wird das nächste Kriegsschiff gepfändet ? // Asked about the corvette Espora, stranded in South Africa over technical problems, and about which there could also be an attachment from the vulture funds, Timerman didn’t answer and left the Conference Hall.

wird das nächste Kriegsschiff gepfändet ? // Asked about the corvette Espora, stranded in South Africa over technical problems, and about which there could also be an attachment from the vulture funds, Timerman didn’t answer and left the Conference Hall.

La Nacion

A list of 28 previous attachments is revealed

 

Friday, October 26, 2012

 

By Mariano Obarrio

 

In an attempt to stem the bleeding from the crisis of the Frigate Libertad, the government of Cristina Kirchner tried yesterday to raise the spirits of the affected sectors by saying that it will “recover” the ship like it has done with 28 public assets attached since 2003 by the vulture funds.  Attachments that curiously the state never had reported and had even denied.

 

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman yesterday put out a list with attachments on properties, bank accounts, assets, Central Bank reserves, Tango 01, a satellite and ever the house where San Martín died in Boulogne Sur Mer, France.

 

When asked by LA NACION about why it had not been reported before, Timerman said, with an ironic tone: “Of course they were known.  Journalists investigate what they want to know.” Cristina Kirchner had ordered those attachments be known in a cleaning-up strategy and as a strategic pillar to show the government’s presence of mind and a supposed normalcy for acting on the chances of success before the courts.  The teaching vessel of the Navy was seized by the Ghana judiciary after a demand from the vulture funds and, after being evacuated two days ago, had to remain stranded in the port of Tema.

 

"We will recover the Frigate like we’ve done with all the attached assets,” said Timerman in a visible line toward clarifying the impression of disinterest that the President left last Monday when she said: “We could lose the Frigate but not liberty and dignity” before the vulture funds.  That phrase was criticized strongly on social networks and among the ship’s crew.

 

About the status of the current case, Timerman said that “the legal process is moving forward and the possibility of taking it to an international court is under study.”

 

Asked about the corvette Espora, stranded in South Africa over technical problems, and about which there could also be an attachment from the vulture funds, Timerman didn’t answer and left the Conference Hall.

 

The 28 attachments that the foreign minister listed had never been officially admitted.  Even on May 30 of this year, LA NACION reported that Argentine diplomats suffered two month long salary payment delays over an attachment on accounts of the Central Bank abroad, but the Foreign Ministry roundly denied it.

 

Many of the attachments revealed yesterday had been pushed by the same group holding the Frigate, NML Capital.  On the list is Tango 01 (between March and May 2007, in the United States), which never was reported, as well as the Acquarius satellite and the Museo San Martín. There were also 12 state properties like the embassies in the United States and the OAS, three military attaché offices and residences and four Armed Forces warehouses; assets of Banco Nacion in New York and Miami; Central Bank reserves in New York and Switzerland, accounts from the embassy in France and Air Force real estate in that country, among others