The federal chamber of Salta, a northern province, overturned an injunction presented by Zulema Beatriz Daer, which was freezing the implementation of the new law. The decision followed a ruling by the Supreme Court last week against the appeal of a Mendoza deputy questioning the legislative process of the law.

“Legislators lack the legitimacy to oppose in the judiciary what they should have managed in the parliament,” the Salta ruling states.

Former President Nestor Kirchner celebrated the decision during a speech in Neuquén. “We’re very content with the Salta ruling, and next Monday the New Media Law will take effect,” he said.

The new law, passed last year by a wide margin in the national congress after a controversial legislative process, was stalled by legal claims around the country. In Salta, judge Miguel Antonio Medina upheld an appeal by deputy Daer that suspended the enforcement of the law throughout the country.

Gabriel Mariotto, head of COMFER, which oversees communication services federally, said in comments to Pop Radio that parts of the law can be enforced while others still require further development.

“Today we have a valid democratic law, and starting next week we’ll start to build its participative character. This means opening the possibility for all sectors to contribute,” said Mariotto.

The law aims to allow a wider plurality of voices in the media by opening public airwave licensing to non-profit groups. It also provides protections for independent artists and media industry workers, and prohibits cable companies from owning public broadcast networks.

The remaining legal obstacles relate to article 161, which calls for the divestment of media monopolies that are in violation of the new law’s anti-trust standards. The case was brought by media group Clarín.

Inhabitants of Tartagal, devastated by mudslides on Monday, have been given the immediate order to evacuate their homes.

After some confusion, the state of emergency was made official at approximately 3.30pm on Wednesday afternoon. Governor of the Salta province, Andrés Zottos urged people to “leave in an orderly fashion”, after reports of large groups fleeing the endangered area on foot.

He warned that it was raining in the hills, and that there was further danger of floods.

Television stations reported that there was confusion surrounding whether the announcement was official or not. Rumours surfaced in the morning that everyone had to evacuate the town, but amidst the panic, the order was given to return home.

The landslide is now considered to be minutes away.

Locals were frustrated at the alleged false alarm, and fierce protests began, principally against the chief of police, who was not sure exactly what was happening. The police have now began to escort people out of the town.

The inhabitants of Tartagal had earlier been given some hope when rescue services found eight missing people.

Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner promised to fly to Salta at 7pm, because she wants to be together with those suffering from the natural disaster.

Photo by Lindsey Hoshaw

In an attempt to make wines easier to understand, my company, Anuva Wines, has taken the liberty to use brief catch phrases to sum up, in an albeit “high concept” way, all of the wines we carry. Hom espumante is “The Crowd Pleaser”, Cavagnaro Malbec “Opens Like Violets in the Morning”, and Anecon Torrontés is “For Poolside Sipping.” Why? Try the wine and you will understand.

One of the most important reasons that I fell in love with wine in Argentina has to be Torrontés. What a luminous moment when I inhaled the bouquet of white flower, honey and citrus during my first encounter. I expected the mouth to be almost sweet, as the nose had given me this hint, but was pleasantly surprised when I found a dry, crisp and refreshing burst of grapefruit, apricot and pineapple flavours with quite a long finish.

This originally Spanish grape never really had a claim to fame before it was planted here because of Torrontés’ tendency to become fatty or oily when not grown under the right conditions: high altitude, tremendous abundance of sunshine, porous rocky soil.

Fortunately, Salta, in the Northwest corner of Argentina has just these conditions and to a lesser extent La Rioja and San Juan do as well. These three regions, but especially Salta produce the best (and nearly the only) Torrontés in the world.

Our executive chef and I then put our heads together to attempt to make this already luscious wine an even bigger hit. Capitalising on the citrus flavours in the mouth, we put together a shaved celery and fennel salad with grapefruit confiture. Stupendous. Bursts of sweet citrus abound in your mouth while the licorice quality of the fennel gives character and the celery crunch and texture.

A simpler combination would be honeydew melon wrapped in prosciutto or fig jam on brie cheese. Or just pick up some dried apricots.

In any event, thorough sensory pleasure ensues from virtually any form of consumption of this wine. Make sure to serve quite cold and be sure to smell the wine repeatedly as it’s aroma I’m quite sure will eventually be used as ladies perfume.

Daniel Karlin is Founder of Anuva Wines, a premium wine club that hand sources limited production wines from Argentina for shipment to its members in the U.S. He makes his home in Buenos Aires where he offers wine tastings to visitors from all parts. www.anuvawines.com

Violent storms in Tartagal, provoked a mud landslide on Monday night, resulting in two fatalities, nine disappeared and over 1,000 evacuated.

The heavy rains had devastating affects on the infrastructure of town, which is in the northern province of Salta, and left it partially isolated. The level of mud in the Salteño town reached over 1.5 metres and mudslides caused the local river to overflow. An estimated 2,500 houses are flood-damaged, a 50-metre-long railway bridge collapsed and electricity and telephone lies were pulled down.

The National Metrological Service warned that heavy storms are forecaste to continue until Wednesday evening in the north of the country affecting the provinces of Chaco, Corrientes, Formosa, Misiones, Salta and Jujuy.

Governor of Salta province, Juan Manuel Urtubey, criticised emergency services for being slow to arrive on the scene. However, once present, the rescue effort continued throughout the night.

From Spain, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner released national resources to provide all necessary aid and ordered three of her ministers to travel to the affected region, 400km north of Salta.