The Cuban debt to Argentina is older and more

The Cuban debt to Argentina is older and more extensive than that asserted in London

Unlike the debt acquired by the Cuban government in 1982, which will be the focus of a trial in London in a few hours, Havana has another with Argentina that dates back to 1974.and that this could be part of the problems that Miguel Díaz-Canel will have to face during his announced visit to that country to attend the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that is being held there.

The Argentine media Infobae asks in a text whether the debt, estimated today at the astronomical figure of $15,000 millionwill be on the agenda of the bilateral meeting that the Cuban Ruler and President Alberto Fernández will hold on Tuesday 24th January.

According to the summary offered by the medium andThe origin of the commitment dates back to February 1974, when then Economy Minister José Ber Gelbard agreed a $1,278.8 million loan with the Fidel Castro regime. so that in addition to Renault 12, Ford Falcon, Citroën Ami 8, Peugeot 404 and 9,000 Dodge 1500, he also bought tractors, agricultural machinery, heavy trucks and Fiat 125 cars.

“It was the largest loan that Argentina has given to a country up to that point,” said diplomat Juan Archibaldo Lanús in his book From Chapultepec to the Beagle.

It was a gesture of rapprochement with the USSR-led socialist bloc, and so the Chancellor’s trip continued in Moscow, Budapest and Prague.

According to Infobae, former Argentine Ambassador to Israel and Costa Rica Mariano Caucino, former Argentine Foreign Minister Oscar Camilión said that “nothing distinguished Gelbard conducting operations so clearly linked to Soviet interests as lending to Cuba. An operation that was, of course, doomed to fail, which was later recorded. it was an operation in which the Central Bank financed Cuba on the one hand and a multinational corporation on the other”.

Almost two years after the payment, the military dictatorship established in March 1976 withdrew from the loan. 1986, with the return to democracy, Raúl Alfonsín was the first Argentine President to visit the island, but no agreement was reached in this regard.

The assured the economist Ramón FredianiIn 1995 “there was a proposal to capitalize the debt in exchange for Argentine investment in Cuba. Foreign Minister Guido di Tella proposed to channel Argentine investments in public works and tourism on the island with Cuban entities, and even President Carlos Menem discussed the issue with Fidel Castro without getting anywhere,” Infobae’s article reads.

In the Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández governments, the text continues, “attempts intensified”, especially by Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa in the Foreign Ministry, who proposed a reduction of 75 percent of the sum and paid the remaining 25 percent by paying Interest in cash, free medical care in Cuba for low-income Argentines, the supply of drugs made on the island, and training in biotechnology for local professionals.

“In addition, Argentina has requested preferential treatment in this draft agreement to import 1,300 Argentine products into Cuba with tariff advantages,” says Frediani. Again there was no agreement.

Mauricio Macri’s government was the one that insisted the most on this issue. In 2018, then-Chief of Staff Marcos Peña and the Presidency’s Secretary for Strategic Affairs Fulvio Pompeo traveled to Havana with the idea of ​​solving it and returned empty-handed.

In 2019, then-secretary for international economic negotiations at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Horacio Reyser, met with Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investments, and also got nothing.

With Alberto Fernández at the helm of the government, the issue resurfaced in June 2021, when Health Minister Carla Vizzotti and Presidential Advisor Cecilia Nicolini suggested Havana pay off the debt by buying Cuban vaccines against Covid-19. identical result.

As a result of the deal to free up unused land in Cuba for production using Argentine technology and investment, then Deputy Secretary of State Jorge Neme again mentioned the debt.

In 2020, at a meeting with his country’s agricultural sector to encourage foreign investment, he said: “Not only do we have to ensure payment for what we can produce, but there is also the problem of debt to Argentina. All that we will be very careful. The idea is to reach a country-to-country agreement with standards for services, products and land use, and that the debt between Cuba and Argentina is also taken into account.”

The agri-food business started in 2022 and there is absolute silence on the debt.

According to Infobae, Frediani calculated in May 2019 that the sum of principal and interest on the debt was $4.805 million, but excluding interest, which “would easily double that amount.” Economist Orlando Ferreres commented that the value is now around 15,000 million.

Meanwhile, Havana is campaigning to absolve itself of its responsibilities with the sum, demanded by creditor group CRF I, granted to Fidel Castro by Argentina?