Stories written by Marcela Valente
Marcela Valente has been IPS correspondent in Argentina since 1990, specialising in social and gender issues. She is a history teacher and alternates her correspondent work with teaching journalism at various schools and workshops. At the University of Buenos Aires, she has taught “Introduction to the Study of Society and the State”. Marcela has participated in several courses and workshops on journalism in Costa Rica, Germany, Denmark and Uruguay. She has covered news in Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Sweden. She began her career in 1985 as a contributor for the Argentine newspaper Clarín. She also worked for El Correo de Bilbao (Spain) and the Uruguayan weekly magazine Brecha, among other media.

ARGENTINA: College Students Want to Leave Due to Dim Prospects

By Marcela Valente
A majority of university students polled in Argentina said they would prefer to emigrate, complaining of strangled prospects for professional growth and development at home.

POLITICS-PARAGUAY: VP’s Alleged Assassins Flee Argentinean Prison

By Marcela Valente
Argentina's President Fernando de la Rúa said Monday he was deeply angered by the escape of three inmates from a prison in the capital, two who face extradition to Paraguay as suspects in the 1999 assassination of vice-president Luis María Argaña.

INTEGRATION-MERCOSUR: Economists Outline Cures for Bloc’s Ills

By Marcela Valente
Mercosur (Southern Cone Common Market) must recover its credibility, promote an agenda of co- operation among its members, improve the quality of its leadership and reduce the gap between the promises made and their effective implementation.

ARGENTINA: Senators Stuff Their Pockets Amidst Widespread Poverty

By Marcela Valente
The political crisis caused by the recent vote-buying scandal in the Argentine Senate has thrown into the headlines a question that this increasingly impoverished society has accepted up to now with resignation but as something natural: the extraordinary wealth of the nation's lawmakers.

DEVELOPMENT-ARGENTINA: Inventors from South Seek Support

By Marcela Valente
Inventors and delegates from the patent offices of more than 50 countries met this month in the Argentine capital to discuss how the former can obtain backing, especially in developing countries, where they often come up with inexpensive, efficient devices, but without government support.

LABOUR-ARGENTINA: Overqualified Immigrants Work as Domestics

By Marcela Valente
Argentina has received a heavy flow of female immigrants from Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru in recent years, most of whom end up working as domestics, even though many of them have post-secondary education.

HEALTH-ARGENTINA: Psychoanalysis Embraces Gender Perspective

By Marcela Valente
Argentina is making swift progress towards incorporating a gender perspective in psychoanalysis, a field in which the capital city is the world leader in terms of the number of psychologists per capita.

CULTURE-ARGENTINA: Traffic Anarchy, Litter Mark Urban Living

By Marcela Valente
Breaking the rules and standards governing citizen behaviour and coexistence is the norm in Argentina, especially in the capital, where those who respect traffic laws and don't litter are the exception.

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Political Prisoners Renew Hunger Strike

By Marcela Valente
The members of a leftist group in Argentina, convicted in 1989 for an attack on a military barracks, initiated a second hunger strike Tuesday. The first ended in July when the government and members of Parliament promised to review their trials, which were marred by irregularities.

CULTURE-ARGENTINA: Cinematic Invasion of the Malvinas/Falklands

By Marcela Valente
A new Argentine film, a blend of reality and fiction, is causing a stir after being filmed under- cover in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands - and because its plot suggests that Argentina can recover this disputed territory through sex.

POLITICS-ARGENTINA: Justice Closes in on Senate Bribery

By Marcela Valente
Argentina's justice authorities acknowledged Friday there is evidence that bribery occurred in the Senate last April and led to the approval of a controversial labour reform package, unleashing a political scandal that promises to be the biggest since democracy was restored here in 1983.

CUISINE-ARGENTINA: The Kitchen, A Place to Kindle Hope

By Marcela Valente
For many Argentineans, the kitchen has become a place to fight the feelings of discouragement and dejection that rising unemployment and falling wages have generated throughout society.

RIGHTS-ARGENTINA: Torturer Unmasked, Armour Begins to Fall

By Marcela Valente
Telma Jara was kidnapped by the repressive forces of Argentina's most recent dictatorship (1976-1983) because she had been searching for her disappeared son. Her husband died of cancer not knowing if she was alive or dead. Now, at age 73, she has identified the business executive detained Thursday in Mexico as her torturer.

ECONOMY-ARGENTINA: Nips and Tucks – but no Results

By Marcela Valente
The government of Argentina has counted on a severe fiscal adjustment to generate investor confidence and growth, attract foreign capital and create jobs.

POLITICS/LATAM-US: Albright’s Tour a ‘Tribute’ to Democracy

By Marcela Valente
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's South American tour stood out as much for the countries she visited as for those that were left off the itinerary.

ARGENTINA: The Growing Number of Latchkey Kids

By Marcela Valente
As more and more members of Argentina's once-large middle-class fall below the poverty line, increasing numbers of women and grandparents are forced into the labour market, and no one is home to take care of the children after school.

TRADE-ARGENTINA: Bid to Regain Market Share for Beef Stumbles

By Marcela Valente
An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease -- previously eradicated in Argentina -- in the northeast has made this Southern Cone country's aim of regaining its position as the world's top exporter of beef an even more distant goal.

ECONOMY-ARGENTINA: Asian Imports Transform Culture

By Marcela Valente
The high volume of Asian-made imports for mass consumption, which have devastated small companies in Argentina, is not only changing the face of shop-lined streets in the urban centres of this country, but also its culture.

LABOUR-ARGENTINA: Marching Workers Present Employment Plan

By Marcela Valente
Thousands of Argentinean workers marched 15 days through the country's interior, reaching the national Congress Wednesday with a plan to fund subsidies for unemployed heads of household, grants for their minor children and an increase in pensions.

LABOUR-ARGENTINA: Unemployment, Still Seen in an Individual Light

By Marcela Valente
Although joblessness is by far the most pressing concern cited in opinion polls in Argentina, and affects all sectors alike, each sees their own situation as the most devastating.

POLITICS-ARGENTINA: Voters Feel Let down by Centre-left Alliance

By Marcela Valente
The three-year-old centre-left Alliance that has governed Argentina for the past eight months has already disappointed many voters, who hoped for faster and more in- depth social reforms.
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