Mendoza has 41 political prisoners from environmental protests, including a retired teacher brutally beaten.
1. 'Perdiendo el Tiempo Así' (Wasting Time Like This), described as 'the exact combination to dodge success,' opens its fifth season on BCNRadio with hosts Matías Voynilovics, Maya Luquin, and guest Nico Núñez.
2. Núñez is introduced as the show's environmental specialist; Macarena is identified as an activist from the Guaymallén Water Assembly in Mendoza and from the Coordinator of False Solutions, one of the organizing bodies for the national glacier law protest.
3. The episode's central topic is Argentina's recent congressional approval of a modification to the Glacier Protection Law, which passed with a strong majority despite mass public opposition.
4. Núñez describes the months-long opposition campaign: the Glaciares No Se Tocan (Glaciers Must Not Be Touched) citizen campaign, a public audience process where 102,000 registered participants—including Núñez—were blocked from speaking, and the absence of the constitutionally required prior indigenous consultation.
5. He reports that a Subcordoba survey found 60% of respondents reject risking glaciers for economic activity, and a second survey found only 11% support such a trade-off among thousands of respondents.
6. Núñez identifies the glacier mobilization as the largest national environmental protest in Argentine history: 70 convocation points in cities across the country in a single day, surpassing earlier environmental campaigns about paper mills at Botnia, the Esquel No la Mina movement, and the Porcino agreement with China.
7. Artists Dolores Fonsi, Virginia Innocenti, and Julieta Lazo performed at the Buenos Aires protest festival alongside the march, as well as Ricardo Mollos and Víctor Páez, contributing to what Núñez compares to the breadth and pluralism of human rights marches.
8. Macarena describes Mendoza as having 41 environmental political prisoners detained by Governor Cornejo since 2025, following the approval of the Mega Mineros San Jorge project in the province—a number she calls the highest per-capita rate of environmental detentions in Argentina.
9. The detention mechanism is Mendoza's 2018 Código Contravencional, which Patricia Bullrich later adopted as a model for national legislation; it allows arrests for 'resisting authority,' 'disturbing public space,' or gathering in a plaza, charges Macarena says can be invented on the spot.
10. The 8 most recent detainees from the glacier law mobilization were held at the moment of the interview, with three women in a separate police station, including a retired schoolteacher whose violent arrest was documented on video.
11. Macarena describes visiting Hachal, San Juan—a community affected by established mega-mining operations—and finding a near-ghost town with streets destroyed by heavy machinery and water contaminated beyond bathing use.
12. She warns that Uspallata, Mendoza, targeted by the San Jorge mega-mining project, has been receiving employment promises from mining companies that, based on the Hachal experience, will not materialize for local residents—workers are brought from other provinces on quarterly rotations.
13. She also reports that Mendoza's education curriculum now includes paid professional development courses training teachers in mining topics, paid by the provincial government—a new development from March 2026.
14. The show points listeners to the Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales document 'Ten Myths about the Glacier Law' for further reading, and to the website demandacolectivaglaciares.org for the collective legal demand petition.
15. A 'Not So Random' cultural segment covers the origin of Mario Day (March 10), tracing Mario from his 1981 Jumpman origin in Donkey Kong, through 1983's Mario Bros., to the 1985 Super Mario Bros. turning point, the 1993 live-action film, and the 2023 animated film.
16. The segment identifies Mario's core design principle as the source of his 40-year longevity: 'simple to understand, difficult to master'—anyone can begin in seconds but there is always one more challenge.
17. A third segment interviews Alina Pepinas about the inaugural Valiente Fair for independent art on Sunday April 12 at Cultural Cooperative Key in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, featuring a manifesto about resisting easy reproduction and celebrating the 'brave' act of creating in an era of immediacy and AI.
18. The show also introduces a new studio feature: a red light that automatically activates when any host makes a verbal slip ('furcio'), described as using AI analysis of the previous four seasons to build a slip-detection profile.
19. The episode suits Argentine listeners interested in environmental activism, the glacier protection debate, and Buenos Aires cultural events, with a politically progressive, left-leaning editorial perspective.
20. Listeners seeking neutral news coverage of the glacier law debate, or those outside Argentina without context on Mendoza politics, provincial governors, and the specific mining projects discussed, will find the episode's framing strongly advocacy-oriented.
