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O'Neil Shows Support for Argentina, but No New Aid By:
The Associated Press
BUENOS
AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- With Argentina pressing for quick help out of its
financial crisis, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill promised Wednesday to
help resolve the country's differences with the International Monetary
Fund to unblock aid. O'Neill
offered no new promises of aid after talks with President Eduardo Duhalde
and the Argentine economy minister, but said he hoped a deal between the
IMF and Argentina could be ``completed very quickly.'' ``Our
support is for moving as quickly as possible,'' O'Neill told reporters.
``My hopes for the people of Argentina are high ... I know with the right
policies in place the people of Argentina will succeed.'' Lengthy
negotiations between the IMF and Duhalde's government have so far failed
to gain a renewal of loans that the international body halted in December.
The IMF is demanding Argentina devise a sustainable plan for ending a
four-year recession. The Bush
administration, increasingly concerned about the deepening problems in
Latin America, has been moderating its opposition to IMF bailouts and
directing U.S. assistance to countries in trouble. O'Neill was
on the final stop of a trip through the troubled economies of South
America, visiting Uruguay and Brazil before coming to Argentina. After talks
with Economy Minister Roberto Lavanga, O'Neill offered to give ``technical
advice'' to resolve differences between the IMF and Argentina. ``We in the
United States are glad to work through the international financial
institutions to support nations that support sustainable growth-creating
policies,'' O'Neill said. Argentina is
battling an economic crisis that has brought a debt default last December,
a steep devaluation of the Argentine peso and an unemployment rate of 22
percent -- all coupled with growing social unrest and sporadic violent
protests. The poverty rate has boomed. Two dozen
protesters shouted slogans outside the Economy Ministry where O'Neill met
Lavagna for a working breakfast that centered on government pleas for a
resumption of bailout assistance. ``O'Neill
get out! IMF get out!'' the demonstrators chanted, and someone tossed eggs
at the first car in O'Neill's departing motorcade. He later
visited a soup kitchen in Buenos Aires, heavily guarded by police and
security agents. O'Neill heads home to Washington later Wednesday. The slowdown
in Latin America has increasingly worried Bush administration officials,
who sent $1.5 billion in emergency aid to Uruguay to dampen a banking
crisis and also are concerned about volatility in Brazil ahead of an
October presidential election. After
O'Neill arrived in Argentina late Tuesday, Duhalde told him his country
urgently needs financial help to keep its economy afloat. ``The
president told Secretary O'Neill that the time element is of a tremendous
importance at this point,'' presidential spokesman Eduardo Amadeo said. O'Neill,
Amadeo said, ``gave a cordial answer, expressing that the U.S. government,
more than anybody else, wants to see the Argentine people overcome this
critical situation.'' Amadeo said
Duhalde described to O'Neill ``the social, economic and political
situation and the difficult situation that the Argentine people are
facing.'' In Uruguay,
President Jorge Batlle thanked O'Neill for Monday's $1.5 billion U.S. loan
that rescued the nation's banking system from a run on deposits. FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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