Cristina Fernandez will veto constitutional reform even from her militant lawmakers

Argentine President Cristina Fernández is not turning back on her word and even if Kirchnerite lawmakers propose and agree on a constitutional reform, she would certainly veto it, said Senator Aníbal Fernández.

The comment from the president’s ‘trouble-shooter’ Senator follows recent statements from Cristina Fernandez pledging she will not push for such a project that would allow her to seek re-re-election in 2015 as many of her most militant followers would like to see.

“Suppose we all go crazy and we manage to clear (the bill to reform the constitution); the President will veto such a thing,” Senator Fernández stressed as he told reporters at a local radio station that “there is no turning back for the President’s word.”

“To make a real and profound judicial reform the National Constitution should be reformed. But I will not propose any constitutional reform. That is why I submitted six projects to Congress”, the head of state said at the La Matanza State University on Tuesday referring to the six-bill package to “democratize” Argentina's judiciary system.

Political analysts and members of the opposition fear that Cristina Fernandez could be planning a second consecutive re-election in 2015 and for which she would need to amend the constitution which only contemplates two four year periods.

For the plan to go ahead Cristina Fernandez would have to negotiate with the Argentine congress a special majority in both houses, hard to visualize currently or even after the coming October mid-term elections when half the Lower House and a third of Senators is to be renewed.

Argentina openly clashes with UN over the judicial reform; calls Rapporteur ‘ignorant’

In a press statement released by the Foreign Ministry, the Argentine government said the UN's message “not only strays from the standards of professional and independence ethics expected from the head of an organization such as the Rapporteur, but it also shows a lack of balance. It is a stray from the Rapporteur's mandate.”

“It's paradoxical that whoever has obtained the mandate to protect the independence of judges and lawyers lambastes the basic principles of the law and arriving to conclusions without even getting the answers to the questions she asked last Friday evening,” the Ministry said.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, urged the Argentine Government to review the bills on the Magistrates Council reform and ruling of the cautionary measures, approved by the Lower House last week.

Knaul classified “selection of Magistrates Council members via political parties” and “limits to the cautionary measures” as bills that “contradict with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).”

“The State has the responsibility to ensure the independence of the judiciary by respecting its laws and international standards,” stressed the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

“By providing the opportunity for political parties to propose and organize the election of the directors, the independence of the Magistrates Council is put at risk, which seriously compromises the principles of separation of powers and independence of the judiciary, which are fundamental elements of any democracy and any rule of law,” Ms. Knaul said.

“The provision on partisan election of members of the Magistrates Council is contrary to Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Basic Principles on the Independence of the judiciary,” Ms. Knaul said.

The draft law also modifies the requirements to be a candidate to become a member of the Council, and reduces the majorities required for the adoption of relevant decisions, including for the removal of judges, with no possibility of appeal.

“I call on Argentina to establish clear procedures and objective criteria for the dismissal and punishment of judges, and to ensure an effective process through which judges can challenge those decisions in order to safeguard judicial independence,” said the Special Rapporteur.

Argentina expressed on Tuesday its “discomfort” over the “unheard of” attitude displayed by the UN Special Rapporteur, Gabriela Knaul, who urged the Cristina Fernández administration to reconsider the Council of Magistrates reform and injunction regulation bills.

 

The Argentine government insisted in its reply that the UN Rapporteur with its release, before receiving Argentina’s reply on her requests “turned the UN into prosecutor, magistrate and executioner of a member country”.

The Foreign ministry release says that the Argentine representation before the international organization in Geneva held a meeting with Jane Connors, head of the Special Procedures Division from the High Commissioner Office for Human Rights “to express its displeasure with the misconduct of the Rapporteur lease” and then states that “the same concern with the improper conduct of the Rapporteur is shared by the High Commissioner’s Office”.

Finally Argentina states that the Rapporteur expresses “ignorance or political partisanship on recommending a participative and inclusive dialogue with the society and juridical community”, because there was feedback from civil society which “proposed and obtained several changes incorporated to the bills in discussion”.

But the judiciary reform which is already partly promulgated in the midst of great controversy in the Argentine Congress, and despite the attack on the US Rapporteur, has been questioned by most of the opposition political arch, magistrates and lawyers groupings plus national and international organizations.

On Tuesday a decree promulgated the law that controls injunctions against the state following last week’s session at the Lower House when the bill was passed amid strong tensions between ruling party and opposition lawmakers.

The 456/2013 decree was published at the official gazette promulgating the controversial law, part of the six-bill package submitted to Congress by President Cristina Fernández with the purpose of “democratization” Argentina’s judiciary system.

US Congress to discuss devastating report on Cristina Fernandez administration

 “Under the corrupt populist government of President Cristina Fernandez Argentina is back on the road to ruin” is the kick off for an extremely critical report to be discussed by the US Congress and which was drafted by Douglas Farah, senior research fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Centre under the heading of “Back to the future”.

The 64 pages Farah report dates from last February and enumerates some of the most controversial issues of Cristina Fernandez administration: relations with the Teheran regime; change of position regarding the AMIA attack despite the findings from Prosecutor Alberto Nisman which are reproduced in the report; expansion of organized crime, particularly referred to drugs traffic; the shady relations with business people friends of the Kirchner family and power or crony capitalism with special reference to the energy sector, plus attacks on freedom of expression and freedom of the press such as stigmatizing the media and journalists, the use of official publicity and intervening in the newsprint market.

According to the Farah report Cristina Fernandez domestically faces a raft of crises. Inflation has ballooned to an estimated annualized 28%, the highest in Latinamerica. Unemployment is climbing, the flight of capital is accelerating, official corruption is very much extended, the dollar clamp has eroded business opportunities and dozens of international corporations have been forced to abandon Argentina.

The report however is previous to the advance of the Argentine Executive on the Justice branch and system, and the latest major corruption case which has a businessman close to the family and alleged ‘front man’ for former president Nestor Kirchner, exposed as probably the main public works contractor in Patagonia (with a monopoly of different companies) and involved in money laundering to Belize, Caribbean, Panama and Switzerland.

“The government of Cristina Fernandez is facing multiple political and economic crises and has further strengthened her alliances with the US and the region’s democracy major antagonists: Venezuela and Iran”.

Likewise the report states that the growing authoritarianism of Cristina Fernandez and her growing disdain for the rule of law both nationally and internationally puts Argentina on the path to international default and isolation from its most democratic traditional partners, including the US, Brazil, Chile and Colombia.

Open letter to Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

A group of Falkland Islanders have written a letter to Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner stating their own feelings on the territory dispute. Read the letter below.

Dear Ms Kirchner

For many years YOU have been publicly expressing far too readily what YOU think 

For many years YOU have been publicly expressing far too readily what YOU think should happen to OUR home, the Falkland Islands.

As Falkland Islanders we thought that we would take this moment to share our thoughts with you and correct some rather glaring factual mistakes on your part.

You haven't asked us to date, or even acknowledged us, but nonetheless we feel it is important that OUR voices are heard.

We have our own Government, Legislative Assembly, Executive Council, judiciary - we have OUR own voice. Our voice is a Falklands voice and not a Las Malvinas voice as you rather rudely insist in referring to us as.

We live here because we want to. Our home is a British Overseas Territory, not a Colony as you seemingly wish to convince people.

Through our right to self-determination as enshrined by the United Nations we can choose to associate ourselves with whomever we so choose.

We choose to maintain our relationship with the United Kingdom in this way.

Since the British reassertion of rule in 1833, through the wishes of the islands inhabitants (who have all immigrated and settled voluntarily for the past 180 years) we are a proud Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom sharing many values, traditions and customs including free choice - something you appear to have no regard for.

We asked our residents what they think. Krysteen Ormond, a Stanley local, echoes the thoughts of many of us that it is: "…our right as Falkland Islanders to self-determination. Our voice has to be the most important one in any conversation about the islands, as it is our home and our future being debated."

Another resident, Teslyn Barkman, explains: "[Your] government's hounding attempts to colonise our land armed only with ridiculous claims and a UN resolution from a charter that would only support our right to self-determination are exhausting to hear but we live in hope that one day they'll realise how absurd and undemocratic they sound."

We have never been prouder of our association with the United Kingdom and our unique relationship. Any decision to change that would be OUR and not YOUR choice.

In 1982 we didn't have a voice. In 2013 we do. We are OUR own people and we have a right to OUR own democracy and to where OUR sovereignty lies.

We look forward to our referendum in March of this year and failure on your part to accept the outcome will prove to the world that there is only one colonial power in the region.

Regards,
Falklands United

Cristina Fernandez: “no one is going to pressure me especially with bullying or thugs”

After the first national strike against her administration, Argentine President Cristina Fernández blasted the CGT and CTA-led protest claiming they appealed to “bullying” tactics and called on workers to defend the “economic development and inclusion model”.

 For the Argentine president “this was not a strike, it was an intimidation and a threat”  

“This wasn’t a strike no a picket but an intimidation and a threat” she assured and warned that no one is going to pressure her.

“No one is going to pressure me, especially with threats, bullying or thugs. These are not the leaders that Perón and Evita wanted,” she said in a rally honouring Sovereignty Day in Argentina.

Earlier in the day amidst the massive strike, President Cristina Fernández wondered on her Facebook account (Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner): “Does anyone want to go back to that Argentina with an economic model which was bread for just a few and hunger for everybody or almost everybody?”

The president continued on her message that though it was not aimed to anyone in particular; it appeared as a clear message to the umbrella unions holding the strike: “Because we all know that not all Argentines went through hunger in those days. Normally the first ones that feel the hunger are the working class after losing their jobs.”

“This is why I like to call all my fellow-workers to show some conscious and responsibility in order to defend not this government but this political project that has created more than 5.5 million job posts with the construction industry having a fundamental role.”

Meanwhile, in a statement to a local TV station, the Minister of Interior and Transportation, Florencio Randazzo, said that the strike organized by the union sector is an extortionist measure that is misplaced.

“However, it is not a strike in favour of the workers, as they want to pretend. It runs opposite to the interest of workers, because it affected thousands of people, who wanted to get to work,” Randazzo said, in direct reference to the over 200 roadblocks and pickets which virtually isolated the city of Buenos Aires.

Argentina admits Libertad is the 29th asset impound case by ‘vulture’ funds

Argentina finally admitted that the retaining of the training frigate ARA Libertad in Ghana is not an isolated case since the so called ‘vulture’ funds have managed to impound a total of 28 assets including the presidential aircraft Tango 01, bank accounts, property and even a satellite.

Minister Timerman pledging Argentina will recover the frigate, “as we recovered the other 28 assets” 

These 28 assets belonging to the Argentine State have been impounded by the vulture funds which refused to join the swap of defaulted sovereign bonds during the presidencies of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, admitted Foreign minister Hector Timerman speaking at Government House, Casa Rosada,

“Until the case of the frigate ARA Libertad, the vulture funds managed to impound 28 assets from the Argentine state”, said Timerman, but in all those cases Argentina managed to recover the disputed assets.

Timerman also announced that the government has decided to litigate in international courts the release of the frigate retained in the port of Tema. Three options are under consideration according to diplomatic sources: the Law of the Sea international tribunal; the International Court of Justice in The Hague or arbitration.

After reading the list of impounded assets (and recovered), Timerman pledged that “we are going to recover ARA Libertad as we recovered all of the other government assets”.

The impounded assets also included the SACD/Aquarius satellite jointly developed by Argentina with NASA and orbiting since last year and patents from scientific research centres involving atomic energy plus agriculture and industrial technology. However all cases, tangible or non tangible, referred to assets in the US or in Europe.

Timerman’s announcement comes after the failed political attempt in Ghana when top officials from the Foreign and Defence ministries were sent to Accra and later with his own non performing lobbying at the United Nations.

Ghana port authorities want ARA Libertad moved to anchorage; Argentina refuses

Ghanaian officials asked a judge Thursday to order the Argentine navy ship detained in the West African nation over a debt dispute to be moved because it was blocking valuable space at the port of Tema.

Ghana's port authority appeared in Accra's commercial court following an October 19 filing asking for the ARA Libertad to be moved to an anchorage, saying the three-masted tall ship was harming commercial activity.

 Tema is Ghana's largest port and sees major traffic from commercial vessels.

“There is congestion at the port and commercial activities are virtually coming to a standstill,” a lawyer for the authority, Asare Darko was quoted by the local media.

“The situation is getting more and more chaotic. You can't put a military vessel in the midst of commercial vessels. As at yesterday, we could count about 20 vessels waiting to berth.”

A lawyer representing Argentina's government, Kizito Beyuo, told the court Buenos Aires would oppose the request and asked for an adjournment until November 1, which was granted.

NML Capital Limited, whose court claims led to the detention of the ship, will not oppose the request to move the frigate to anchorage, according to its lawyer Ace Ankomah.

More than 280 sailors -- most of them Argentines -- who had been stuck in Ghana for more than three weeks since the court detained their ship flew out aboard a chartered flight on Wednesday.

The group also included naval cadets from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Argentina was forced to organise the evacuation after an Accra court upheld an order secured by NML, a Cayman Islands investment firm, which said it is owed 370 million by Argentina.

NML, a subsidiary of New York-based Elliott Capital Management, bought Argentine bonds at a discount when the country's economy was in freefall in 2000. Buenos Aires later defaulted.

Argentina has rescheduled and refinanced much of its debt, but bonds held by speculative funds are among its unsettled business.

Argentine Farce - Argentine seamen are back in Buenos Aires; small group remains in Ghana

After three weeks retained in Ghana, members of the crew and cadets from the Argentine Navy training vessel ARA Libertad arrived past midnight Wednesday to Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires where relatives and media were waiting.

Relatives and media received the stranded seamen.

The specially chartered Air France Boeing 777 left Ghana mid afternoon with 279 seamen, of which “a fraction are crew members of the training vessel plus all cadets from the Navy and Army schools and all national and international guests”, said a brief release from the Argentine Navy.

Stranded for three weeks because the vessel was impounded by NML Capital, which demands payment of Argentine sovereign bonds, the seamen left the port of Tema for the airport of Kokota in nine buses heavily escorted while 44 crewmembers and the captain remain for the maintenance of the flagship of the Argentine navy.

The Navy said that following medical check-up the cadets can join their families and must return by Monday November 5 to complete their training for the graduation ceremony scheduled 8 December.

The group flown back also includes naval cadets from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Two of the Chileans (one of them was injured) out of a crew of 15, arrived in Santiago Wednesday midday. They were received by Defence minister Andres Allamand.

“We were always convinced we would sail; we kept waiting for the day to leave the port”, said the Chilean cadets who added that “people in Ghana are very friendly and were kind with us”.

Meantime the Argentine government continues with its diplomatic lobbying and legal battle with NML-Capital, a battle which so far it has been losing.

Argentine Farce Continues - NML-Capital targeting second Argentine navy vessel docked in South Africa

A second Argentine navy vessel has been targeted by NML-Capital which apparently has contracted a renowned South African law office to impound the corvette ARA Espora.

ARA Espora was on joint naval exercises when it broke down and had to be taken in for repairs.

The vessel had to abandon the joint naval exercise Atlassur IX with South Africa, Brazil and Uruguay because of mechanical problems and was pulled to Simonstown where she is undergoing repairs that could demand two months.

According to Buenos Aires media, the Argentine embassy in Pretoria is aware of the situation and ready for an immediate legal reply if there is litigation with one of the funds under control of Paul Singer that successfully impounded the Argentine navy’s flagship ARA Libertad in Ghana where she remains retained.

However contrary to what happened in Accra where Argentina has minimum contacts, with South Africa there are strong political and trade links, and President Jacob Zuma is considered a good friend of Argentina, according to Buenos Aires media.

Furthermore Elliot Capital three years ago was attempting something similar buying South African companies bonds at rock bottom prices to later try and recuperate the face value plus interests. Apparently the ‘vulture fund’ has yet to win a case in South Africa although several are pending.

Argentine economist and banker Federico Sturzenegger in a book under the heading “Default and lessons from a decade of crisis”, (obviously referred to Argentina), says that ‘vulture funds’ rarely have favourable sentences and equally rarely manage to impound assets of countries or corporations which they are demanding.

In the book Stursenegger mentions 35 known cases of this kind of litigations in the last twenty years, of which in only six cases did the funds recover 100% of bonds face-value; 15 were lost; in six less than a third for which they sued, and from the rest there is no available information.

However Elliot Capital was considered one of the most successful hedge funds by Wall Street last year, with a profit of 14.6%, very uncommon in these lean days. Like wise The New York Times described him as “one of the most daring hedge fund managers”, but it is difficult Mr Singer accepts new clients, ‘unless you are the wife of the Republican presidential candidate”.

Paul Singer and his funds have similar cases pending with Ivory Coast, Nicaragua and Turkmenistan, all countries involved in armed internal conflicts.

Falklands’ lawmaker anticipates cracks in Argentina’s blockade of the Islands

Lawmaker Jan Check is “cautiously optimistic” about the future of the Falkland Islands despite Argentina’s blockade and attempts to wreck the Islands economy, but if development continues to thrive, some neighbours will think twice before continuing to support the aggressive policy of President Cristina Fernandez towards the disputed South Atlantic Islands.

 MLA Jan Cheek gave an update of the Falklands current situation at the IISS office in London

MLA Cheek made the statements on Friday, in London during a conference at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, IISS, in which she gave an update on the progress of oil exploration, sanctions imposed by Argentina and relations with South American countries. She also talked about the economy of the Falklands, which has improved markedly since the 1980s, although trade with regional partners has been affected by recent Argentine diplomatic pressures.

“Despite all the hurdles and the additional costs of overcoming Argentina’s efforts to harm our economy, we continue to import all our basic needs, our vessels continue to fish and the oil exploration round has been very successful”, said MLA Cheek addressing a panel of experts and journalists.

Besides “we have received encouraging signals from several South American countries that are not pleased with the Argentine sponsored blockade on the Islands and to not want to continue”, although MLA Cheek declined to reveal the countries so that “they won’t be exposed to further pressures”.

So, “if our strong (oil and fisheries) development continues, I suspect that one or two of our neighbours will want to share with us those benefits by supplying us with equipments, material, services”, indicated MLA Cheek who is also a member of the Falklands’ rotating Executive council.

Among the many hurdles imposed by Argentina on the Islands 3.000 population are limitations on air links with the continent; threatens to end the only commercial flight with Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile; barring Falklands’ flagged vessels from docking in Mercosur ports and most recently a raft of legal actions against oil companies involved in exploration activities with Falklands’ licences in the Islands’ waters.

When asked about claims of “militarization” of the area, MLA Cheek said that sending a Royal Navy destroyer on South Atlantic patrol is “a routine deployment” that has been going on since the end of the 1982 war, when Argentina invaded the Islands, and can only be interpreted as ‘dissuasive’.

Similarly with the range testing of Rapier missile missiles, which is also routine training.

“They are routine deployments and the only reason for a (British) military presence in the South Atlantic is defence; a purely defensive and dissuasive role. Not at all aggressive”, underlined MLA Cheek.

However the Falklands’ lawmaker admitted that as far as she is aware, “there is no imminent military threat from Argentina”

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the South Atlantic conflict and Argentina has been particularly insistent about its sovereignty demands over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands.

The meeting was chaired by Christian Le Mière, Research Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security

The International Institute for Strategic Studies is a world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict. The IISS was founded in the UK in 1958 with a focus on nuclear deterrence and arms control. Today, it is also renowned for its annual Military Balance assessment of countries' armed forces and for its high-powered security summits, including the Shangri-La Dialogue.

IISS is a registered charity headquartered in London and also has offices in Washington, Singapore and Manama, Bahrain. It is a non-partisan organization, independent of government and other bodies. Its mission is to promote the adoption of sound policies to further global peace and security and maintain civilized international relations.