Argentina has fined Telefonica 43 million dollars for a mobile phone service interruption last month, which threatens to further exacerbate tensions between the two countries.
Toning down its initial strong reactions to the nationalization of Spanish controlled YPF Spain’s Foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo said that Argentina should pay a fair price for the oil company citing a similar case in Bolivia this week.
Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro backed Argentina’s controversial decision to nationalize the country's biggest oil company YPF arguing countries’ right to recover a strategic market is “indisputable”.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it does not see a trend in South America toward state nationalization of private companies despite moves made by Bolivia and Argentina in recent weeks, a spokesman said on Thursday.
Explosive materials were set off outside the door of the European Union’s branch in Argentina, located in an expensive neighbourhood. Early police reports said the explosion only caused superficial damage and that there were no injuries.
Bolivian President Evo Morales announced on Tuesday the expropriation of Spain’s Red Eléctrica Española (REE) shares at a power transmission company in Bolivia and ordered the Army to take over the firm's headquarters.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez in a massive political rally on Friday defended her policy to seize YPF from Spain’s Repsol, thanked the opposition for their legislative support and called on the new generations to defend the “historic legacy”.
Committees of Argentina’s Lower House of Congress began a plenary session on Thursday in order to clear the YPF expropriation bill for debate, which was approved early morning by the Senate.
European Commission Deputy Director General for Enterprise and Industry Daniel Calleja warned on Wednesday that Europe has lost its trust in Mercosur trade block after the government announced it would expropriate 51% of YPF shares, owned by Spanish oil company Repsol.
Three Argentine ministers denied as “false” that YPF, under control of Spain’s Repsol had invested more than 20 billion dollars in the company since 1999, arguing the fall in Argentine oil and gas production and reserves is clear evidence of that.