Argentine President asks UN Chief to insist of UK on Islands issue

Argentine President asks UN Chief to insist of UK on Islands issue

Argentine President Alberto Fernández asked United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres to “renew the good offices efforts” with the United Kingdom regarding the Malvinas/Falklands question, it was reported in New York.

Fernández and Guterres met at the UN headquarters, where the Argentine leader was attending the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) summit.

While in the United States, Fernández also met with Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who last week was highly critical of her country’s officials and judges handling lawsuits, particularly those involving the so-called vulture funds seeking to collect on Argentina’s foreign debt.

AOC denounced a relationship between U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and businessman Paul Singer, owner of the NML fund. The lawmaker pointedly criticized Alito for a luxury trip he made in a private plane, whose expenses of around 200 thousand dollars were not presented to the state. “The billionaire who generously funded this trip was Paul Singer, who has done business with the Court at least ten times, and the legal press and media hid his involvement,” AOC told the House.

“In fact, in 2014, Justice Alito, along with the Supreme Court, agreed to resolve an important issue after decades of litigation between Singer’s hedge funds and Argentina,” she continued.

“Do you think Alito recused himself from that case? He did not recuse himself from the case, and in fact used his seat on the Supreme Court to rule in Singer’s favor. After the decision, Mr. Singer’s hedge fund was ultimately paid $2.4 billion for that decision,” she added.

Judge Thomas P. Griesa ruled in favor of the hedge funds in 2012, ordering Argentina to pay the full amount claimed to holdouts who had not accepted earlier agreements. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2014 that it would not review the case brought by Argentina, leaving Griesa’s ruling intact.