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Obama Honors Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ Victims; Faults U.S. On Human Rights

Obama Honors Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ Victims; Faults U.S. On Human Rights

BARILOCHE, Argentina (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said the United States was too slow to condemn human rights atrocities during Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship as he honored victims of the “Dirty War” on Thursday, but he stopped short of apologizing for Washington’s early support for the military junta.

Obama’s state visit to Argentina coincided with the 40th anniversary of the coup that began a seven-year crackdown on Marxist rebels, labor unions and leftist opponents, during which security forces killed 30,000 people.

“There has been controversy about the policies of the United States early in those dark days,” Obama said while visiting a memorial park in Buenos Aires dedicated to victims of the dictatorship.

“Democracies have to have the courage to acknowledge when we don’t live up to the ideals that we stand for. And we’ve been slow to speak out for human rights and that was the case here,” he said.

Obama’s trip, winding up later on Thursday, is part of a wider effort to deepen ties and bolster U.S. influence with Latin America after years of frosty relations with left-leaning governments in the region.

With South America’s leftist block now in disarray amid graft scandals and economic recession, Argentina’s new center-right leader, Mauricio Macri, offers Obama a new ally in one of the Americas’ biggest economies.

Obama traveled to Argentina from Cuba, where he became the first sitting U.S. president to visit in 88 years and opened a new chapter in engagement with the Communist-ruled island after decades of hostilities.

That policy shift has boosted Washington’s standing in a region long wary of being treated as the U.S. “backyard”, although U.S. foreign policy under Obama has still been dominated by the Middle East.

 

Death Flights

At the memorial by La Plata River, Obama and Macri walked along a stark wall that is known as the Monument to the Victims of State Terrorism and is inscribed with 20,000 names.

On a pier overlooking the river, they dropped white roses into the water to commemorate the dead. Obama bowed his head and stood with Macri in silence.

Survivors of the crackdown say one of the military rulers’ tactics was so-called “death flights”, where political opponents were tossed into aircraft, stripped and then thrown alive into the river and the Atlantic Ocean to drown.

Washington’s early support for the military rulers reflected Cold War thinking, which sometimes put the United States on the side of brutal right-wing governments in Latin America. In a gesture toward Argentines still angry over that legacy, Obama has promised to declassify U.S. military and intelligence records related to the dictatorship-era.

But the U.S. leader was criticized by some rights activists. One group of victims’ relatives said the timing of his visit was a provocation.

“We will not allow the power that orchestrated dictatorships in Latin America and oppresses people across the world to cleanse itself and use the memory of our 30,000 murdered compatriots to strengthen its imperialist agenda,” the Buenos Aires-based Center for Human Rights Advocates said in a statement.

Some Argentines welcomed Obama’s gestures. “Obama is not going to say outright ‘forgive us’, but he’s saying it through his actions,” said Daniel Slutzky, a 75-year-old college professor.

Obama praised Argentina for taking on its past. “Confronting crimes committed by your own leaders, by your own people – that can be divisive and frustrating, but it is essential to moving forward,” he said.

Speaking after Obama, Macri said: “We have to reaffirm our commitment to the defense of democracy and human rights. Every day, somewhere in the world they are jeopardized.”

Thousands later gathered at the Casa Rosada presidential palace to honor the victims of the junta. The rally and others around the country are held every March 24, a national holiday.

Obama’s visit to Argentina is a show of support for Macri’s sharp turn away from the nationalist policies of his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez, who frequently railed against the United States and Wall Street. Obama praised Macri on Wednesday for his rapid economic reforms.

The U.S. president was due to head back to Washington on Thursday night. Before setting out, he and his family flew to the Patagonian city of Bariloche for some sightseeing and hiking.

Thousands of people lined the route from the airport through the lakeside mountain city, waving as the motorcade sped by. Several hundred people gathered for a protest near the city center, holding signs and making obscene gestures.

One sign depicted the national flag and the phrase “For Sale” crossed out, a rallying cry of Fernandez supporters who believe Macri is selling out the country with his market-friendly policies.

During his trip to Cuba, the U.S. president challenged President Raul Castro on human rights and political freedoms even as the two men sought to move on from more than half a century of animosity that began soon after Cuba’s 1959 revolution.

 

(Writing by Richard Lough and Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama throws flowers in the River Plate while visiting with Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri (R) the Parque de la Memoria (Remembrance Park) where they honored victims of Argentina’s Dirty War on the 40th anniversary of the 1976 coup that initiated that period of military rule, in Buenos Aires, March 24, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Soft Shoe Diplomacy: Obama Dances The Tango At Argentine State Dinner

Soft Shoe Diplomacy: Obama Dances The Tango At Argentine State Dinner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has made headlines for unexpectedly crooning a song or two in public since coming to the White House. Now he can add dancing the tango to his list of hidden talents.

At the end of a state dinner in Buenos Aires with Argentine President Mauricio Macri on Wednesday, Obama and his wife, Michelle, watched with rapt attention as a male and female pair glided and turned in graceful precision across a small patch of open floor in front of their table.

Willing to give it a try, the president got up and sashayed from one side of the tiny space to the other with the female dancer, while the U.S. first lady teamed up with her male counterpart for a spell.

Then the leader of the free world appeared to have second thoughts.

Getting back to the other side of the dance floor, Obama stopped to wave at the dinner guests as if to conclude.

But his partner would have none of it, taking his hand back in hers and doing a number of turns before allowing the president to spin her around for a finale that ended with her leg drawn up high against his.

The music stopped, the crowd applauded, and the Obamas had done the tango.

 

(Editing by Paul Tait)

Photo: U.S. President Barack Obama dances tango during a state dinner hosted by Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri at the Centro Cultural Kirchner as part of President Obama’s two-day visit to Argentina, in Buenos Aires March 23, 2016.  REUTERS/Carlos Barria 

Argentina Deposits Debt Payment, Defying U.S. Judge

Argentina Deposits Debt Payment, Defying U.S. Judge

Buenos Aires (AFP) – Argentina deposited a $161 million payment on its restructured debt Tuesday, defying a U.S. judge who ruled it in contempt of court and ordered it to pay two “holdout” creditors first.

The Argentine government said it had deposited the payment in a Buenos Aires account of the state-run Banco Nacion.

The South American country is trying to meet its obligations to creditors who agreed to take steep losses on their bonds after it defaulted on $100 billion in debt during its 2001 economic crisis.

Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich brushed off Monday’s contempt ruling by U.S. federal judge Thomas Griesa, saying it had “no basis or impact.”

Griesa found Buenos Aires had acted illegally to dodge his orders blocking it from servicing its restructured debt until it pays the two U.S. hedge funds the full $1.3 billion it owes them.

The dispute with the two holdouts, which the Argentine government has branded “vulture funds,” has derailed the country’s 2005 and 2010 restructuring deals, forcing it into a new default in July.

To get the restructuring plan back on track, Argentina has passed a law permitting the government to pay creditors in Buenos Aires, Paris or another venue of their choice — skirting the New York judge’s freeze on the bank accounts it uses to service its debt.

Capitanich said Griesa’s ruling was “expected,” and repeated the Argentine foreign ministry’s statement that it violated international law.

“The judge has unleashed a true legal rigamarole. Every decision he makes gets worse,” Capitanich told journalists in Buenos Aires.

He said any potential contempt penalties — which could amount to a $50,000-a-day civil fine, as requested by the hedge funds — would be “inapplicable.”

“Sovereign immunity law prohibits contempt penalties against foreign states,” he said.

More than 92 percent of Argentina’s creditors agreed to take losses of up to 70 percent on the face value of their bonds in order to get the struggling country’s debt repayments back on track after the 2001 default.

But the two hedge funds, U.S. billionaire Paul Singer’s NML Capital and U.S.-based Aurelius Capital Management, refused to accept the write-down and took the country to court, winning a ruling from Griesa that crippled Argentina’s restructuring plan.

Blocked from paying its restructured debt, Argentina missed a $539 million interest payment and entered default again on July 30.

Tuesday’s deposit aims to circumvent the judge’s ruling on the day the deadline expires for a new $200 million payment.

AFP Photo/Alejandro Pagni

Argentina Blames U.S. For Debt Woes, Denies Default

Argentina Blames U.S. For Debt Woes, Denies Default

Buenos Aires (AFP) – Argentina blamed the United States for the legal battle that forced it to miss a debt payment and, despite ratings agencies’ declarations to the contrary, denied being in default.

Ratings agency Fitch declared Argentina in “restrictive default” Thursday after 11th-hour talks failed to resolve the country’s dispute with two U.S. hedge funds that refuse to accept a write-down on their Argentine bonds.

Fitch’s label echoed the “selective default” declared Wednesday by Standard & Poor’s. Both terms indicate that Argentina has defaulted on one or more of its financial commitments but continues to meet others.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa has blocked Argentina from paying its “exchange creditors” — those who agreed to take a 70-percent write-down after the country’s 2001 default — without also paying two American hedge funds that took it to court demanding full payment.

Argentine stocks plummeted Thursday, closing 8.43 percent down as the repercussions of the default began to set in.

President Cristina Kirchner’s cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, blamed the U.S. government, Griesa and a court-appointed mediator for the messy legal dispute, which made Argentina miss a $539 million payment to exchange bondholders.

“If there’s a judge who’s an agent of these speculative funds, if the mediator is their agent, what is this justice you’re talking about? There’s a responsibility of the state here, of the United States, to create the conditions for the unconditional respect of other countries’ sovereignty,” he said.

He accused Griesa and mediator Dan Pollack of “incompetence” and said Argentina would take the matter to international courts.

Argentina says paying the holdouts the $1.3 billion it owes them could expose it to claims for up to $100 billion from exchange creditors, who are entitled to equal treatment under what is called a Rights Upon Future Offers, or RUFO, clause.

The U.S. State Department said it opposed the court ruling but called on Argentina to get its books in order.

“They’ve made some good progress towards meeting their obligations, and we believe it’s in their interest to normalize relations with all of its creditors,” said Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

Kirchner denied her country was in default, reiterating that it had transferred the payment in question and condemning the tactics of the hedge funds, which she calls “vulture funds.”

“We live in a profoundly unjust and profoundly violent world and this is also violence. Like missiles in war, financial missiles also kill,” the president said in a nationally televised address.

“I want all Argentines to remain very calm, because Argentina is going to use all the legal instruments our contracts give us.”

The Bank of New York confirmed Buenos Aires’ payment to the exchange creditors was still sitting in the U.S. bank’s account at the Argentine central bank, frozen there by Griesa’s ruling.

Amid the back-and-forth, some in the financial world called for a simple yes or no on whether the country had defaulted.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade organization for participants in the derivatives market, said it had accepted a request from Swiss bank UBS to rule whether Argentina was in default or not.

A default would activate insurance contracts on the relevant debt.

Argentina got a show of support from more than 100 economists, including Nobel laureate Robert Solow and other prominent academics, who sent a letter to the U.S. Congress urging it to intervene.

“The district court’s decision… could cause unnecessary economic damage to the international financial system, as well as to U.S. economic interests (and to) Argentina,” said the signatories, warning the ruling created a “moral hazard” by guaranteeing creditors full payment no matter how risky their investment.

With Argentina scrambling to find a way to placate the hedge funds until the RUFO clause on its restructured debt expires at the end of the year, sources close to the case told AFP that JP Morgan and other banks were in negotiations with the holdouts to buy some or all of their bonds.

JP Morgan declined to comment.

Analysts said the damage could still be controlled if the default was fleeting, but warned a lengthy standoff would deepen Argentina’s current recession, fuel inflation and unemployment and further the country’s isolation from global financial markets.

Argentina’s 2001 default on $100 billion in foreign debt, the largest in history at the time, plunged the country into crisis. Rioting left 33 people dead after the government froze savings accounts to halt a run on the banks.

But analysts say the global impact of the new default will be far smaller, since Argentina has since been locked out of international capital markets.

AFP Photo/Daniel Garcia