New arms threat: Argentina's £3billion boost to military

British military chiefs were last night “carefully monitoring” developments after Argentina announced a £3billion revamp of its armed forces.

 

Buenos Aires will acquire military hardware including fighter aircraft, ­anti-aircraft weapons and specialised radar, as well as beefing up its special forces.

 

The news comes months before drilling for oil ­begins in earnest off the Falkland Islands, provoking ­Argentina’s struggling President Cristina ­Fernandez de ­Kirchner.

 

Last month she created a new cabinet post of Secretary for the Malvinas, her country’s name for the Falklands.

 

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has refused to confirm that Britain would retake the Falklands if they were overrun by enemy forces.

 

The extra cash means Argentina will ­increase defence spending by 33.4 per cent this year, the biggest rise in its history. It will include £750million for 32 ­procurement and modernisation programmes.

 

They will include medium tanks and transport aircraft and the refurbishment of warships and submarines. The shopping list also ­includes Israeli air ­defence systems, naval assault craft, rocket systems, helicopters and a drone project.

 

There will be a range of hi-tech capabilities for the army and the formation of new commando and special ­forces units.

 

In August last year the Sunday Express revealed details of a contract to buy 20 French Mirage fighter jets from Spain, giving Argentina the ability to attack Port Stanley airfield with laser guided bombs.

 

Sources from British oil and gas firm Rockhopper Exploration confirmed serious drilling could begin in a few months. Its Sea Lion field is thought to have 394 million barrels of oil.

 

“We’re just waiting for a rig, which isn’t easy to organise in the South Atlantic, ­before we can escalate to the next stage,” said the source. President de Kirchner’s new Malvinas Secretary Daniel Filmus sent over 200 letters to oil firms threatening fines of up to $1.5billion and 15-year-jail terms if they drilled without consent.

 

Though the threats have no validity in international law, it is seen as an example of the lengths the president will go to in order to bolster domestic political ­support.

Britain has strengthened its defences of the islands, with four RAF Eurofighter Typhoons and 600 troops. A Royal Navy nuclear submarine armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles visits twice a year.

 

Senior military sources told the Sunday Express they were “carefully monitoring” the situation. The real fear, however, is a raid by Argentinian special forces aimed at damaging Port Stanley’s runway.

Admiral Lord West, who was at the helm of HMS Ardent when she was sunk in the Falklands War, said: “Any major increase in defence expenditure by Argentina must be viewed with concern. I am concerned that, without any ­aircraft carriers, we are incapable of ­recapturing them.”

He said Britain’s new carriers will not be operational until 2020 and until then Argentina had a window of opportunity.

Give Us Your Real Dollars for Our Fake Dollars: Argentina Credit

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s wish of being able to print dollars is coming true as the central bank begins issuing dollar-denominated certificates today that trade in pesos.

Argentina is issuing the certificates, known as Cedines, as part of a tax amnesty plan to attract undeclared cash back into the economy. The nation’s foreign reserves have fallen at the fastest pace in more than a decade to a six-year low of $37.2 billion, as Argentina uses the money to pay debt instead of borrowing dollars at interest rates that are more than double the 5.95 percent average in emerging markets.

Fernandez, who said last year that it was unfortunate she didn’t have a “little machine” to print dollars, is trying to tap some of the estimated $160 billion held by Argentines under mattresses or in bank accounts abroad, to ease dollar demand stoked by more than 30 measures that she has imposed since 2011 to restrict access to foreign currency. While the measure is designed to provide individuals dollar-backed claims that can be used for real estate and energy projects, Empiria Consultores says Argentines will just exchange them back for U.S. currency.

“The deliberate intention of the government is for the Cedin to trade like a quasi-currency,” Hernan Lacunza, a former general manager of the central bank who runs research firm Empiria, said by telephone from Buenos Aires. “People will probably go running to exchange them for dollars as soon as they can so the effect on reserves will be ephemeral.”

Dollar Hoarding

 A central bank press official, who isn’t authorized to speak publicly, didn’t respond to a telephone message seeking comment on reserve levels and the tax amnesty plan.

The Cedin “is an ideal medium for the payment of U.S. dollar obligations,” and can be used for buying products from house appliances to construction materials, according to the law approved by congress May 29,

Argentines with undeclared foreign-currency savings have until Sept. 30 to trade their dollars for a certificate of deposit for investment, or Cedin, which will be traded in financial entities and foreign exchange agencies.

The government estimates citizens have undeclared funds of more than three times the nation’s foreign currency holdings. Argentines hold about one in every 15 dollars in circulation worldwide, according to Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury and Secret Service estimates.

‘Little Machine’ 

Argentines with undeclared funds leave themselves open to investigation by the tax authorities and an offense is punishable by jail time. The plan will attract about $2 billion, newspaper Clarin reported June 28, citing a report by Banco de la Nacion Argentina state bank.

Fernandez, 60, is trying to shield reserves at a time when the nation’s energy imports are surging and its trade surplus narrows.

“Unfortunately for me and for most Argentines, I don’t have a little machine that makes dollars,” she said in a November speech in Buenos Aires.

The central bank’s foreign currency holdings have fallen by $6.1 billion this year and will decline by $4 billion more as the nation pays its bondholders. Central Bank President Mercedes Marco Del Pont said on May 9 that the net effect of the tax amnesty plan on reserves will be neutral.

‘Opportunistic Strategy’ 

The government will have to guarantee that individuals can exchange the Cedines for dollars to attract funds, which would keep the value of the peso from falling further in the black market, according to Hernan Yellati, head strategist at BancTrust & Co. in Miami. Money invested in real estate and energy can also help bolster economic growth ahead of congressional elections in October, he said.

“This is an opportunistic strategy to lower the parallel rate, control inflation and at the same time give a boost to economic activity before the election,” Yellati, who expects about $1.5 billion will enter through the tax amnesty plan, said in an e-mail.

The reference value for every $100 of Cedines, is 90 for purchase and 93 for sale, for an implied exchange rate of 7.2 pesos per dollar, according to a recently created website called Cedin Trading.

That rate would be weaker than the official rate of 5.3903 and stronger than the black market where Argentines pay as much as 8 per dollar. A fourth rate used for financial transactions by swapping bonds and stocks was 7.8257 at 4:26 p.m. in Buenos Aires.

The extra yield investors demand to hold Argentine government dollar bonds instead of U.S. Treasuries fell 19 basis points, or 0.19 percentage point, to 1,180 basis points, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global index.

Property Sales 

Fernandez is seeking to reverse a rout in property transactions after her ban on buying foreign currency almost paralyzed the dollar-based market.

Undeclared dollars can also be traded for a government-issued bond maturing in 2016 that will pay a 4 percent annual interest rate that will be used to finance the energy industry and state-run YPF SA.

The tax amnesty plan will probably fail as it isn’t addressing inflation, which is the cause behind the decline in reserves, said Daniel Volberg, an economist at Morgan Stanley.

Consumer prices rose an estimated 23.4 percent in May from a year earlier, according to private economists.

“The real driving force for why we have reserve losses, why you have poor confidence, and why you have poor growth in Argentina is inflation,” he said in a telephone interview from New York. “We have plenty of experience with exchange rates that are misaligned and that are being propped up by a combination of intervention and capital controls, neither of those measures work.

Lanata claims 80% of media in under Argentina government control for propaganda purposes

 Argentine journalist Jorge Lanata who has won Spain’s Television Iris Award, claims that ‘80% of Argentine media is in the hands of government (President Cristina Fernandez)” which are used as “instruments of propaganda”.

Lanata was given the award for his “standing exposure of the corrupt political class and his defence of the weakest”, according to the statement that supported the Spanish television academy most respectable prize.

“We’re going through a delicate moment and in a state of division that is promoted from the very centres of power”, argued Lanata interviewed by Spain’s government news agency.

His program “Journalism for all” aired by Channel 13 is currently in the heart of a major political controversy in Argentina following his exposure, with documents and witnesses of a web of companies belonging to former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner which had a close friend of his as the front man and who became the only public works contractor of the province of Santa Cruz, the Kirchner’s political turf.

Once his mentor became president and moved to Buenos Aires the former obscure bank teller Lazaro Baez became one of the richest men in the province with assets estimated in tens of millions of dollars and his companies absorbing most of public works now in the whole of Patagonia.

The organization of Kirchner and Baez allegedly has also been involved in money laundering from the skimmed public works through Uruguay to Panama, Belize, Caribbean islands and finally Switzerland.

Lanata regretted that the Argentine courts have yet to decide an investigation despite all the information and documents supplied. “I don’t think it is because the system is corrupt but rather that the Executive keeps advancing on the judicial branch”, said Lanata.

“Our job is not evangelization or teaching, it is just telling what we know and that we can prove and communicate it in the most creative form possible”, pointed out the Argentine journalist who added that “we must be as independent as possible. What gives me independence is public opinion: as long as they watch us that is what gives us power”.

Reference internet Lanata described it as the greatest invention since printing and “a great opportunity” for journalism. “Sure we are going through a crisis, but a good crisis. Internet is just starting and offers a great opportunity to experiment new things”.

Finally the Argentine communicator said that the world is changing and the role of emerging countries and their media will keep growing including in this area. “We are still submitted mostly to a North-South communication system, but in a near future we’ll be facing new paradigms and new ways of communicating”-

Lanata describes himself as la liberal with left wing inclinations. Liberal because he believes in democracy and left wing because of the injustices “I see and come across everyday”

CFK's Gestapo - Argentine Government Sponsered Thugs - Malvinas radical group begins campaign against Lan Chile offices in Buenos Aires

Tony Lopez from Resistencia Malvinas, who described the campaign against the cruise vessels calling in the Falklands a ‘success’, pledged that every Wednesday at midday the group will be protesting at Lan Chile’s downtown offices demanding that Aerolineas Argentinas takes over the weekly flight to the Islands and that passports be eliminated for Argentine nationals.

This week’s ‘Wednesday protest’ inauguration was not much of a success because Argentine public opinion was concentrated on the judicial reform congressional debate and massive concentrations all over the country rejecting the proposal.

However next week could be different because the protest at Lan’s offices will be taking place on Thursday at midday (Wednesday May first is a national holiday), which coincides with the 31st anniversary of the sinking of the cruiser “General Belgrano” by a British submarine with the loss of 323 lives, Argentina’s single major setback, and which marked the no-return escalation of the Falklands conflict.

In an interview with a local radio, Tony Lopez said that the idea of the Lan ‘siege’ followed the success of the campaign against cruise vessels calling in the Falklands, implementing the Gaucho Rivero Bill, which “was confirmed by the tourism stats released by the Malvinas illegitimate government”.

According to those stats “the cruise season was down 50% over a year ago, because cancellation doubled and the number of visitors was much lower than expected. This was to the benefit of Puerto Madryn and Ushuaia”, argued Tony Lopez.

In this new campaign “we are demanding that Aerolineas Argentinas takes over the weekly flight to Malvinas and from Argentina and that Argentine nationals should not need passports to travel to the Islands, as is the case now”.

The head of Resistencia Malvinas insisted on describing the cruise campaign as a ‘success’ recalling two incidents: when his group attack with stones and sticks against representatives’ offices from British maritime agencies in Argentina, which included the burning of a Union Jack, and when cruise passengers in Buenos Aires were retained by over six hours delaying the departure of the vessel to Montevideo.

Tony Lopez went further and said that following these two incidents and the summoning of Ambassador Alicia Castro in London by the Foreign Office to receive a formal protest, “we became aware we had the full support from the Argentine state”.

In effect, “when summoned to the Foreign Office Ambassador Alicia Castro told (Foreign Secretary William) Hague that the only possible way out to this situation was to begin negotiations over the Malvinas sovereignty”.

“The stones we throw and break windows of the representatives of the Malvinas usurpers in Buenos Aires have a big echo in London”, said Tony Lopez.

Finally regarding passports, he recalled that people travelling between Malvinas and Argentina, based on the understanding of 1971/72 only needed a ‘white card’, because it is not a foreign country, and this is contemplated in international law. This was the case until the 1982 war.

Likewise the validity of such understandings is not erased because of a war and remembered that when President Cristina Fernandez was a Senator she supported a bill which established that the only document valid to travel to Malvinas was the “white card”.

“Let’s hope she recalls that, and follows on her husband’s steps who disavowed the Malvinas fisheries and hydrocarbons understandings with the UK government; she must do the same with the 1999 agreement on communications and have Aerolineas Argentinas take over from Lan Chile”.
 

Global editors warn on ongoing campaign in Argentina against independent media

The Global Editors Network (GEN) called on the world’s media to focus attention on a press freedom crisis in Argentina where independent journalism is facing a major threat on 7 December 2012, the day announced by the government for the break-up of the Clarin Group, the country’s main independent media organization.

 Cristina Fernandez is determined to split the Clarin group next December 7

“7 December is a deadline day for press freedom. Media should speak with one voice against this intolerable threat to independent journalism,” said Alejandro Miro Quesada, the Network Board Member from Peru, after a meeting of the GEN board in Buenos Aires. “The attack on Clarin is symbolic of the political pressure which media are facing throughout the region.”

The GEN call comes at a critical point in the three-year campaign against Clarin Group’s press and audiovisual media by the administration of President Cristina Fernandez and only days after the government took to the airwaves to announce that on 7 December it will revoke its licenses, and take control of its assets under a controversial new media law, which is currently being judicially challenged for its violation of basic constitutional rights.

Although the law is supposed to strengthen diversity and pluralism by limiting monopoly ownership of media – and it is a legitimate goal – its critics say it has only one intention – to stifle dissent and, in particular, to dismantle the Clarin Group, which has been a consistent critical voice of the Kirchner government.

It was particularly evident when – on 13 September 2012 – the nation-wide demonstration against the government was deliberately uncovered by official media or media depending on official subsides.

GEN highlights that already more than 450 legal and administrative actions, – as well as blockades, intimidations and other attacks – were brought against the Clarin Group. The number of actions suggests that harassment was the government's strategy.

GEN is also highly concerned that by investing huge amounts in preferential state advertising with medium sized media companies the government has effectively bought itself control of media content.

Now the use of law is seen as a further act of intimidation to keep media in line, even if, according to different international reports, 80% of audiovisual Argentine media are directly or indirectly controlled by the government.

“This crisis for press freedom and democracy will come to a head on 7 December,” said Miro Quesada. Even though it is not yet certain that the government will carry out its threat, the Global Editors Network will be organising an international petition and is calling on media leaders from the region and around the world to voice their protests.

The long-running campaign against the Clarin Group undermines a viable business model that can secure the future of journalism and independent media in Argentina and across Latin America.

Our last word is that what happens today in Argentina can happen in all democracies when governments are willing – through a large range of actions – to limit freedom of expression.

GEN was established in Paris during March 2011, in response to the increasing risks quality journalism faces. GEN is a nonprofit, non-governmental association, committed to the principles of quality journalism, innovation and information sharing in the newsroom. The organization empowers editors-in-chief, senior news executives, and media professionals from all platforms – print, digital, mobile and broadcast – by optimizing GEN’s network base to create new ideas and journalistic tools, allowing quality journalism to thrive. Already, more than 900 editors-in-chief joined GEN.