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Griesa complicates the President's visit to the United States
La Nacion
April 08, 2010

She will have to explain the judge's embargo before investors; the meeting with Obama continues to be in doubt

Silvia Pisani
US Correspondent

WASHINGTON.- Last January, Cristina Kirchner called Judge Thomas Griesa a "serial embargoer." There is no evidence that the judge was displeased with this label. But what is sure is that for the President, the dart has come to be prophetic: surely without setting out to do it, with his new embargo on Argentina's accounts, the judge ended up spoiling Cristina's trip to Washington.

Not only has she not confirmed her anxiously awaited bilateral meeting with Barack Obama, but the new disposition of the judge just threw another shadow over the announced debt swap.

The offer which Argentina waved was projected as the star of the meeting that will be held tomorrow with more than a hundred U.S. investors and business leaders with interests in Argentina.

The meeting, promoted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is, until now, the more important activity on the presidential agenda of five days in this country.

"We are ready to put forth our doubts to the Presdient," said bondholders yesterday. There are, among them, investors that were not surprised by the new Griesa embargo. And they saluted the judge, 79 years old, for having reacted to the fact that the "Kirchner government uses public money to pay any some debts. And they refuse the same for the swindles that we're suing over in the courts," they said.

Accompanied by Minister Amado Boudou, the one responsible for the swap, the President will speak with the investors for 90 minutes beginning at noon tomorrow. It will not be a direct dialogue: the concerns can only be translated in writing and not in a direct form to the President, but to a "moderator" of the meeting.

Also with the President will be Ministers Jorge Taiana and Julio De Vido.

The other battle concerns the until-now frustrated meeting with Obama. As the White House doesn't have the Argentine president in mind for the difficult agenda of the Democratic leader, Argentine diplomats are now trying for the President to have, at least, a place at the table during the host's dinner that will be offered Monday night in this city.

"We are trying to get the President to be one of the figures sitting at Obama's table," at the host's dinner to be offered Monday night, diplomatic sources told LA NACION yesterday.

The recourse was already used last September. In that opportunity and after the failure of getting a bilateral meeting, the Argentine representative to the United Nations managed a spot for Cristina Kirchner at the luncheon table of Obama. Another dozen heads of government shared the invite, among them Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, who was, from afar, the chattiest at the table.

"With certainty, each one of the presidents (that will attend the summit convened by Obama) will have, at least, a few minutes to converse informally" with the Democratic leader, White House sources told LA NACION yesterday.

There were no comments from the government headquarters about the reasons for this new rejection. "The dialogue with Argentina is very difficult," said Peter Hakim, the outgoing president of the Interamerican Dialogue, the main center of studies for the region in this city.

The other surprise of the trip is almost a classic for the President's tours. Yesterday, Argentine sources assured that, maybe, her husband, ex-president Nestor Kirchner, is out of the party. While, in his case, there was talk of a parallel agenda in New York.

Despite the attempts for a formal meeting with Obama not appearing to reach a good end, at the close of this edition no moves were known about for putting together any other meeting between the Argentine president and any of the 47 heads of state that, equal to her, will be in Washington to attend the Global Summit on Nuclear Security.

The President has planned to remain in this city for five days.

With the collaboration of Mariana Ver n

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