Cristina has been on the media warpath against a perceived attack on emerging markets.

This Monday, Cronista republished (in Spanish) an article from the Financial Times titled, “Emerging Markets: Fixing a Broken Model.” The article is long, a bit on the dry side, hardly sensational and difficult to construe as an attack on anyone.

The article does not mention Argentina even one time. Nevertheless, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner exploded onto the Twittersphere with close to 100 tweets, shot back with twoblog posts and drove her point home at an electoral rally where she somehow connected the BRIC issue with European nations turning away migrants.

I have to preface this by saying that a few years ago, I liked Cristina enough. I disagreed with her, but at least could respond to her policy moves and statements as a professional with reasoning based in economics. In this case, her violently emotional reaction to a newspaper article reads like a crazy person writing a stream of consciousness. You disagree with Cristina or want to suggest she has misread an article? Too bad! You’re a racist who hates the poor and celebrates genocide.

Before attempting to decipher why an economic assessment of emerging market growth happens to grind Cristina’s gears, it’s important to have a bit of context concerning emerging markets and the terms BRIC and BRICS.

BRIC is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China that was coined in 2001 by a Goldman Sachs investment bank paper to describe these big, rapidly growing countries. Over the ’00s, BRICs was used to describe the shift in global economic power away from the historically rich economies to the developing world. Back then, economists debated projections of the future power of the BRIC economies, with estimates ranging from overtaking the G7 economies by the middle of the 2020s to the 2050s.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Inside the Spyware Campaign Against Argentine Troublemakers

August 23, 2015

Inside the Spyware Campaign Against Argentine Troublemakers

Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor known for doggedly investigating a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing, was targeted by invasive spy software downloaded onto his cellular phone shortly before his mysterious death. The software masqueraded as a confidential document and was intended to infect a Windows computer.

An investigation by The Intercept indicates that this targeting was likely not an isolated event. The person or persons behind the attempted monitoring appear to have run other surveillance operations involving various locations throughout South America, at least one apparently targeting a rabble-rousing Argentine journalist. In the process, they created at least four distinct spyware bundles, all communicating with the same server set to receive Nisman’s data. They also left traces showing that their operations were active as recently as March, raising the possibility that the online spying continues today.

Nisman (pictured above) made powerful enemies inside and outside of Argentina. In his decade-long investigation into the suicide bombing of a Jewish organization and community center, Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, he indicted a top Hezbollah operative and several Iranian officials, including a former president, former intelligence minister, and a former foreign minister. Four days before his death, he accused the president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and her foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, of being involved in a criminal conspiracy to let Iranian officials off the hook for the attack. He was called to testify before Congress.

But the night before he was slated to deliver that testimony, Nisman was found in his apartment dead from a bullet wound to the head. An autopsy ruled his death a suicide. But as details of the police investigation emerged, so did more and more questions into the manner of his demise. There was no suicide note, nor was any gunpowder residue found on Nisman’s hands. A document requesting the arrest of Kirchner and Timerman was found in Nisman’s trash. And it seemed much of the evidence had been gathered in a disorganized and erratic manner.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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