Buenos Aires
Offending the neighbors: Argentina’s president insulted much of Latin America last week while trying to curry favor with Spain. During a televised appearance in Buenos Aires with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Argentine President Alberto Fernández emphasized Argentina’s connection with Spain through immigration. “Mexicans emerged from indigenous people, Brazilians emerged from the jungle,” he said, “but we Argentines arrived on boats, on boats from Europe.” Brazilians and Mexicans on social media called the comments racist and bemoaned how many Argentines consider themselves white and everyone else in the region brown or black. Fernández apologized and said he was quoting a Mexican poet; in fact, his comment was closer to a lyric from an Argentine rock song from the 1980s.