ARGENTINA
UNDER SIEGE
FOR DEFYING
NEOLIBERAL POLICIES
Executive
Summary
- The real reason why the INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS and the corporate media denounce ARGENTINA
- No profits for HEDGE FUNDS if ARGENTINA does not default
- U.N. Security Council and INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND need to be reformed
- ARGENTINA is being assaulted by the vulture funds with the complicity of the U.S. justice system
- Financial speculation that sabotages countries and intentionally creates poverty, is terrorism
- Fighting terrorism: addressing the roots, not just the symptoms
- Fanning the flames of instability
- US - double edged sword policies
- Vulture funds and economic terrorism
- Intentional destabilization of economy in order to hinder ARGENTINA paying its debt
- Ludicrous: What companies in the world yield profits of 1,600 percent over a five-year period?
- ELLIOT MANAGEMENT and AMIA prosecutor ALBERTO NISMAN
- VULTURE FUNDS / HEDGE FUNDS are financing the conservative party in BRITAIN
- ARGENTINA’S natural resources and the RUSSIAN connection
- RUSSIAN energy GIANT GAZPROM team up with YPF
- A countries financial independence – the biggest threat for the INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MARKET and its institutions
- IMF caused ARGENTINA’S financial ruin
- ARGENTINA and WASHINGTON’S rivalry with MOSCOW
THE
REAL REASON WHY THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND THE CORPORATE
MEDIA DENOUNCE ARGENTINA
Emphasizing
that both ARGENTINA and the world were at an important crossroads, ARGENTINE
President CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ DE KIRCHNER addressed the start of the 69th
session of the U.N. General Assembly in a speech that undoubtedly upset the
policy mandarins and security gurus in the WASHINGTON Beltway and their
counterparts on WALL STREET.
Despite its hard-hitting
points and its ties to a legal battle in NEW YORK, her speech at the U.N.
General Assembly went mostly, if not totally, unreported in NORTH AMERICAN
mainstream media.
U.N.
SECURITY COUNCIL AND INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND NEED TO BE REFORMED
The ARGENTINE President started
her speech by saying that it is of the utmost importance for the U.N. General
Assembly to establish a treaty for a universal system for restructuring
sovereign debt. The U.N. Security Council and INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND need
real reform, not talk about reform, she added.
The ARGENTINE leader
lamented to the U.N. General Assembly that BUENOS AIRES faces economic
blackmail, explaining that the ARGENTINE people have been paying a debt that
others deliberately generated and imposed on them. Despite the circumstances, ARGENTINA
has paid most of this debt off, but only because the ARGENTINE government
restructured its debt and repayment formula with 92.4 percent of its
bondholders during two different debt restructuring agreements and debt swaps
in 2005 and 2010.
ARGENTINA
IS BEING ASSAULTED BY THE VULTURE FUNDS WITH THE COMPLICITY OF THE U.S. JUSTICE
SYSTEM
The instruments of
economic fraud have been referred to by the ARGENTINE President and others as
“vulture funds” — a term, President KIRCHNER noted, that was not coined by
indignant SOUTH AMERICAN or AFRICAN leaders, but by GORDON BROWN in 2002, when
he was BRITISH Chancellor of the Exchequer.
KIRCHNER averred that ARGENTINA
was being assaulted by the vulture funds with the complicity of the U.S.
justice system, in a process that she describes as “economic and financial
terrorism.” Which have acted “as true destabilizers of the economy,” she told
the U.N. General Assembly.
Background
Information: International Financial Institutions
INTERNATIONAL
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS VERSUS ARGENTINA
THE
GEOPOLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL MONETARY AND FINANCIAL SYSTEMS
ELLIOT
CAPITAL HEDGE FUNDS, A CLIENT AND SHAREHOLDER OF FITCH RATING AGENCY?
US
COURT RULING ON ARGENTINE BOND DEFAULT- THE PARIS CLUB, USA AGRICULTURE
COMPANIES, AND INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SPECULATORS “GRAB” FOR ARGENTINA
THE
CENTRAL BANK OF ARGENTINA BREAKS RANKS WITH NEO-LIBERAL BANKING POLICY AND
TARGETS JOBS OVER LOWER INFLATION
TERRORISTS
ARE NOT ONLY THOSE WHO KILL PEOPLE BY PLANTING BOMBS, BUT ALSO THOSE WHO USE
FINANCIAL SPECULATION TO SABOTAGE COUNTRIES AND INTENTIONALLY CREATE POVERTY
Economic and financial
terrorism was the motif of ARGENTINA’S message to the U.N. The Argentine leader
told the U.N. that terrorists are not
only those who kill people by planting bombs, but also those who use financial
speculation to sabotage countries and intentionally create poverty.
Addressing
economic terrorism would be a major boon to dealing with the thugs recruiting
young people that go on foolish crusades because they have lost hope and the
opportunity to be productive members of society, she said.
FIGHTING
TERRORISM: ADDRESSING THE ROOTS, NOT JUST THE SYMPTOMS
Her
point was that the roots of terrorism run much deeper than people simply
picking up guns and cutting off heads in the name of morbid and twisted
worldviews, and ending the cycle of violence starts with addressing its roots,
not just its symptoms.
Those roots lie in the
wrong policies and economic sabotage that is disrupting the world, whereas
groups like AL-QAIDA and the ISLAMIC STATE of IRAQ and SYRIA are merely the
symptoms.
FANNING
THE FLAMES OF INSTABILITY
Ultimately, the ARGENTINE
President accused WASHINGTON of fanning the flames of instability. This becomes
very clear when her speech to the U.N. General Assembly is cross-examined with
her speech to the U.N. Security Council after the unanimous adoption of U.N. Security
Council Resolution 2178, which calls for the prevention of the “international
flow of terrorist fighters to and from conflict zones.” Both speeches were
delivered on the same day and conveyed the same ideas and themes.
In the presence of world
leaders and high-ranking officials gathered at the U.N. Security Council, the
ARGENTINE President told U.S. President BARACK OBAMA and his entourage that the
U.S. approach to fighting terrorism has had zero success and has only destabilized
the world and helped terrorist organizations proliferate. Thus it is illogical
to continue to employ strategies that consistently fail. This was part of her
emphasis that the methodology and methods used by WASHINGTON to contest
terrorism were wrong, further bolstering her argument that the policy-linked
and economic causes of terrorism had to be addressed.
US
- DOUBLE EDGED SWORD POLICIES
Although she kept it
diplomatic inside the chamber of the U.N. Security Council, she rhetorically
asked who was supplying ISIS militants with weapons. She did not mention the
names of any countries, but her tacit point was that the U.S. and its allies
have armed ISIS by supplying SYRIAN anti-government forces with weapons.
The
president also pointed out many of the contradictions involved in the U.S.
fight against ISIS, how AL-QAIDA was nurtured to fight MOSCOW, and how the SYRIAN
government was vilified and the same non-state actors that the world was
condemning were presented as “freedom fighters” just a year earlier. The RUSSIAN
and the CHINESE positions at the U.N. Security Council were more or less
tacitly aligned with that of the ARGENTINE President, which is why MOSCOW
called for a general conference to be held by the U.N. to analyze the roots of
terrorism.
While speaking to the
U.N. General Assembly, she pointed out that great powers easily change the
definitions of friend and enemy and tailor the definition of who is a terrorist
and who is not to suit their own interests. “You do not fight terrorism by beating
the drums of war,” she explained.
Later, she would tell the
gathering, “Forgive me, but I am totally mistrustful” after exploring the
contradictions in the fight against terrorism. “The things we see on television
are petty fiction.”
VULTURE
FUNDS AND ECONOMIC TERRORISM
The
crux of ARGENTINA’S bitterness has been its ongoing dispute with vulture funds.
According to the ARGENTINE government, it is deliberately being economically
destabilized so that it will fall back on its debt repayments. Defaulting will
cause interest to accrue on ARGENTINA’S debt, thus increasing it, and
therefore, maximizing profits for its creditors and bondholders.
The vulture funds are
comprised of a minority of ARGENTINA’S debt-owners. The two main antagonists
are the U.S.-based hedge funds NML CAPITAL and AURELIUS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT.
These are the same debt-owners that refused to accept the restructuring of ARGENTINE
debt when repayment was being renegotiated by BUENOS AIRES.
NO
PROFITS FOR THE HEDGE FUNDS IF ARGENTINA DOES NOT DEFAULT
These vulture funds did
not accept the ARGENTINE debt restructuring formula because they could not
profit unless the ARGENTINE'S defaulted on the debt these funds owned. Originally, these hedge funds planned to
sue ARGENTINA after it defaulted on its debt to maximize their monetary returns
or to increase the amount owed by BUENOS AIRES through debt accumulation.
These holdouts could not make a profit without this and it is precisely with
these intentions that they refused to accept any re-negotiations that would
allow ARGENTINA to pay its debts through a repayment schedule. Instead, they
demanded full payment of the debts owed to them.
INTENTIONAL
DESTABILIZATION OF ECONOMY IN ORDER TO HINDER ARGENTINA PAYING ITS DEBT
It
is under this framework that it has been in the interest of these holdouts for
the economic situation in ARGENTINA to deteriorate. Not only has it been in the
interest of these hedge funds, but it has been their aim to economically damage
and destabilize ARGENTINA so that it will not be able to make its debt payments.
This is where the U.S. justice system comes in as what the ARGENTINE President describes
as an “accomplice” to the economic and financial terrorism of the vulture
funds.
WHAT
COMPANIES IN THE WORLD YIELD PROFITS OF 1,600 PERCENT OVER A FIVE-YEAR PERIOD?
After failing to stop the
restructuring of ARGENTINA’S debt, the U.S. court system came to the aid of
these vulture funds. Judge THOMAS GRIESA, a federal judge for the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of NEW YORK State, not only awarded the vulture funds over 1,600
percent interest on what was owed in terms of face value for a five-year period,
but also blocked ARGENTINA from paying its other debt-holders until BUENOS
AIRES paid the vulture funds in full, including the interest and a daily fine.
The ruling was made in 2012, but was enforced after court-mediated negotiations
broke down with the ARGENTINE'S accusing DANIEL POLLACK of incompetence on Aug.
1, 2014.
Background
Information:
IN
JULY 2011 Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring wrote: US COURT RULING ON
ARGENTINE BOND DEFAULT
RATING
AGENCIES, THE FEDERAL RESERVE, THE PARIS CLUB, THE IMF, brokers and speculator
Not only was Judge GRIESA’S
ruling denounced as legally unfair, but it has no connection to any business or
financial norms. This is why KIRCHNER
asked the U.N. General Assembly what companies in the world yield profits of
1,600 percent over a five-year period.
U.S.
POLICY AND THE VULTURE FUNDS
In ARGENTINA, GRIESA’S legal
ruling has been seen as an attempt to obstruct ARGENTINA from making its debt
payments. His ruling makes it impossible
for ARGENTINA to pay back its debts without borrowing more money and accruing
more debt. It also nullifies ARGENTINA’S deals with the other bondholders
because of a clause in the debt restructuring that gives them the legal right
to ask for the most profitable terms of repayment should those terms be brought
about.
ELLIOT
MANAGEMENT AND ITS ALLEGED CONNECTION TO LATE AMIA PROSECUTOR ALBERTO NISMAN
Meanwhile, the vulture
funds have lobbied the U.S. Congress for years. They took the opportunity to
launch a renewed assault on ARGENTINA, saying that it was a terrorist state
once it signed an agreement on Jan. 27, 2013 for judicial cooperation with IRAN
to investigate the 1992 and 1994 bombings of the ISRAELI Embassy in ARGENTINA
and the ARGENTINE ISRAELITE MUTUAL ASSOCIATION building.
Thus
it comes as no surprise that ALBEROT NISMAN, the prosecutor investigating the
AMIA bombing, who died under mysterious circumstances, prior of “exposing” the ARGENTINE
President in front of a Congressional committee, has been brought into
connections with Vulture Funds ELLIOT MANAGEMENT.
Judge RODOLFO CANICOBA
CORRAL, in charge of the investigations into the death of the prosecutor, is
currently trying to obtain details on foreign bank accounts shared by late AMIA
special prosecutor ALBERTO NISMAN, his family and computer analyst DIEGO
LAGOMARSINO, as well as his possible connection between his account and ELLIOT
MANAGEMENT, the HEDGE FUND owned by billionaire PAUL SINGER. ELLIOT is one of
the main so called “vulture funds” behind the charges against ARGENTINA over
its technical defaulted national debt.
See also:
SIXTEEN
OF EUROPE’S 50 MOST PROLIFIC VULTURE FUNDS / HEDGE FUNDS ARE FINANCING THE
CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN BRITAIN at:
While the position of the
hedge fund holdouts may have been sheer opportunism, they lobby and got the
U.S. Congress involved. ARGENTINA was sharply criticized by U.S. officials for
initiating a dialogue with IRAN to cooperate in its investigations. Tensions
reached a point where the Argentine government said that those opposing the
agreement between BUENOS AIRES and TEHRAN would be responsible if there was a
third terrorist bombing inside ARGENTINA against any Jewish or ISRAELI targets.
ARGENTINA’S reaction to
Judge GRIESA’S legal ruling has been to get lawmakers in BUENOS AIRES to pass
legislation on debt repayment. BUENOS AIRES has accused the U.S. of being
complicit with the “economic terrorists” who are trying to hold the country
hostage. The ARGENTINE government even asked the U.S. government to prevent its
domestic laws from being imposed on ARGENTINA, but to no avail. ARGENTINE demands
that the U.S. Supreme Court review its appeals were also rejected on June 16.
ARGENTINA’S
ENERGY RESERVES AND THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION
At the U.N., KIRCHNER
even went on to accuse WASHINGTON of plotting to overthrow her and her
democratically-elected government. On Sept. 30, about one week after she
criticized the U.S. at the U.N., KIRCHNER delivered a televised address telling
her people that if she was murdered, not to “look to the MIDDLE EAST, but look
to the north” at the U.S. government. She asserted that the U.S. State
Department’s warning about a terrorist threat from ISIS inside ARGENTINA was a
fictitious smokescreen and that the ISIS threats against her were essentially
the handiwork of WASHINGTON.
It is no mere coincidence
that KIRCHNER looked at OBAMA while speaking at the U.N. Security Council while
concluding her speech by saying that ARGENTINA’S large untapped energy reserves
could prove to be a curse, alluding to U.S. meddling and interference in
energy-rich countries.
After CHINA, ARGENTINA has
the second highest amount of recoverable shale gas. BUENOS AIRES is poised to
turn from a fuel importer into an energy exporter. In 2012, the ARGENTINE
government was involved in a dispute with the SPANISH oil corporation REPOSOL
over the recovery of what was once ARGENTINA’S national energy corporation, YACIMIENTOS
PETROLÍFEROS FISCALEs. YPF was nationalized through a law passed on March 3,
2012, in which the ARGENTINE government received a 51-percent controlling share
in the corporation.
RUSSIAN
ENERGY GIANT GAZPROM TEAM UP WITH YPF
Meanwhile, the RUSSIAN
Federation is going to assist BUENOS AIRES in exploring, developing and
exploiting its natural gas reserves. This is one of the reasons that RUSSIAN
President VLADIMIR PUTIN visited ARGENTINA. Days after KIRCHNER spoke at the
U.N., ARGENTINA and RUSSIA signed an important bilateral energy contract to
explore and develop ARGENTINA’S natural gas reserves — an agreement that will
see RUSSIAN energy giant GAZPROM team up with YPF.
Not only has PUTIN
announced that ARGENTINA is a RUSSIAN strategic partner, but Moscow is helping ARGENTINA
divest itself from U.S. influence. This is why PUTIN visited ARGENTINA ahead of
the U.N. General Assembly meeting and the reason why he and KIRCHNER jointly
inaugurated the SPANISH-language RUSSIAN satellite channel RT EN ESPAÑOL (RT SPANISH)
or RT Actualidad (RT News) in a teleconference. It is clear that the RUSSIAN
channel’s new presence in ARGENTINA is aimed at fighting U.S. influence in an
information war.
RUSSIAN ties with ARGENTINA
have been strengthening since 2010, well before PUTIN’S recent announcement
that ARGENTINA and RUSSIA are strategic partners. GAZPROM had secured a
contract to sell liquefied natural gas to ARGENTINA. ARGENTINA also sided with RUSSIA,
CHINA and IRAN against any plans orchestrated by the U.S. to attack SYRIA after
the SAUDI-backed insurgents launched chemical attacks in GHOUTA that WASHINGTON
was trying to pin on DAMASCUS. It even closed ranks with RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA,
INDONESIA, SOUTH AFRICA and BRAZIL on the issue in last year’s G20 summit at ST.
PETERSBURG.
ARGENTINA
AND THE GLOBAL ENERGY AND FINANCIAL WAR
A
truly independent country that on top of it does not fall for the debt trap
instigated by the INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS is considered a threat.
If such country then also has a vast amount of natural resource at its
disposal, it becomes clear as to why the obsessive negative views of ARGENTINA
by the WORLD FINANCIAL MARKETS root on the danger that ARGENTINA poses for these
financial institutions (public and private) at a time other countries will
finally follow in ARGENTINE'S footsteps of defaulting debt and restructuring.
For
example SPAIN, GREECE and the such that sooner or later will have to find
alternative ways to restructure their debts since the IMF-ECB policies are not
succeeding in significantly reduce the debt burden, even under strict austerity
measure. (citing
A
COUNTRIES FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE – THE BIGGEST THREAT FOR THE INTERNATIONAL
FINANCIAL MARKET AND ITS INSTITUTIONS
The ARGENTINE government
believes that WASHINGTON does not want ARGENTINA
to be independent. More than that, however, it should be clear that the vulture funds are an instrument of pressure
being used against Argentina to destabilize it. In the words of the
ARGENTINE President, the “vulture look a lot like the eagles of empire.”
IMF
CAUSED ARGENTINA’S FINANCIAL RUIN
Even
at the U.N., Kirchner said that the policies of the WASHINGTON-based IMF, which
BUENOS AIRES had followed to the tee, were what systematically caused
Argentina’s financial ruin and instability in 2001. In other words, the
indebting neoliberal policies that led to her LATIN AMERICAN country’s debt
were imposed. The
ARGENTINE leader’s stated that the system of debt in the global financial
system has been used to shackle many countries as an unjust instrument of
domination and as a form of aggression on sovereignty.
Background
Information: The IMF
IMF
PLEADS GUILTY BUT INSISTS ON AUSTERITY
WALL
STREET ANIMOSITY AGAINST ARGENTINA
LATAM
not adhering to vulture finance system dictated by IMF, World Bank and
Corporations
When
ARGENTINA was the “Sunny boy” of the IMF under president MENEM, who
unquestionably followed IMF doctrine of privatizing state
assets......................................
CORPORATOCRACY......
ARGENTINA’S DEFAULT IN 2001, WHICH MANY ARGUE WAS CAUSED TO A LARGE EXTEND BY
THE IMF.......
ARGENTINA
HAS REFUSED TO SWALLOW THE IMF’S BELT-TIGHTENING RECIPES
ARGENTINA
AND WASHINGTON’S RIVALRY WITH MOSCOW
The destabilization of ARGENTINA
and actions against its government should also be read in the broader context
of WASHINGTON’S rivalry with MOSCOW and a global energy war.
It is no coincidence that
the U.S. State Department has been heavily promoting the exportation of U.S.
shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for the last few years. Nor is
it a coincidence that U.S. energy conglomerates have been involved in intense
negotiations to control shale gas reserves around the world, including in POLAND,
UKRAINE and ROMANIA. Excluding RUSSIA’S reserves, POLAND and UKRAINE have the first and third largest
deposits of shale gas in EUROPE. This is why the U.S. has been a strong
supporter of KIEV’S attempts to regain control over EAST UKRAINE, where much of
the shale gas concessions that have gone to U.S. companies are located.
Background
Information: NATURAL RESOURCES
ARGENTINE SHALE GAS
PRODUCTION COULD ALTER THE SOUTHERN CONES GEOPOLITICAL LANDSCAPE
US COMPANY CHEVRON
REGAINS FOOTHOLD IN ARGENTINA’S OIL SECTOR
IS THE CONFLICT IN
THE UKRAINE PARTIALLY ABOUT CONTROL OVER UKRAINE'S VAST AGRICULTURAL AND Energy
SECTOR?
The shale gas factor is
also part of the equation in U.S. tensions with RUSSIA. WASHINGTON has pushed
the EUROPEAN UNION to sanction the RUSSIAN energy sector to essentially lockout
GAZPROM as a competitor to the relatively more expensive shale gas being sold
by the U.S. Not only does U.S. shale gas being supplied from NORTH AMERICA have
to be fracked, liquefied and then transported to EUROPE, but fracking
operations cannot afford low natural gas prices.
This
means that competing producers need to be derailed or excluded from the
international market, thus, looking at the vulture fund scandal within this
framework seems to answer a lot of questions.
Editor’s
Note:
This article has been adapt by
Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring from the original article
Written by Mahdi Darius NAZEMROAYA
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