Buenos Aires - The African Mirror

Apr

2023

Eight healthcare workers face trial over Maradona’s death – reports

EIGHT healthcare workers will go on trial over the death of Diego Maradona after being charged with "homicide by negligence", Argentine media reported. The footballing great, who led Argentina to a second World Cup title in 1986, died aged 60 in November 2020 from heart failure after undergoing brain surgery days earlier. A court in San Isidro, a town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, rejected defence appeals for a lesser charge and upheld a year-old indictment by prosecutors for "reckless and inefficient work" in the treatment of the former Boca Juniors and Napoli player, TV channel TN reported. The…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Amid pandemic, Argentine couples ask ‘can I bring a child into this world?’

WORLD

LUCILA SIGAL IN the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, a city famed for its passionate tango dancing and romance, the pandemic is putting a dampener on couples making babies, with birthrates down by a quarter since COVID-19 struck early last year. Claudia Becerra and her boyfriend Agustín Cacciola have long dreamt of having a child, but strict quarantines and economic malaise from the impact of the virus have made them put off their plans. "Uncertainty is the most difficult thing we face," Cacciola, a 32-year-old lawyer, told Reuters alongside Becerra, an accountant, at their home in the Belgrano neighbourhood. He lost…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Argentine town bears scars of poverty as pandemic sharpens economic crisis

WORLD

MIGUEL LOBIANCO and JUAN BUSTAMANTE IN a run-down part of Manzanares, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, the scars of poverty are clear. People cook with firewood. Some have no electricity, gas or running water. Children play barefoot with old toys next to rudimentary homes. It is a stark reflection of a wider issue gripping Argentina, which a century ago was once of the richest countries in the world. By the end of last year, the poverty level was at 42%, up from 35.5% a year earlier, rising amid the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and three years of recession.…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

OBITUARY – Diego Maradona, Argentine soccer genius who saw heaven and hell, dead at 60

SPORT

WORLD soccer great Diego Armando Maradona, who has died less than a month after his 60th birthday, was worshipped like a god for his genius with the ball, but his demons almost destroyed him. Maradona had died after suffering a heart attack at his home in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, those close to him confirmed. Argentine President Alberto Fernandez declared three days of national mourning. Rising to stardom from a grimy Buenos Aires slum to lead Argentina to World Cup victory, Maradona was a rags-to-riches story in his soccer-mad homeland and gained the iconic status of fellow Argentines Che…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Rights group blasts Argentina for using face recognition tech on kids

WORLD

HUGH BRONSTEIN HUMAN Rights Watch wants the city of Buenos Aires to stop using live facial recognition to identify children accused of committing crimes, the rights group has said. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Buenos Aires started using the technology in April 2019, making Argentina the only country in the world to deploy it against people under the age of 18. Although no minors are known to have been arrested yet, the group says the methodology is riddled with misidentifications that could unjustly limit job and educational opportunities for kids wrongly accused of theft and other crimes. HRW…