Foreign Debt Payment Condones Impunity, Says Argentine Lutheran Pastor It's the "Fundamental Tool of a Model of Domination"
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina/GENEVA, 8 March 2006 (LWI) - Argentine Lutheran pastor Angel F. Furlan has criticized his country's recent repayment of its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He insists the action has contributed to deepening the impunity enjoyed by its creditor, and to worsening the social and economic well being of Argentineans.
Furlan, and a group of citizens led by Nobel Peace Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel, had lodged a judicial appeal with the country's Federal Court of Administrative Affairs in December 2005, demanding suspension of the then proposed payment to the IMF. They repeated their appeal in a telegram dated 2 January 2006 to Argentina's President Néstor Kirchner, which said that repaying the money would affect the "economy of the country in a way that is irreparable."
On 3 January, within a debt-restructuring program, Argentina repaid USD 9.5 billion - its outstanding loans to the IMF over a period of more than 20 years. The amount was reportedly paid from foreign reserves of the Central Bank, said to have recently risen after increased exports had boosted economic growth. In recent years, the policies of the IMF and other international financial institutions in regard to the foreign debt, which was directly or indirectly contracted by the 1976-1983 rule of military dictatorship, have been strongly criticized by successive democratically elected Argentine governments.
Furlan, a former president of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church (IELU) in Argentina, is responsible for a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) advocacy program on illegitimate foreign debt, started in the Latin American region in 2004. The Esquivel-led group, comprising representatives of trade unions, religious and civil society groups and human rights organizations, is linked to Jubilee South, the network of social movements that advocates the immorality and illegitimacy of external debts owed by developing countries. Similar concerns had been raised in the case of Brazil, which recently also repaid its IMF debt.
The group argued that the Argentine government's decision to repay what was owed to the IMF had been taken in a "unilateral and non-consultative manner." Its members cited disregard for a federal court ruling that substantiated the fraudulent nature of the debt, referring the matter to the National Congress for constitutional redress.
They expressed doubt that "our countries will gain greater freedom in the design of their economic policies, especially when those same governments continue to accumulate new debts," for which the IMF's approval is sought.
Speaking during the January 2006 Latin America World Social Forum session in Caracas, Venezuela, Furlan described external debt as the "fundamental tool of a model of domination," that continued to take more human lives than the aberrant crimes of the military dictatorship.
An estimated 40 percent of Argentina's 39 million people live below the poverty line. (472 words)
Related news at http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/LWI/EN/1363.EN.html and http://www.lutheranworld.org/news/lwi/en/1498.en.html
(The Peruvian Lima-based Latin American and Caribbean News Agency (ALC) contributed to this article.)
(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
* * *
LWI news online: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html
LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION P. O. Box 2100 CH-1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland
Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 Fax: +41/22-791 66 30 Editor's E-Mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org