2008 in Argentina


Events in the year 2008 in Argentina.

Incumbents

Governors

Vice Governors

Events

January

February

March

  • 9 March: Seventeen people are killed and 47 injured after a passenger train crashes into a bus in the town of Dolores in eastern Argentina.
  • 12 March: The agricultural sector starts a 20-day lock-out in protest at the increase in export taxes on soybeans and sunflower.

April

May

  • 2 May: The eruption of the Chaitén volcano in Chile covers much of Argentina in ash, particularly the city of Esquel, and forces the cancellation of flights from Buenos Aires.
  • 17 May: Dissident ARI legislators create a new political party, Solidarity and Equality.

June

  • 25 June: Argentina reports that its total foreign debt hit US$127 billion in the first quarter of the year — continuing to rise higher than when the country negotiated a record debt swap in 2005. The increase in combined public and private debt was driven by private companies borrowing money abroad to finance operations. Debt was US$123 billion at the end of 2007.

July

  • 2 July: Lost scenes from German-Austrian director Fritz Lang's legendary silent film "Metropolis" are discovered in Argentina. Paula Félix-Didier, head of film museum Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires, discovered an uncut version of the 1927 science fiction film when she looked into reports that a tape in the archive was unusually long. She travelled to Berlin with a copy of the film and met with experts who say they are certain it is the missing original-length version of Lang's masterpiece that reveals key plot scenes and an expansion of minor roles, Die Zeit said.
  • 10 July: When the Teatro Colón, Latin America's most famous opera house, closed for refurbishment in November 2006, Buenos Aires city officials vowed that it would reopen in time for its centenary on May 25, 2008. But when the great day arrived, the theatre's golden proscenium arch was still in pieces on the floor, alongside plywood boards, while scaffolding rose the full height of its dome. To kick off the celebrations, the Colón's resident symphony orchestra was obliged to perform in a neighbouring theatre specialising in musicals, where it had to use microphones instead of relying on the opera house's fabulous natural acoustics.
  • 19 July: After months of standoff with irate farmers, and a humiliating defeat in the Senate, the government rolls back the extra levy on farm exports. The government rescinded Friday a controversial tax increase on grain exports that had sparked months of protests and bared deep divisions in one of the world's major food-producing nations.
  • 23 July: Argentina replaces cabinet chief: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez names former head of the social security agency Sergio Massa as cabinet chief, in a shake-up just days after the Senate rejected a government tax hike on soy exports.

August

Deaths

January

February

March

May

June

July

August

Sports