– America’s Role in Argentina’s Dirty War
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDMARCH 17, 2016
A few months after a military junta overthrew President Isabel Perón of Argentina in 1976, the country’s new foreign minister, Adm. Cesar Guzzetti, told Henry Kissinger, America’s secretary of state, that the military was aggressively cracking down on “the terrorists.”
Mr. Kissinger responded, “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly,” an apparent warning that a new American Congress might cut off aid if it thought the Argentine government was engaging in systemic human rights abuses.
The American ambassador in Buenos Aires soon reported to Washington that the Argentine government had interpreted Mr. Kissinger’s words as a “green light” to continue its brutal tactics against leftist guerrillas, political dissidents and suspected socialists.
Just how much the American government knew about Argentina’s repressive “Dirty War,” which lasted from 1976 to 1983 — and the extent to which it condoned the abuses — has remained shrouded in secrecy.
When President Obama visits Argentina next week during the 40th anniversary of the coup, he should make a pledge that Washington will more fully reveal its role in a dark chapter of Argentine history. Military officials abducted thousands of civilians during this period. Hundreds of babies, stolen from Argentines who were arbitrarily detained, were raised by military families.
Human rights groups in Argentina have long sought access to classified American intelligence and diplomatic records, hoping that they will shed new light on the abuses and the fate of missing Argentines. The Argentine government itself has formally asked for declassification. “There is absolutely no doubt that the release of these records on repression in Argentina would reveal substantive information on the years of repression and advance the cause of truth and justice in that country,” said Peter Kornbluh, an analyst at the National Security Archive who specializes in Latin America.
In 2002, Washington partly declassified roughly 4,700 State Department records from the Dirty War period. Those documents have aided judicial proceedings and added to a historical record. But much of that record remains obscured.
Declassifying a more extensive set of documents would also bring into sharper focus a shameful period of American foreign policy, during which Washington condoned and in some instances supported the brutal tactics of right-wing governments in the region. It is time for the American government to do what it still can to help bring the guilty to justice and give the victims’ families some of the answers they seek.
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THURSDAY
1. AP INTERVIEW: ARGENTINE LEADER SAYS OUTRAGED BY CORRUPTION (The Washington Post)
2. ARGENTINE CONGRESS APPROVES DEAL WITH HOLDOUT CREDITORS (The Washington Post)
3. AMERICA’S ROLE IN ARGENTINA’S DIRTY WAR (The New York Times)
4. NOT SO FAST: ARGENTINA STILL HAS SOME BOND HOLDOUTS (The Wall Street Journal Online)
5. ARGENTINA’S LOWER HOUSE APPROVES DEBT DEAL WITH CREDITORS (The Wall Street Journal Online)
6. CHINA CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ARGENTINE SINKING OF FISHING VESSEL (The Wall Street Journal Online)
7. ARGENTINA’S LOWER HOUSE PASSES DEBT BILL TO SETTLE WITH HOLDOUTS (Bloomberg News)
8. ARGENTINA’S PUENTE LOOKS TO 2017 IPO IN STEPS FOR GLOBAL REACH (Bloomberg News)
9. EU AND MERCOSUR TO EXCHANGE TRADE OFFERS IN APRIL, ARGENTINA SAYS (Reuters News)
10. ARGENTINA’S LOWER HOUSE CLEARS DEBT SETTLEMENT PACKAGE (Reuters News)
11. ARGENTINA’S YPF APPEALS COURT ORDER TO SHOW CHEVRON PACT DETAILS (Reuters News)
12. ARGENTINA’S YPF TO APPEAL ORDER TO DISCLOSE CHEVRON CONTRACT (Platts Commodity News)
13. CHINA DEMANDS INVESTIGATION AFTER ARGENTINA SINKS FISHING BOAT (UPI)
14. ARGENTINA SINKS CHINESE FISHING BOAT (Foreign Policy)
1. AP INTERVIEW: ARGENTINE LEADER SAYS OUTRAGED BY CORRUPTION (The Washington Post)
By Peter Prengaman and Paul Haven
March 16, 2016
Argentina’s president said Wednesday he is outraged by corruption that seeped into all facets of society during his predecessor’s administration and believes next week’s visit by Barack Obama will be a new chapter that could lead to billions of dollars in investment.
President Mauricio Macri assumed power in December after campaigning on promises to crack down on graft, open up Latin America’s third largest economy and reverse many of the populist policies of his predecessor, Cristina Fernandez. In a wideranging interview with The Associated Press, the former Buenos Aires mayor and son of one of the country’s richest businessmen said he was particularly perturbed by rampant corruption at all levels.
“I feel the same as the majority of Argentines: rage, disenchantment and helplessness,” Macri said, reflecting on a video this week that allegedly showed the son of a businessman with close ties to the former president counting what appear to be tightly wrapped stacks of dollars, euros and Argentine pesos at an illegal exchange house. “There will not be a repeat of this kind of embarrassing corruption, these abuses of power.”
Macri cast the twoday visit by the U.S. president as an opportunity to show the world that Argentina is cleaning up its act and hopes to open its doors to billions in investment. The last state visit by an American president was by Bill Clinton in 1997. Such a trip would have been unthinkable under Fernandez, who during her eight years in office aligned herself with socialist leaders in Cuba and Venezuela while often being outwardly antagonistic toward the United States.
Unlike several other Latin American leaders, Macri sidestepped questions about the U.S. election and the controversial candidacy of leading Republican candidate Donald Trump. Macri said he knew both Trump and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton personally and would be able to work with either should they reach the White House. Hours before the interview, the lower chamber of Argentina’s Congress approved a negotiated deal on repaying bonds held by a group of creditors in the United States, a step toward ending a longstanding fight that made Argentina a financial pariah and kept it on the margins of international credit markets.
The legal battle had its origins in Argentina’s financial collapse in 20012002, when it defaulted on $100 billion in debt. Creditors led by billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer refused to accept bond swaps with lower values. Instead, they took Argentina to court in New York and won. While Fernandez branded the group “vultures” and refused to negotiate, Macri made reaching an agreement one of his top priorities. “It’s the first step. It’s as important as opening the door,” Macri said.
“We need to stop arguing about things that don’t help Argentina grow.” In the weeks since assuming power, Macri’s administration has rewritten much of the country’s social contract. It lifted export taxes on the agricultural sector, effectively freeing up one of the world’s breadbaskets, and it lowered import taxes, devalued the Argentine peso, cut energy and other subsidies, and fired thousands of public workers.
Macri agreed his administration has yet to make good on his promise to curb inflation, which approached 40 percent last year. Prices that were already skyrocketing jumped even more when the peso was devalued in December.
The president said his economic changes need more time to bear fruit. “A year from now, we hope to be growing, and we hope to be receiving investments from all over the world,” he said. As he often did during the campaign, Macri blamed Fernandez for overseeing “700 percent” inflation over the last several years. When asked whether he wanted to see Fernandez prosecuted for several alleged corruption scandals during her administration, Macri said he would not get in the way of any investigation, while noting that she has not been charged with any crime.
Macri also said he hoped investigators would get to the bottom of the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found shot dead in his apartment early in 2015. Days before, Nisman had accused Fernandez of helping Iranian officials hide the Middle Eastern nation’s role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. Fernandez has denied the allegations and the case against her was thrown out by a federal judge.
Nisman’s death, which has yet to be solved, shook Argentina. For many, it was one more sign of a justice system that doesn’t work, of impunity without limits. “Everything that happened made us look weak in the world,” Macri said. “But now we are determined to bring what happened to light.
2. ARGENTINE CONGRESS APPROVES DEAL WITH HOLDOUT CREDITORS (The Washington Post)
March 16, 2016
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The lower house of Argentina’s Congress has approved the government’s deal with holdout-creditors — a measure meant to give the country access to global credit markets.
The measure approved Wednesday now goes to the Senate for final approval.
The government lacks a majority in both houses of Congress, but won over a part of the Peronist opposition.
Under the deal, Argentina would pay $4.7 billion to resolve all related claims stemming from bonds issued in the U.S. before Argentina’s 2001-2002 financial collapse, when it it defaulted on $100 billion in bonds.
Most creditors renegotiated in bond swaps in 2005 and 2010. But a group of creditors refused to take lower-value bonds. U.S. courts rejected Argentina’s attempt to force those creditors to accept cut-rate terms.
3. AMERICA’S ROLE IN ARGENTINA’S DIRTY WAR (The New York Times)
By The Editorial Board
March 17, 2016
A few months after a military junta overthrew President Isabel Perón of Argentina in 1976, the country’s new foreign minister, Adm. Cesar Guzzetti, told Henry Kissinger, America’s secretary of state, that the military was aggressively cracking down on “the terrorists.”
Mr. Kissinger responded, “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly,” an apparent warning that a new American Congress might cut off aid if it thought the Argentine government was engaging in systemic human rights abuses.
The American ambassador in Buenos Aires soon reported to Washington that the Argentine government had interpreted Mr. Kissinger’s words as a “green light” to continue its brutal tactics against leftist guerrillas, political dissidents and suspected socialists.
Just how much the American government knew about Argentina’s repressive “Dirty War,” which lasted from 1976 to 1983 — and the extent to which it condoned the abuses — has remained shrouded in secrecy.
When President Obama visits Argentina next week during the 40th anniversary of the coup, he should make a pledge that Washington will more fully reveal its role in a dark chapter of Argentine history. Military officials abducted thousands of civilians during this period. Hundreds of babies, stolen from Argentines who were arbitrarily detained, were raised by military families.
Human rights groups in Argentina have long sought access to classified American intelligence and diplomatic records, hoping that they will shed new light on the abuses and the fate of missing Argentines. The Argentine government itself has formally asked for declassification. “There is absolutely no doubt that the release of these records on repression in Argentina would reveal substantive information on the years of repression and advance the cause of truth and justice in that country,” said Peter Kornbluh, an analyst at the National Security Archive who specializes in Latin America.
In 2002, Washington partly declassified roughly 4,700 State Department records from the Dirty War period. Those documents have aided judicial proceedings and added to a historical record. But much of that record remains obscured.
Declassifying a more extensive set of documents would also bring into sharper focus a shameful period of American foreign policy, during which Washington condoned and in some instances supported the brutal tactics of right-wing governments in the region. It is time for the American government to do what it still can to help bring the guilty to justice and give the victims’ families some of the answers they seek.
4. NOT SO FAST: ARGENTINA STILL HAS SOME BOND HOLDOUTS (The Wall Street Journal Online)
By Julie Wernau
16 March 2016
Lucrative settlement with hedge funds leaves out many smaller investors who are likely to get much less
Argentina’s lucrative settlement with hedge funds holding its defaulted bonds was hailed as a landmark. But it leaves out several hundred smaller investors—many holding the same bonds—who are likely to get much less.
Individual savers, pensioners and small money managers in Argentina and around the globe have claims that add up to about $2 billion. They didn’t take the 30 cents on the dollar Argentina offered after it defaulted on $80 billion in debt in 2001, and they aren’t eligible to get the same relatively generous terms struck in the $4.65 billion deal with the hedge-fund holdouts.
Instead, they are subject to the public offer Argentina made to all bondholders last month. Payouts under that proposal would vary widely based on which bonds are involved, whether the holder had a court judgment, and how the bonds’ interest accumulated. Some investors could receive up to 70% of their claims, while others could walk away with as little as 24 cents on the dollar, according to bond-research firm Exotix Partners.
The hardball offer threatens to leave some investors with little to show for their decade-and-a-half wait and could cut into the goodwill Argentina won in international markets when it moved to resolve the long-simmering dispute with the hedge funds.
“As long as there are lawsuits, there isn’t normalcy,” said Diego Ferro, co-chief investment officer at Greylock Capital Management, which has about $1 billion under management and plans to pass on any new bonds issued by the country as it contemplates a return to the capital markets. “I think there are things that are much more interesting in emerging markets than buying Argentina.”
The big bondholders, led by Paul Singer’s Elliott Capital Management, reached a deal last month to receive about 75% of what they said they were owed. Elliott is taking home 10 to 15 times what it paid for some Argentine debt, bond analysts say.
Argentina’s most recent proposal to smaller bondholders offers one of two payouts: 70% of a claim, including interest, or 150% of the principal value of the bonds. It is the best offer this last set of holdouts has received, but is less than what the hedge funds negotiated.
Some smaller bondholderscalled the offer confusing and asked for a 30-day extension, but were rebuffed by a U.S. court. Others continue to press their cases.
“They can’t just leave us out in the cold,” said Mohammad Ladjevardian, an investor in Houston who said the offer covers just 50% of his claims and is litigating in a U.S. court to get more.
Mr. Ladjevardian bought Argentine government bonds in 1997. The country’s low debt to gross domestic product ratio and abundant natural resources made themseem like a safe bet, he said. But the economy went into recession and Argentina was forced to pay increasingly higher yields on its debt to attract foreign capital, eating up reserves and leading to default.
His family holds an unpaid 2007 court judgment against Argentina, but he worries he has run out of options for the bonds, which account for about 70% of his family’s net worth. Mr. Ladjevardian said Argentina is offering to pay 150% of the principal value of his bonds. That works out to about half of what he claims he is owedgiven the large amount of interest that has accrued over the years.
The remaining holdouts are running out of time to fight. The hedge funds had an important bargaining chip in their negotiations: An injunction preventing Argentina from raising money in the international capital markets until the dispute was resolved. Their settlement has led a New York federal judge to say he is prepared to lift the injunction, and Argentina has indicated plans to sell about $12 billion in bonds when the agreement becomes final as early as next month. Once Argentina re-establishes its access to the capital markets, the remaining bondholders will have little bargaining leverage.
On Wednesday, Argentina moved closer to returning to the bond market when its lower house of Congress voted to approve President Mauricio Macri’s deal with the hedge funds. The Senate vote is expected next week.The judge has said that approval is necessary before he lifts the injunction.
“Argentina could just ignore the rest of the folks who have not been paid,” said Jennifer Scullion, a partner at Proskauer Rose LLP, who represents bondholders in eight class-action cases in New York.
How Argentina resolves the issue could pose a test for the new government led by Mr. Macri. His administration has been lauded at home and in the U.S. for ending a bitter 15-year stalemate with overseas bondholders by reaching a deal in only three months. But some investors say they are judging the new government not only by how it negotiated with people like Mr. Singer, but how it treats less powerful bondholders, too.
“What they should have done is had a deal where everyone could be involved, get the same terms,” Jim Craige, a portfolio manager at Stone Harbor Investment Partners, said of the Argentine government. The firm has $35 billion under management in emerging markets, including Argentine bonds. He said he hasn’t decided if he will buy the new debt. A concern, he said, is “they don’t respect bondholder rights.”
A spokesman for Mr. Macri was not available for comment.
Cesar Castro, a 60-year-old Argentine investor, said he bought his country’s sovereign debt in the late 1990s after seeing patriotic advertisements in Argentine newspapers encouraging citizens to purchase local bonds. Mr. Castro said in those days the local currency was pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar, inflation was low and Argentines like him trusted the government to pay. Now he feels differently.
“There has to be some kind of punishment to the government,” he said.
5. ARGENTINA’S LOWER HOUSE APPROVES DEBT DEAL WITH CREDITORS (The Wall Street Journal Online)
By Taos Turner
16 March 2016
Senate is expected to vote on the plan later this month
BUENOS AIRES—Argentina’s lower house of Congress on Wednesday approved a deal to settle a long-running legal dispute with creditors who hold defaulted Argentine bonds.
After a marathon overnight debate session, the lower house voted 165 to 86 to approve the deal. The plan now moves on to Argentina’s Senate, which is expected to vote on it later this month.
Last month, President Mauricio Macri agreed to pay $4.65 billion to Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. and three other hedge funds to settle their claims against Argentina.
Earlier Wednesday, Sen. Federico Pinedo, who leads Mr. Macri’s Pro party in the upper house, said he is confident he will have the votes needed to approve the deal. Mr. Pinedo said Argentina’s provinces have run out of money and will support the agreement because it will help them obtain the funds needed to invest in public-works projects.
“Argentine provinces need financing. We need to invest $100 billion in infrastructure projects like roads and ports,” he told Radio Continental in an interview. “We think the interest of the provinces will outweigh partisan interests.”
Still, Mr. Macri may need to horse trade in the Senate, where the opposition Victory Front Party has a majority. The party, which is loyal to former President Cristina Kirchner, has long argued against supporting Mr. Macri’s plan to settle with the hedge funds.
The Victory Front party holds 43 out of the Senate’s 72 seats, meaning the government will need to persuade some senators to break with the party if the legislation is to pass.
Argentina owes the money to the hedge funds because they own bonds that Argentina defaulted on in 2001, and they obtained favorable rulings from U.S. courts that require Argentina to settle up on its debt. Mrs. Kirchner’s refusal to settle with the hedge funds prolonged a legal conflict that is keeping Argentina locked out of foreign credit markets.
Mr. Macri has said that approving the agreement is critical to his to plans to jump-start an economy that has shown little or no growth in four years. A deal would give Argentina access to credit markets, allowing the federal government—as well as companies and provinces here—to obtain billions of dollars in fresh financing.
Without that financing, Mr. Macri and his finance minister, Alfonso Prat-Gay, have said the government would have to drastically cut spending, further damaging an economy already suffering from annual inflation totaling 30% or higher.
6. CHINA CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ARGENTINE SINKING OF FISHING VESSEL (The Wall Street Journal Online)
By Chun Han Wong and Taos Turner
16 March 2016
Argentine coast guard fired on and sunk a Chinese boat on Monday; no casualties reported
BEIJING—China on Wednesday expressed “serious concerns” over Argentina’s recent sinking of a Chinese trawler for alleged illegal fishing off the Argentine coast.
In a statement, China’s foreign ministry confirmed that the Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010 was operating in Argentine fishing waters when it was fired upon and sunk by Argentina’s coast guard on Monday, after an hours long pursuit.
Argentina’s foreign ministry declined to comment on the incident.
On Monday, Argentina’s coast guard rescued four members of the boat’s crew while another 28 were rescued by nearby Chinese fishing boats, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said in the statement. No casualties were reported.
The incident is the second involving a Chinese fishing boat in two weeks, an Argentine coast guard official said Wednesday. Twelve days ago, the coast guard tried to detain another Chinese boat for operating in Argentine waters. The coast guard fired warning shots at the boat, but the vessel eluded capture.
Chinese fishing boats routinely interact with coast guard ships but are generally more cooperative, the official said.
The last time a similar incident required Argentina to rescue Chinese fishermen was 15 years ago, the official added.
Chinese diplomats have called for an investigation into Monday’s incident and asked Argentine officials to “take effective measures to avoid any repetition of such an incident,” Mr. Lu said.
Argentina’s coast guard, formally known as Naval Prefecture, said it intercepted the Chinese boat off the coast of Puerto Madryn, a city located about 750 miles south of Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital. The trawler was detected within Argentina’s exclusive economic zone, where the country has sole rights to exploit its natural resources, the coast guard said in a statement.
The trawler didn’t respond to repeated warning signals or radio calls made in both English and Spanish. Instead, it turned its lights off and tried to flee back into international waters. The coast guard fired warning shots at the boat, which also failed to stop it. The trawler then tried to ram directly into an Argentine coast-guard vessel, “putting its crew’s life at risk,” according to the coast guard statement.
Argentine officials then fired at the Chinese boat, causing it to sink, the coast guard said.
The coast guard didn’t say on Wednesday what would happen to the four Chinese crew members, including the boat’s captain, who were detained on Monday.
7. ARGENTINA’S LOWER HOUSE PASSES DEBT BILL TO SETTLE WITH HOLDOUTS (Bloomberg News)
By Charlie Devereux
March 16, 2016
* Lower house voted 165 for with 86 against in favor of bill
* Argentina needs to resolve dispute to return to credit markets
Lawmakers in Argentina’s lower house of Congress voted Wednesday to approve a bill that seeks to end a 15-year legal battle with disgruntled creditors from the 2001 default which would pave the way for the nation to return to international capital markets.
Lawmakers voted 165 for and 86 against to support a package of measures that calls for the repealing of two laws that prevent the government from paying some creditors, the approval of the accord which calls for settling at a discount of about 25 percent and permission to issue about $12 billion of debt to pay holdouts. The bill now goes to the senate for final approval.
President Mauricio Macri is seeking to put an end to a dispute that has isolated Argentina financially as he seeks to close the largest fiscal deficit in nearly 20 years and tame inflation of 30 percent. The government, which doesn’t have a majority in either house, was obliged to grant some concessions to the opposition in order to secure enough votes. Macri is trying to obtain congressional approval for the plan and the issuance of billions of dollars in bonds before an April 14 deadline established with creditors.
While the opposition alliance has the majority in the Senate, it is riven by divisions and most of their legislators will be open to bargaining in exchange for funds that benefit their provinces. Most of the provinces also have a pressing need to access international credit at lower borrowing costs.
8. ARGENTINA’S PUENTE LOOKS TO 2017 IPO IN STEPS FOR GLOBAL REACH (Bloomberg News)
By Carolina Millan
March 16, 2016
* Company names Emilio Ilac as new CEO, Tomasevich as Chairman
* Puente will announce new strategic partnership in next month
Puente, an Argentine investment bank and brokerage, is looking to expand its international reach with plans for an initial public offering in 2017.
The company, which seeks to sell a stake of about 20 percent through the IPO, may consider holding the offering in London or New York, company officials said Wednesday. Puente also announced that Emilio Ilac will become its new chief executive officer as predecessor Federico Tomasevich takes on the role of global chairman.
“In the next three or four years, Argentina will be the star of emerging markets, which will naturally spill over to Paraguay and Uruguay, so we want to consolidate the focus on these countries,” Ilac said in an interview. “We’re seeing appetite for Argentina grow in a very aggressive way in Asia and the Middle East, and we want to be the main conduit for institutional investment to the Southern Cone.”
Puente looks to benefit from increased investor interest in Argentina after the election of President Mauricio Macri, a market-friendly candidate who has ended currency controls, removed most export taxes and reached a milestone settlement with holdout creditors leftover from the country’s 2001 default in his first three months in office.
Ilac also said he expects a high number of corporate finance deals this year, including deals in mergers and acquisitions and corporate debt sales once a decade-long dispute with creditors is resolved. Tomasevich told reporters that in the next 30 days the company will announce a strategic venture with an international partner.
Ilac, who moves up from his role as co-head of sales and trading, started at Puente in 2009 as assistant to the operations desk of the institutional clients.
The Buenos Aires-based company has offices in Paraguay, Uruguay, Panama and London. In the past year, Puente did investment banking transactions worth over $2.5 billion and handled $15 billion in trading volume. It oversees $3 billion in its wealth management division, Tomasevich said.
“Investment banking in the region had been mostly led by international banks,” Ilac said. “We think there’s huge growth potential in investment banking in the region and look to be a leader in this area.”
9. EU AND MERCOSUR TO EXCHANGE TRADE OFFERS IN APRIL, ARGENTINA SAYS (Reuters News)
By Robin Emmott and Francesco Guarascio
16 March 2016
BRUSSELS, March 16 (Reuters) – Europe and South America hope to revive stalled free-trade talks in early April with formal offers on how far they are willing to open up their economies to foreign goods, Argentina’s trade minister said on Wednesday.
After more than a decade of leftist rule in Argentina, the new pro-business government in Buenos Aires offers the Mercosur trade bloc led by Brazil its best chance in years to complete a deal that has faced multiple setbacks since its launch in 1999.
“Argentina is ready to move forward,” Miguel Braun told Reuters during a visit to Brussels to meet EU trade officials to discuss trade talks. “For Mercosur, this is a priority.”
Attempts to relaunch the trade talks, most recently at an EU-Latin American summit in Santiago in 2013, failed because of Argentine policies to protect local industry, diplomats say.
Brazil and its other Mercosur partners, Paraguay and Uruguay, were unwilling to do a trade deal without Buenos Aires, despite the urging of Brazilian business.
Argentina is Brazil’s closest partner, but until the November election of Argentine President Mauricio Macri, it was one of the most protectionist members of the Group of 20 leading economies.
DUTY-FREE ACCESS
The so-called ‘exchange of offers’ would set out the duty-free access each side is willing to consider and then allow negotiators to draw up a trade deal designed to encompass 750 million people and $130 billion in annual trade.
The foreign minister of Uruguay, which holds the rotating Mercosur presidency, will visit Brussels on April 8 and the exchange of offers could take place then, and no later than the middle of this year, Braun said.
“The Uruguayan foreign minister is coming here specifically with a proposal to exchange offers,” Braun said. “It would be fantastic if they can get that moving then, we cannot move quickly enough.”
The Uruguay minister’s visit follows EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini’s trip to Argentina earlier this month, when she met Macri and pledged EU support for a free-trade deal.
While the EU and Mercosur have already held many rounds of trade talks over the years, both sides are eager to avoid a repeat of 2004, when the offers made on both sides were considered too timid, failing to liberalise flows in trade and services and resulting in a collapse of talks.
The market access proposals involve lists of imports that each side would be prepared to liberalise in negotiations. The European Union is looking for more than 90 percent of goods and sectors to be opened up, EU officials said.
Difficult areas include access to Mercosur for European manufactured goods and EU access for Mercosur’s agricultural products, which today face high EU farm subsidies.
10. ARGENTINA’S LOWER HOUSE CLEARS DEBT SETTLEMENT PACKAGE (Reuters News)
By Richard Lough
March 16, 2016
Argentina’s President, Mauricio Macri, won the support of the lower house of Congress for a settlement with bondholders on Wednesday, leaving Argentina one Senate vote away from ending a 14-year battle with creditors.
Lawmakers across the political divide voted 165 to 86 to approve the deal after a 20-hour televised debate.
Macri needs to close the festering dispute to tap global credit markets and lure back investors, and had warned Argentina faced a return to hyperinflation or aggressive spending cuts if the chamber had knocked down the proposal.
Legislators loyal to former leftist president Cristina Fernandez, a Peronist who refused to negotiate with the bondholders, argued Macri was selling out to Wall Street investors by offering repayment terms of 70-75 cents on the dollar.
Former Economy Minister Axel Kicillof blasted the government’s proposal to finance the accords brokered in New York with a planned $11.68 billion bond issuance, saying it would increase government debt.
“We’re not increasing debt. We’re decreasing it,” Mario Negri, a senior lawmaker in Macri’s Let’s Change alliance, said minutes ahead of the vote, referring to the write down on outstanding debt agreed with investors.
Among the agreements negotiated in New York is a $4.65 billion cash payment to the main holdout creditors, including billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management. Argentina has until April 14 to make the payment.
Macri garnered enough votes to push the vote through the lower chamber after making last minute concessions to secure the support of dissident Peronist Sergio Massa and his lawmakers, plus a group of legislators which split with Fernandez last month.
They won the insertion of a collective action clause, which requires creditors to negotiate together for any changes in bond payment terms, and a cap of $12.5 billion on the bond sales, according to state-run news agency Telam.
Massa said it was now time for lawmakers to debate matters important to him: inflation, the income tax threshold and pensions.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where the opposition’s majority is dogged by internal divisions and Macri will expect to leverage support in return for government funds and access to lower borrowing costs to finance much-needed infrastructure projects.
The dispute stems from Argentina’s default on $100 billion in bonds in 2002. The holdout creditors rejected 2005 and 2010 debt swaps that offered 30 cents on the dollar.
11. ARGENTINA’S YPF APPEALS COURT ORDER TO SHOW CHEVRON PACT DETAILS (Reuters News)
By Maximilian Heath
March 16, 2016
Argentina’s state energy company YPF (YPFD.BA) said on Wednesday it appealed a local court ruling ordering it to disclose details of its contract with Chevron Corp (CVX.N), amid allegations of secret clauses in the agreement.
Chevron in 2013 signed a deal to explore the Vaca Muerta shale formation. It was the largest foreign investment in Argentine energy since the government seized Spanish giant Repsol’s (REP.MC) controlling stake in YPF the year before.
Opposition lawmakers believe the contract contains secretclauses that hand concessions to Chevron and undermine national interests.
“Shareholders decided to appeal the resolution issued by the Administrative Court Federal No. 7,” YPF said in a statement.
On Monday the court gave YPF five days to disclose contract details. The Supreme Court said in November that the company “cannot deny access to information of unquestionable public interest.”
12. ARGENTINA’S YPF TO APPEAL ORDER TO DISCLOSE CHEVRON CONTRACT (Platts Commodity News)
By Charles Newbery
16 March 2016
Buenos Aires (Platts)–16Mar2016/1009 pm EDT/209 GMT Argentina’s state-run energy company YPF said Wednesday it would appeal a court order to make public the full contents of a joint venture contract with Chevron to develop shale resources.
The board of directors decided to appeal in order “to safeguard the public interest and that of its shareholders [public and private],” YPF said in a statement.
YPF and Chevron teamed up in 2013 to develop Loma Campana, the first mass development of Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s biggest shale plays. The companies have since invested more than $2.5 billion and drilled more than 470 wells. Loma Campana is the source of most of YPF’s shale production, which rose to 50,600 b/d of oil equivalent in the fourth quarter last year, from 38,000 boe/d a year earlier, Platts reported previously.
Judge Cristina Carrion de Lorenzo of the No. 7 Federal Administrative Court ruled Monday that the company would have to divulge the full contents of the partnership contract. This was in line with a Supreme Court decision in November.
YPF in February complied with the Supreme Court ruling to make the agreement with Chevron public, but withheld disclosure of confidential clauses to protect commercial, financial and geological information of strategic value to both companies.
YPF said at the time — and repeated in this latest statement — that if such information was made public, it would put both companies at a disadvantage against competitors, contractors and potential partners.
YPF added now that the latest court ruling did not take into account the company’s “request for a hearing” and “did not establish precautions to prevent disclosure to third parties outside the process [competing companies and other stakeholders] of information with clear geological, commercial, technical and industrial value.”
The lack of such protection could put the company at “a competitive disadvantage” and threaten the development of Loma Campana and the company’s future projects, YPF said.
YPF also said that public disclosure of the full contract could be used “for political means” without taking into account the damage it would cause for YPF and “future oil and natural gas investment projects in the country.”
This is the latest legal battle over disclosure of the contract, which has divided much of the political class. While some members of the government of President Mauricio Macri had been in favor of the public disclosure of the contract before taking power in December, some have changed their opinion. Last week, the Anti-Corruption Office came out in favor of YPF, saying confidential clauses are an industry norm around the world.
YPF is 51% owned by the state and 49% by private shareholders, and is traded on the Buenos Aires and New York stock exchanges.
As well as working with Chevron, YPF has entered into joint ventures to develop Vaca Muerta and other unconventional plays with Dow Chemical, Argentina’s Petrolera Pampa and Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas. It also has held talks with ExxonMobil, Russia’s Gazprom and other companies, and signed a memorandum of understanding with American Energy Partners, or AELP, for a shale oil development project.
YPF produces 43% of Argentina’s 532,000 b/d of crude and 30% of its 120 million cu m/d of gas, according to the Argentine Oil and Gas Institute, an industry group.
13. CHINA DEMANDS INVESTIGATION AFTER ARGENTINA SINKS FISHING BOAT (UPI)
By Andrew V. Pestano
March 16, 2016
BUENOS AIRES, March 16 (UPI) — Argentina’s coast guard on Monday sank a Chinese fishing boat that it says was fishing illegally in its exclusive economic zone off the Atlantic coast.
In a statement, the Argentine Naval Prefecture said it tried communicating with the boat, the Lu Yan Yuan Yu 010, via radio in Spanish and English and with both visual and audio signals, and that the Chinese vessel failed to respond.
The Argentine coast guard then said one of its ships fired a warning shot as the Lu Yan Yuan Yu headed for international waters. The Chinese ship was later sunk and all 32 crew members were rescued.
“The vessel was hailed over radio and both visual and audio signals were sent to make contact. However, the vessel turned off its fishing lights and proceeded to flee towards international waters without responding to repeated calls over various frequencies,” the Argentine Naval Prefecture statement says. “On several occasions, the offending ship performed maneuvers designed to force a collision with the coastguard, putting at risk not only its own crew but coastguard personnel, who were then ordered to shoot parts of the vessel.”
In response to the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Beijing expressed “serious concern” and has “made urgent representations” to Argentina, also demanding a thorough investigation.
14. ARGENTINA SINKS CHINESE FISHING BOAT (Foreign Policy)
By Thomas E. Ricks
March 16, 2016
This is interesting: The Argentine coast guard tried to stop a Chinese fishing boat that it believed was operating illegally in an area rich with squid. The Argentines say that the Chinese boat refused to heed an order to stop and instead tried turned off its running lights and aimed to crash into their craft. The Argentines report that fired warning shots and then, after several hours of giving chase as the boat headed to sea, shot into the ship, apparently with great success.
The Argentines rescued four members of the fishing crew, while 28 others were picked up by other boats in the Chinese fleet.
I keep on returning to the thought that the Chinese ultimately are their own worst enemy in international relations, overstepping and treating others with contempt. I wonder how many Argentine warnings were ignored before this happened. On the other hand, Mario Vargas Llosa once described the ego as “the little Argentine that lives inside all of us.”
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FRIDAY
1. IN ARGENTINA, OBAMA WILL CHEER ON SOUTH AMERICA’S SHIFT AWAY FROM THE LEFT (The Washington Post)
2. US TO DECLASSIFY MILITARY RECORDS ON ARGENTINA’S “DIRTY WAR” (The Washington Post)
3. OBAMA TO UNSEAL FILES ON ARGENTINA’S ‘DIRTY WAR’ (The New York Times)
4. ‘DIRTY WAR’ RECORDS (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
5. U.S. TO DECLASSIFY INTELLIGENCE, MILITARY RECORDS ON ARGENTINA’S ‘DIRTY WAR’ (Reuters News)
6. ARGENTINA POLITICS: QUICK VIEW – HOLDOUT LEGISLATION MAKES PROGRESS IN CONGRESS (Economist
Intelligence Unit – ViewsWire)
7. AFTER 14 YEARS OF LAWSUITS, ARGENTINA REACHES SETTLEMENT TO REPAY DEBT (NPR: All Things Considered)
8. ARGENTINA NOW SEEKS 600MW FROM BOLIVIA (Business News Americas)
9. WHY ARGENTINA’S DEBT DEAL SPELLS BAD NEWS (Fortune)
10. HOW NOT TO FIX ARGENTINA’S INFLATION PROBLEM (PanAm Post)
11. HOW ECONOMIC FREEDOM CAN BE RESTORED IN ARGENTINA (The Heritage Foundation)
12. ARGENTINE PRESIDENT: WE WILL “MAKE HEADWAY” WITH AMIA INVESTIGATION (The Tower Org)
13. HAS ARGENTINA ENTERED THE ‘WAR ON DRUGS’? (Open Democracy)
14. A SADIST IN A BENIGN PATRIARCH’S CLOTHING (The New York Times)
15. ARGENTINIAN CRIME STORY (The Wall Street Journal)
16. PABLO TRAPERO ON TACKLING REAL-LIFE CRIME STORY BEHIND ‘THE CLAN’ (Variety
1. IN ARGENTINA, OBAMA WILL CHEER ON SOUTH AMERICA’S SHIFT AWAY FROM THE LEFT (The Washington Post)
By Nick Miroff
March 17, 2016
BUENOS AIRES — Ahead of President Obama’s trip to Cuba and Argentina March 20 to 24, nearly all the attention — and controversy — has centered on his visit to the communist island, the first by a sitting U.S. president in 88 years.
But Obama’s trip to Argentina is no afterthought, and is arguably more important to the future of U.S. relations with Latin America.
He arrives at a moment of epochal political change in South America. After more than a decade of dominance by leftist populist leaders, many of whom thrived on opposition to the United States, the continent is swinging back toward the center. Obama wants to push it along.
Falling prices for oil, minerals and other commodity exports have sapped economic growth and crimped government spending on social welfare programs, ripping bandages off old problems like corruption, crime and lousy public services. Leftist incumbents across the region who once seemed unassailable are now in trouble.
Argentina was the first pin to fall. In November voters elected center-right candidate Mauricio Macri, bringing an end to 12 years of rule by the late Nestor Kirchner and his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who had aligned the country with Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and clashed eagerly and often with Washington.
A wealthy businessman fond of jeans and polo shirts, Macri presents himself as a problem-solving pragmatist, a nonideological figure who wants to bring transparency and turn down the temperature of Argentine politics. He promises to deliver growth by attracting new foreign investment and re-engaging Argentina with the rest of the world. He is not in the habit of referring to the United States as “The Empire.”
“Argentina is the first country on the continent to turn away from the populism of the previous era, and that has made Macri a regional leader, whether it was his intention or not,” said Dante Sica, director of an economic consulting firm in Buenos Aires.
Macri’s success is far from certain. He moved swiftly to lift Kirchner-era currency controls on the Argentine peso, and since then it has lost 40 percent of its value against the dollar. Domestic food prices soared after he slashed export taxes on Argentine grains. His decision to cut electrical subsidies jacked up Argentines’ utility bills.
Macri and his team of economic advisers, many of whom bring Ivy League pedigrees and résumés from Wall Street, insist that these shocks are one-time, bitter pills to fix a badly distorted economy. But for a president elected by a narrow margin — Macri won just 51.5 percent of the vote and lacks a majority in Argentina’s congress — he is under enormous pressure to show results before his honeymoon runs out.
“These changes scare me,” said Vivian Valqui, a Peruvian immigrant who sells mattresses and furniture from a cramped shop in Villa 31, a Buenos Aires slum that sits right next to the city’s wealthiest business districts. Her sales have plunged. “People are worried because they don’t know what is going to happen next,” she said.
As mayor of Buenos Aires prior to winning the presidency, Macri made an impression in Villa 31 by visiting the neighborhood and supporting projects to pave the streets and install sewer lines. Settled by squatters in the 1930s during the Depression, Villa 31’s residents still lack property titles.
Analysts say Macri’s post-inaugural grace period won’t last beyond this year, if that.
If Macri fails, the fallout would ripple across the region, validating skeptics who say free trade and a friendlier approach to the United States remains a losing formula for Latin American governance.
Macri scored a major victory early Wednesday as Argentina’s lower house approved his proposed settlement with the holdout creditors whom the Kirchners had cast as “vultures” because they refused to renegotiate debt from Argentina’s 2001 default. After a 20-hour debate, the package won backing across the political spectrum and now faces a vote in Argentina’s senate that is also expected to break Macri’s way.
A deal would pave the way for a badly needed injection of foreign currency, lowering the demand for dollars and helping stem inflation.
Coupled with the visit by Obama — the first by a U.S. president in nearly 20 years — a settlement would send the signal that Argentina is open for business, said Lucas Llach, vice president of Argentina’s Central Bank. “Obama’s visit is a sign that we are returning to world markets,” he said, noting that it follows visits by the Italian prime minister and French president.
Macri’s adjustments should start to bear fruit in the second quarter of this year with slowing inflation, Llach said. But they have left him vulnerable to criticism by still-powerful Kirchner loyalists who see Macri as the latest incarnation of the laissez-faire economic policies many Argentines associate with the 2001 crisis that paved the way for the Kirchners’ rise to power.
Macri is banking heavily on his ability to attract new investment from foreign companies, particularly American firms that have been wary of putting money into Argentina over the past decade. Here Obama’s visit is critical as well. To offset the economic downturn, Macri, a civil engineer by training, is planning to launch big infrastructure projects. Advisers say he is acutely aware of the need to create new private sector jobs as he fires thousands of government workers hired by the Kirchners.
“We’re coming out of an era in which we hid unemployment with public sector jobs,” Macri said this month.
Mario Blejer, a banker and economist who was an adviser to Daniel Scioli, the candidate from the Kirchners’ party who lost to Macri, said Obama’s arrival could backfire on the new Argentine leader. “His opponents will use the visit to portray Macri as a puppet of Washington, and it’s not going to help that there will probably be a big demonstration against the president of the United States.”
Union leaders and anti-Macri activists will also be motivated by the timing of Obama’s visit. March 24 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1976 military coup, initially backed by the United States, and the seven-year “Dirty War” that left as many as 30,000 dead. Obama will fly to the Bariloche resort that day to play golf before returning to Washington.
With its on-again, off-again relationship with the United States, Argentina has been a bellwether for relations with Latin America in recent decades.
The country’s ties to the United States were so close in the 1990s under President Carlos Menem that his foreign minister famously called the relationship a “carnal” one. Then came the crash of 2001, which wiped out the savings of millions of Argentine families and left the country deeply skeptical of liberal economic policy prescriptions.
Elected in 2003, Nestor Kirchner brought stability, then presided over an economic bonanza driven by China’s voracious demand for Argentine grain and other exports.
It was in Argentina in 2005 that Latin America essentially split into two blocs during the Summit of the Americas. President George W. Bush arrived to promote a hemisphere-wide free trade agreement but faced massive protests and ridicule from Hugo Chavez. The free trade agreement failed and the Chavez-led bloc urged Latin American integration instead.
The United States is now partnering with Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Macri’s win raises the possibility that Argentina might seek to join the alliance.
During Obama’s visit, analysts say, Macri must execute a balancing act by embracing the U.S. president but not appearing too solicitous.
In an interview broadcast this week, Obama told CNN en Espanol that Argentina was an example of the United States’ changing relationship with Latin America, now that Macri had left behind policies that were “systematically anti-American.”
Macri, Obama said, “recognizes that we’re in a new era, and that we should look forward, and that Argentina, that has historically been a powerful country, has seen itself weakened by not adapting as efficiently to the world economy as it could.”
If Obama’s arrival — and Macri’s visit to Washington later this month for a nuclear summit — is meant to signal a reset in U.S.-Argentine ties, the new era may also face an unfavorable comparison to the “golden years” of booming trade with China, said Christopher Sabatini, an adjunct professor of Latin American studies at Columbia University.
“The risk is that Argentines will see the United States as a poor alternative to China, and if things don’t go well, they will associate the United States with pain and China with the sunny days of never-ending surplus,” he said.
Nick Miroff is a Latin America correspondent for The Post, roaming from the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to South America’s southern cone. He has been a staff writer since 2006.
2. US TO DECLASSIFY MILITARY RECORDS ON ARGENTINA’S “DIRTY WAR” (The Washington Post)
By Josh Lederman and Peter Prengaman
March 17, 2016
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will move to declassify U.S. military and intelligence records related to Argentina’s “Dirty War,” the White House said Thursday, aiming to bring closure to questions of U.S. involvement in a notorious chapter in Argentina’s history.
Obama’s visit to Buenos Aires next week coincides with the 40th anniversary of the 1976 military coup that started Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship. Little is known about the U.S. role leading up to that period, in which thousands of people were forcibly disappeared and babies systematically stolen from political prisoners.
Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, said Obama would use his trip to announce a “comprehensive effort” to declassify more documents, at Argentina’s request. She said Obama would also visit Remembrance Park in Buenos Aires to honor victims of the dictatorship.
“This anniversary and beyond, we’re determined to do our part as Argentina continues to heal and move forward as one nation,” Rice said in a speech ahead of Obama’s trip.
The announcement was sure to have a big impact in Argentina, where even today what happened during the dictatorship is often a part of the national discourse.
“This is transcendental. We believe it’s a huge gesture,” Marcos Pena, the Cabinet chief of Argentine President Mauricio Macri, told local channel Todo Noticias. Pena added that it would be welcomed by human rights groups who have questioned Obama’s presence on the anniversary.
The U.S. has previously released 4,000 State Department documents related to that period, but those documents tell only part of the story. Notes from a 1976 meeting between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Argentina’s foreign minister, for example, seemed to show Kissinger urging his new counterpart to clamp down on dissidents they referred to as “terrorists.”
“If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly,” Kissinger said, according to a transcript the U.S. declassified more than a decade ago.
In Argentina, human rights advocates have repeatedly called for the U.S. to divulge the rest of the information it has in hopes of exposing any wrongdoing.
As part of the new declassification effort, the U.S. will search for additional records related to rights abuses committed by the junta, said a senior Obama administration official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the program by name and requested anonymity. That search will for the first time include records from U.S. intelligence agencies, along with the Pentagon, U.S. law enforcement agencies and records housed in presidential libraries, the official said.
Claudio Avruj, Argentina’s secretary of human rights, said opening the archives could shed light on Argentine soldiers trained at the School of the Americas and the so-called Plan Condor, a coordinated effort between South American dictatorships to stamp out dissent through assassinations, torture and repression.
“This is also going to help in the search for grandchildren taken during the dictatorship,” said Avruj via Twitter.
Gastón Chillier, executive director of the Buenos Aires-based Center for Legal and Social Studies, said, “These documents could help both in judicial cases of human rights abuses in Argentina and in the public debate about the role of the United States during the dictatorship.”
In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Macri sidestepped questions about whether he would ask Obama to declassify documents, a question activists had been raising ahead of Obama’s trip. He also dismissed criticism that Obama’s visit overlapped with the 40th anniversary of the coup that ushered in one of Latin America’s most brutal dictatorships.
Such opponents “need to realize that important world leaders have a very busy schedule,” Macri said, adding that Obama has been a staunch defender of human rights and should be welcomed.
Argentina’s government estimates that at least 13,000 people were killed or disappeared during the crackdown on leftist dissidents that became known as the “Dirty War.” Activists believe the figure was as high as 30,000.
The administrations of former President Cristina Fernandez, and before her, that of late husband Nestor Kirchner, oversaw massive efforts to try alleged perpetrators of crimes. Hundreds of former military officials have been convicted and jailed for their role in abuses during the dictatorship.
The South American nation also spends millions every year in search of missing, along the way developing a sophisticated DNA bank.
3. OBAMA TO UNSEAL FILES ON ARGENTINA’S ‘DIRTY WAR’ (The New York Times)
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis
18 March 2016
WASHINGTON — President Obama is moving to declassify American military, intelligence and law enforcement records that could reveal what the United States government knew about Argentina’s brutal ”dirty war” of the 1970s and ’80s, a senior adviser said on Thursday, hoping to pierce the shroud of secrecy that has surrounded a painful chapter in that country’s history.
Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, said that the president would use a visit to Argentina on Wednesday and Thursday, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of the 1976 coup that began the war, to honor the victims and formally begin the declassification process.
”On this anniversary and beyond, we’re determined to do our part as Argentina continues to heal and move forward as one nation,” Ms. Rice said during a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
Human rights activists have long pressed for access to more classified United States records about the war, which lasted from 1976 to 1983, a period when the Argentine government and military carried out vicious crackdowns against dissidents and abducted thousands of people, including babies taken from parents who were detained.
The Argentine government had formally requested that the documents be declassified. The issue has taken on greater urgency in recent days, after human rights groups noted that Mr. Obama would be in Argentina on the painful anniversary and began pressing him to use the occasion to acknowledge the abuses that took place.
Several of the groups, including Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo — which works to find people who were taken as babies during the dictatorship and raised by families close to the military — submitted a formal request on Monday to the United States Embassy in Buenos Aires for Mr. Obama to release the secret records.
Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, a group that opposes government secrecy, said Mr. Obama should be applauded for engaging in ”declassified diplomacy.”
The president’s decision, Mr. Kornbluh said, ”not only provides a historical atonement for early U.S. support for the coup and the repression in its aftermath, but also can provide actual evidence and answers to the families of human rights victims who continue to search for their missing loved ones in Argentina, 40 years after the coup took place.”
In 2002, under pressure from human rights groups, the United States government released 4,700 partly declassified State Department documents on Argentina from the period. They included records that revealed the extent to which top American officials had been aware of the Argentine government’s brutal tactics. Among them was an account of a conversation in 1976 between Henry Kissinger, then the secretary of state, and César Augusto Guzzetti, the Argentine foreign minister, in which Mr. Kissinger appears to condone the military’s crackdown.
”If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly,” Mr. Kissinger told Mr. Guzzetti, according to the declassified account.
The administration refused at the time to do a multiagency review, so relevant records from the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation remain classified. Mr. Obama’s effort will include records from military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, as well as the presidential libraries and the National Archives, a White House official said on Thursday.
The president plans to travel to Argentina after a historic visit to Cuba, where differences over human rights remain an irritant even as the United States seeks to begin a new chapter of engagement. He will meet on Wednesday in Buenos Aires with Mauricio Macri, the newly elected Argentine president, and travel to Bariloche with his family on Thursday.
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4. ‘DIRTY WAR’ RECORDS (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
18 March 2016
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will move to declassify U.S. military and intelligence records related to Argentina’s “Dirty War,” the White House said Thursday, aiming to bring closure to questions of U.S. involvement in a notorious chapter in Argentina’s history.
Mr. Obama’s visit to Buenos Aires next week coincides with the 40th anniversary of the 1976 military coup that started Argentina’s 1976-83 dictatorship. Thousands of people were forcibly disappeared and babies systematically stolen from political prisoners.
Susan Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, said Mr. Obama would use his trip to announce a “comprehensive effort” to declassify more documents, at Argentina’s request.
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5. U.S. TO DECLASSIFY INTELLIGENCE, MILITARY RECORDS ON ARGENTINA’S ‘DIRTY WAR’ (Reuters News)
By Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick
March 17, 2016
The United States government will declassify documents from U.S. military and intelligence agencies related to Argentina’s 1976-83 “Dirty War,” the seven-year period when a military dictatorship cracked down on left-wing opponents, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The move coincides with President Barack Obama’s visit to Argentina next week on the 40th anniversary of the 1976 coup that installed the dictatorship, which the United States initially supported. Argentina returned to democracy in 1983.
The declassification effort will include records from U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Department of Defense, the Department of State and the presidential libraries at the National Archives.
It follows the declassification in 2002 of more than 4,000 State Department cables and other documents related to human rights abuses from the 1976-83 period.
“President Obama, at the request of the Argentine government, will announce a comprehensive effort to declassify additional documents, including for the first time military and intelligence records,” U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice said in a speech hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington.
“On this anniversary and beyond, we’re determined to do our part as Argentina continues to heal and move forward as one nation,” she said.
It is the latest effort by Obama to reconcile with Latin Americans by addressing Washington’s past backing of former military dictatorships in the region, such as he did on previous trips to Chile and Brazil.
The U.S. role in Latin America during previous administrations helped fuel ant-American sentiment, especially on the left.
Obama has declined on previous trips to Latin America to apologize for CIA activities in the region during decades past, but he left open the door to U.S. assistance in investigations of human rights abuses committed by former military governments there.
Argentina welcomed the announcement.
“Anything that helps analyze what happened during this chapter is a positive,” an Argentine government spokesman said, declining to comment further on a matter he said Obama and President Mauricio Macri would address.
Obama plans to visit Parque de la Memoria, or Memory Park, to honor the victims of that period.
The declassification announcement was aimed also at soothing criticism of the White House for planning the Argentina trip during such a sensitive week.
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6. ARGENTINA POLITICS: QUIC