LatinNews Daily Report - 14 August 2014

Argentina: On 11 August Argentina’s cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, called on the US government to intervene in Argentina’s foreign debt dispute with the New York Southern District Federal Judge, Thomas P. Griesa, arguing that it was the US government’s responsibility to get the New York judge off its case. As he put it, “the United States is responsible for the actions of its branches of power, in this case the judicial branch, regardless of the independence of the functioning of those branches”. While the Argentine government led by President Cristina Fernández continues to insist that it has not defaulted on its foreign debt because it has been trying to pay the majority of its bondholders, Judge Griesa says it has because it is refusing to pay the minority of ‘holdout’ hedge fund bondholders, as required in his court order. On 8 August he repeated: “It is very simple. Payment of part is not payment of all”. Given what he termed Argentina’s “false and misleading statements”, he threatened to declare Argentina in contempt of court. There was no immediate comment from Washington, which has little incentive to get involved. Even though Argentina originally chose to issue the bonds under New York law, Buenos Aires now argues that Judge Griesa has violated its sovereign immunity, and is trying to make that case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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